Cryptocurrency: Anonymous to Invest $75M of Crypto to Develop Privacy Coins and Anon Tech

[jim bell]

 On Tuesday, November 19, 2019, 03:26:34 AM PST, grarpamp <grarpamp at gmail.com> wrote:
 
 On 11/15/19, jim bell <jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> This Fund, and perhaps implied offer, seems to have arrived at just the
>> right time.  I have proposed that an alternative to TOR be constructed, and
>> that is certainly not an idea that is new with my proposal. Anybody who is
>> uncomfortable with TOR should want to see real competition.

>> I think we should appply for some of these funds.

>Yes, strong alternative and in fact entirely new and open fully
independant competition in this space is very much needed.
Such an application would also "test" the proposal.  Are they real?  Sending them a reasonably-well thought-out proposal should be immediately acceptable to them, and certainly in principle.  And they should love a quickly implementable (months, not years) example of the functioning of their system.

>> I have found, by obtaining a quotation, that the hardware costs are probably
>> going to be $80 per node

>What's the spec?
Well, the quote was for $72 for a Raspberry Pie 4, in 500 quantity.  I think shipping was included, but probably just to a single location.  If might be more efficient if we could supply the addresses, and have them forward the devices.  I assume that there would be a few other expenses, such as an SD card.  I rounded up to $80/unit based on this.  

>> People could host these nodes at their businesses and homes

>Any good overlay network is encrypted so comes with
deniability, same for any storage elements on disk.
Generally, except for "liability" of an exit function which
may or may not be present, and simple blocking of
otherwise useful IP's by blacklists, anyone can run one.
No different than any other overlay today.
Don't forget my idea to have a given file, on entry to the anonymization netword (we need a name...), split into two files based on being XOR'ed with a random or pseudorandom key, and send both copies (which would each 'look like' a random set of bits) to the same endpoint.  This wouldn't be 'secret', it would merely be a way to ensure that if the output of a given exit node is monitored, the data looks like a random output.  Thus, no liability to the exit nodes.  They cannot know the meaning of what data they are outputting. 

>> This would powerfully motivate people to offer to host a node, because they
>> would be getting the 1 gigabit service upgrade essentially for free.

>"We'll pay for your upgrade for one year!"
"And if you act before midnight tonight, you will receive Ronco's Pocket Fisherman and a Chia Pet shaped like Donald Trump!"

>> This might also provide funds for development of the software,
>> which is a task in itself.

>10 cypherpunks writingcode for subsistance room and board
for a year is $125k. That's a reasonable side gig stipend, but
go with say $250k if you want people to be more full time at it.
Lots of options within that bottom line figure... 5 x $50k, etc.
Are whips and chains going to be involved?   Uh, sorry, I was thinking of something else...


>> A subsidy of $25/month is about $300/year, and multiplied by 1000
> nodes amounts to $300,000, or a total of about $380,000 for the first
> year.

>> Can anybody imagine a more worthy, concrete proposal to accomplish what this
> 'Unknown Fund' proposes to accomplish?  And its yearly cost represents less
> than 1/2 of a percent of the proposed fund.

>In a lot of the grantmaking biz, capital outlay is
often easier for entities to write than ongoing funds.
A internet-service subsidy for merely the first year 'looks like' a capital outlay.  

>Assuming this Anon entity is real, it may be wise to assume
and plan, that it being anonymous, may not prefer to stick
around for very long.
Notice, I think, that they referred to 'start-ups'.  Many start-up companies don't accomplish anything in the first year or two.  This fund ought to recognize that there would be a major benefit to helping quickly create an anonymization network that could be active in half a year.  They could tout that as a major achievement for privacy.  

>Also, an $80 HW appliance may support one network well and be
adoptably cute on the desk, but it's definitely going to bog down
when trying to run multiple overlay networks nodes on it... storage,
messaging, cryptocurrency, etc. And it probably would have
trouble meeting whatever needs may come at 5-10 years.

>Unless viewing the $80 one as a disposable to be
tossed for a hotter new $80 one every N years...
There are also going to be people who will view whichever processor being proposed as being flawed in some way, genuinely or fictitiously, so I'd hope that the software could be ported to multiple platforms.  

>It may be better to drop around $300 or so towards
a mini-ITX platform spec that can support multiple different
software networks at the same time. As well as some external
expansion for WiFi and SDR interfaces via some USB ports.
If the money becomes available...

>So with being a little more generous on the HW buy
and the SW dev, that gives around $850k... still well
under $1M or 1.4% of the fund.
If that speeds implementation significantly, it should be worth it.

>Maybe you'll want to stick a $120k second year $10/mo
internet subsidy tail into that $1M, and throw the remaining
$30k at advocacy, talks, training.
Sounds good!

>Various ways to do $1M quite effectively.
  
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