Cypherpunks is broken - Welcome to Secret Admirers

Trent Secret Admirers trent.secretadmirers at ownbay.net
Thu Oct 29 08:41:00 PDT 2015


TL;DR, apply here: http://oestla3j22reypzj.onion/account/index/applyform

It's been more than 20 years since the the Cypherpunk's manifesto was
published and we believe it's more important today than it was back 
then.
And like the manifesto, we believe in action more than in talk.

Just as software and hardware can be developed for surveillance 
purposes,
so can it be for better privacy and a truly free cyberspace. Technology
itself is neutral, we choose what to build with it. The reason so little
has been achieved lately is because we lost track of a fundamental point
from the manifesto:

     Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software 
to
     defend privacy, and since we can't get privacy unless we all do,
     we're going to write it. We publish our code so that our fellow
     Cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Our code is free for all
     to use, worldwide. We don't much care if you don't approve of the
     software we write.

It seems that the original Cypherpunks mailing list degraded into a
debating society and very little new code is written. The 
signal-to-noise
ratio has become abysmal. Intellectual masturbation won't give us more
privacy - deployed code does.

Towards that end we founded the Secret Admirers. This is what we offer -
for members only:

     - The Secret Admirers mailing list (only reachable via Tor).
     - The Secret Admirers mailing list archive.
     - Mail account on the Secret Admirers server to communicate with the
       mailing list and other members (IMAP).
     - Git repository hosting (with read access for all member 
repositories).
     - Members can edit a user file on the server (for example, to 
publish
       their public PGP key).

Secret Admirers Rules

     - Secret Admirers is a community of doers. To be a member, you have 
to
       code/maintain privacy enhancing software and/or be the admin of
       privacy enhancing systems/services. This includes digital OPSEC 
tools
       and open-source hardware which is privacy/security related.
     - To become a full member of Secret Admirers you have to go through 
the
       application process (see below).
     - The existing full members will vote to decide if an applicant 
becomes
       a full member.
     - For all software and systems we design the following holds true: 
The
       more privacy it provides the better. This usually implies that 
strong
       cryptography is used as well.
     - Discussions on the Secret Admirers mailing list should be in 
regard to
       Cypherpunk... how to build better systems. Members are expected to
       communicate in a civilized manner and try to maintain a high
       signal-to-noise ratio.
     - Software written by our members in the context of Secret Admirers 
is
       freely available to all other members.
     - Only the original author may make the source code available to the
       general public. Members never release source code written and
       unreleased by other members.
     - A full member can bring up to two followers to Secret Admirers.
     - Followers get the same benefits as full members except voting 
rights
       and bringing in followers.
     - Followers can apply for full membership under the same rules as 
normal
       applicants.
     - Full members have to maintain the conditions of their application.
       That is, they keep working on/maintaining privacy related software 
or
       systems. If members stop being productive they risk loosing their
       membership status.
     - Members who do not follow the rules will be ejected. If a full 
member
       is ejected his followers will be ejected with him.

How to apply for Secret Admirers
For your Secret Admirers application we need:

     - A way to contact you (encrypted).
     - Your desired pseudonym on Secret Admirers.
     - A description of your working software project/system. If the
       code/system is already public we will request proof of control 
from you.
     - If you want to make the code only available to Secret Admirers we 
need it
       upfront to be able to review your application.

Apply here: http://oestla3j22reypzj.onion/account/index/applyform



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