I never knew about digital gold systems. Great write-up.
What are your thoughts on bitcoin having been created by a TLA with a deep hidden vulnerability that can sink it when the time comes_ How will bitcoin thrive if the Internet fails and only StarLink is available and Musk says no to blockchain traffic. Are there people who are investigating a fallback method of moving blocks if they are blocked by filters?
The only alternative before bitcoin that I had stumbled upon was the system of time banking using "talents" I think for a currency that was created only through the generation of a debt when a new member made purchases before they had earned any. This made the pool of currency controlled by the number of members and the amount of debt they were willing to extend to individual members, I think it was suggested at about US$200 or so.
This was the organisation. It has grown quite large and is in Finland as well though frowned upon by the tax authorities and social services means testing rules.
Recently I found an alternative local food system called REKO Rings but this is using regular fiat and simply a way to eliminate the small retail shops by assisting direct from farmer purchases if customers do not want to support the retail giants.
Let me answer a part of your question on Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Core protocol is open source. So where is this hidden vulnerability? Is it hiding in the server software? Is it hiding in the wallet software? Is it hiding in view? Because there are literally thousands and thousands of coders who have sifted through every line of code. There are some things that started being changed in 2016 and were adopted. And some of those changes were suboptimal in my opinion. But the code works. I'm a bit confused by this "it's a trap" mentality. But no one is required to adopt bitcoin. And there are literally millions of other crypto currencies. So if you like something better, design it yourself, and see if the market agrees.
You might look into the local currencies that Josiah Warren wrote about at the end of the 19th Century. Ithaca hours is a descendant of some of that thinking, I believe. There are many community currencies, but these have lacked widespread adoption for many reasons. One is to keep locally produced value circulating locally. It is a complex economic subject, so I shall return after coffee and further thought.
I am not certain bitcoin is compromised. I am merely wary of the danger if it were so. The only three methods of compromise I can envision at this time are (1) denial of network service to the blockchain distribution that would reduce trust and impede transacting (2) Some cunning and out of the box unpredicted vulnerability in the key generation or the underlying mathematics that was baked in from the start and could be used as a zero day if the need arises (3) predictions of the development of quantum computing that will either compromise the key generation or perhaps trivialise the work function to the point that the first implemented quantum miner will gain over 99% of the hashing power and trivialise the blockchain by multiple spending on say a dozen forks that are all equal in length that makes it impractical to trust the system.
I am not criticizing bitcoin, if I had money I would invest at least some of it in bitcoin, I am just a wee bit concerned by the anonymous creator, if it is totally secure from corruption his identity would not be a threat to the system, sure he may become the richest man on earth at some point and that would make me want to be anonymous too.
It is the inability to ask the creator about his personal motivations that leads me to doubt the system. It is clear that even as it stands now it is a thorn in the side of centralised currency and bank systems so I am all for it and am pretty convinced that with the scrutiny as you also mention it is proof against most normal forms of attack.
I think these concerns are easy to eliminate. The mathematics are not all that complicated. Hash cash and Merkle trees are predecessors that are very clear and easily understood. If you don't want to learn the mathematics, then you would have to take the word of others, so my recommendation is to learn the maths and learn the coding. My own introduction to higher mathematics came a very long time ago. I learned not to fear it, nor to fear being unable to solve complex problems at first. I had some very good teachers, including my dad who was highly adept at maths. A good friend, John Kingman, introduced me to Pretty Good Privacy in 1992 and I began teaching it right away. Since then I have had conversations with Phil Zimmermann, John Draper, and quite a few others who were involved in computing long ago. So if you were to pursue the mathematics and then learn to understand the code, I think your fears would be allayed.
I think you should be aware of the dangers faced by anyone who challenges the system. Chelsea/Bradley Manning is languishing in a federal prison. Julian Assange is being tortured slowly with the intention of torturing him to death in Belmarsh prison. Ed Snowden evaded capture and now lives in Russia. Tara Reade fled the country in fear for her life. It is absolutely wrong to say, "Oh, you should write the Bitcoin white paper and lay out the code base and never ever be anonymous or I cannot trust you." We live in a time when it is absurd to believe that people can expect fair treatment from a system that is designed by demon worshippers to enslave and slaughter billions of people.
Satoshi Nakamoto doesn't want you to trust him. He doesn't care about your trust or confidence or opinions. He wants you to understand the mathematics and the code. God created mathematics, not Satoshi. So put your trust in God. Amen.
With regard to network adaptability, that is something many of us have built answers to solve. Consider the Helium network, which is a mesh network that pays its nodes in micropayments to move packets. It is a completely parallel communications system. There are amateur band radio communications networks that handle the problems you say you fear. Starlink is not even the only low orbiting satellite network. So you might want to do somewhat more research.
Quantum computing was invented by a number of people and I know some of them personally. I met David Deutsch in Oxford, England, in the 12th month of 2000. I don't think it is able to do what you are concerned about it doing, and even if it were, I don't think it compromises actual wallet infrastructure. But, again, to be content with the security of your keys you would need to understand the mathematics involved, and also understand the directions or vectors of attack implied by quantum computing. So there is much to be learnt.
I am aware of the scrutiny and good will that is incorporated into th system. The reason I SUSPECT a POTENTIAL weakness is the fact that it has been allowed to proliferate as much as it has.
I also understand the need for anonymity and believe that it is more essential for honest people against tyrants than crooks against society because tyrants are the greater danger when pitted against crooks.
While I had top marks in maths at school I understand my limitations from an ossified brain, in this matter I will defer to others but reserve my small doubts.
Amateur radio will not directly save us, I was licenced in South Africa and appreciate that knowing the fundamentals and certain practicalities are very beneficial to making mesh networks function. As a medium for moving any crypto currency, HAM radio will be squelched fast. The bands are hard won and under constant threat and if they find use against the state the mere fact that crypto currency has the word crypto will be enough to ban bitcoin from the amateur bands, they have rights based on fundamental obligations of no commercial and no encrypted traffic. Having a BTLE network that works with "uucp" addressing or modern variants is a great idea because the overlords cannot manage to licence the IoT bands due to sheer pervasiveness.
The fact that there are multiple satellite networks is window dressing one of them will be the leader, probably StarLink. If the plan requires humanity to be corralled into one (or more) privately owned network then that will be executed. If everyone is a subscriber to a single provider the possibility to hide traffic becomes much harder.
I have done much thinking about this and realise that many have not and you might not cross paths with those that have a wider view often. Your rubbing shoulders with the architects of digital freedom is good, it means they are human enough to engage and that means a lot.
I mentioned in another comment I think on one of your posts a system that I would like to see happen, a system that I think even a crooked politician would like to have access to. It goes as follows, a notice board where anyone (perhaps restricted to customers of one-time-pad-sets) can post random data block of a restricted size. The data blocks are entered by scanning a QR-code or direct entry via API but the QR-code allows for air gapped input into the network. The code is then broadcast to any connected listeners and displayed on the app as a QR-code or via API if you trust the connected device. A air-gapped device will scan the displayed QR-code and then decode it using the other copy of the one-time-pad. The plain text never resides on a device connected to the network. The user device would typically be a R-Pi with a camera and small display (or an older jail-broken tablet with wireless hardware removed). The communicator a regular smart phone that is watching a feed. The feed would be random looking packet strings that are flashed on the screen as QR-codes as fast as the crypto unit can decode them and decrypt them using a one time pad (or other suitable method using 128GB key). Only the intended recipient will know what is in the message and to everyone else on the network it will be random data. Like I yearn for robust government that serves society I too want at least one form of communication that is conceptually secure from eavesdropping even if it is a little bit inconvenient.
There would be a niche market for a small operator like me to sell pairs of USB memory sticks with best of breed random number sequences and host a server to handle the traffic my pads require. A federated network of independent servers would then allow a second tier, perhaps using a second key from another provider who offers another server and traffic will route between servers addressed by the key generators. The end user could run their own server or run one for the community, Random traffic would be generated to fill the empty spaces with mo messages.
One time pads are an interesting technology. But very few randomness generators do a good job. There are other ways to proceed. I don't think your analysis of your suspicions allows for the possibility that God is alive and interested in our success. God loves us and wants us to be free will. God loves free will, He made so much of it. Amen.
You are correct that generating random numbers is hard, my proposed solution is to collect randomness, such as the image texture of the surface of a pile of sand that has sand continuously added. The solution provided by one time pads is that for short messages they are more than adequate and if totally random they are totally secure.
I had a few other ideas on the message platform. Purchase of a physical pair of one time pads also provides public keys that the server will accept messages from. Every server will announce their address in bitcoin transaction, people who care can order keys. Sending server uses one key, receiving server uses another key. The choice of receiver key determines which server it sends the twice encrypted message to. This means that only one key pad needs to be secure and it can be your own. The other party can do likewise. Depending on the pad ID the sender can find the address of the receiver in the blockchain. Random data can be sent to any receiver and it will display it on a web app or a local display. The air gapped decoder will be able to make sense of it if it has the correct one time pads.
Yes, the God question is irrelevant in matters of politics. It is relevant only for personal peace of mind. The point is that hoping or waiting for God to intercede is counterproductive, the level of interference from God is at the exact level it always has been, persona insight and intuition.
I never knew about digital gold systems. Great write-up.
What are your thoughts on bitcoin having been created by a TLA with a deep hidden vulnerability that can sink it when the time comes_ How will bitcoin thrive if the Internet fails and only StarLink is available and Musk says no to blockchain traffic. Are there people who are investigating a fallback method of moving blocks if they are blocked by filters?
The only alternative before bitcoin that I had stumbled upon was the system of time banking using "talents" I think for a currency that was created only through the generation of a debt when a new member made purchases before they had earned any. This made the pool of currency controlled by the number of members and the amount of debt they were willing to extend to individual members, I think it was suggested at about US$200 or so.
This was the organisation. It has grown quite large and is in Finland as well though frowned upon by the tax authorities and social services means testing rules.
https://www.ctte.org.za/about-ces/
Recently I found an alternative local food system called REKO Rings but this is using regular fiat and simply a way to eliminate the small retail shops by assisting direct from farmer purchases if customers do not want to support the retail giants.
https://growingformarket.com/articles/reko-ring-new-way-presell-online
Let me answer a part of your question on Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Core protocol is open source. So where is this hidden vulnerability? Is it hiding in the server software? Is it hiding in the wallet software? Is it hiding in view? Because there are literally thousands and thousands of coders who have sifted through every line of code. There are some things that started being changed in 2016 and were adopted. And some of those changes were suboptimal in my opinion. But the code works. I'm a bit confused by this "it's a trap" mentality. But no one is required to adopt bitcoin. And there are literally millions of other crypto currencies. So if you like something better, design it yourself, and see if the market agrees.
You might look into the local currencies that Josiah Warren wrote about at the end of the 19th Century. Ithaca hours is a descendant of some of that thinking, I believe. There are many community currencies, but these have lacked widespread adoption for many reasons. One is to keep locally produced value circulating locally. It is a complex economic subject, so I shall return after coffee and further thought.
I am not certain bitcoin is compromised. I am merely wary of the danger if it were so. The only three methods of compromise I can envision at this time are (1) denial of network service to the blockchain distribution that would reduce trust and impede transacting (2) Some cunning and out of the box unpredicted vulnerability in the key generation or the underlying mathematics that was baked in from the start and could be used as a zero day if the need arises (3) predictions of the development of quantum computing that will either compromise the key generation or perhaps trivialise the work function to the point that the first implemented quantum miner will gain over 99% of the hashing power and trivialise the blockchain by multiple spending on say a dozen forks that are all equal in length that makes it impractical to trust the system.
I am not criticizing bitcoin, if I had money I would invest at least some of it in bitcoin, I am just a wee bit concerned by the anonymous creator, if it is totally secure from corruption his identity would not be a threat to the system, sure he may become the richest man on earth at some point and that would make me want to be anonymous too.
It is the inability to ask the creator about his personal motivations that leads me to doubt the system. It is clear that even as it stands now it is a thorn in the side of centralised currency and bank systems so I am all for it and am pretty convinced that with the scrutiny as you also mention it is proof against most normal forms of attack.
I think these concerns are easy to eliminate. The mathematics are not all that complicated. Hash cash and Merkle trees are predecessors that are very clear and easily understood. If you don't want to learn the mathematics, then you would have to take the word of others, so my recommendation is to learn the maths and learn the coding. My own introduction to higher mathematics came a very long time ago. I learned not to fear it, nor to fear being unable to solve complex problems at first. I had some very good teachers, including my dad who was highly adept at maths. A good friend, John Kingman, introduced me to Pretty Good Privacy in 1992 and I began teaching it right away. Since then I have had conversations with Phil Zimmermann, John Draper, and quite a few others who were involved in computing long ago. So if you were to pursue the mathematics and then learn to understand the code, I think your fears would be allayed.
I think you should be aware of the dangers faced by anyone who challenges the system. Chelsea/Bradley Manning is languishing in a federal prison. Julian Assange is being tortured slowly with the intention of torturing him to death in Belmarsh prison. Ed Snowden evaded capture and now lives in Russia. Tara Reade fled the country in fear for her life. It is absolutely wrong to say, "Oh, you should write the Bitcoin white paper and lay out the code base and never ever be anonymous or I cannot trust you." We live in a time when it is absurd to believe that people can expect fair treatment from a system that is designed by demon worshippers to enslave and slaughter billions of people.
Satoshi Nakamoto doesn't want you to trust him. He doesn't care about your trust or confidence or opinions. He wants you to understand the mathematics and the code. God created mathematics, not Satoshi. So put your trust in God. Amen.
With regard to network adaptability, that is something many of us have built answers to solve. Consider the Helium network, which is a mesh network that pays its nodes in micropayments to move packets. It is a completely parallel communications system. There are amateur band radio communications networks that handle the problems you say you fear. Starlink is not even the only low orbiting satellite network. So you might want to do somewhat more research.
Quantum computing was invented by a number of people and I know some of them personally. I met David Deutsch in Oxford, England, in the 12th month of 2000. I don't think it is able to do what you are concerned about it doing, and even if it were, I don't think it compromises actual wallet infrastructure. But, again, to be content with the security of your keys you would need to understand the mathematics involved, and also understand the directions or vectors of attack implied by quantum computing. So there is much to be learnt.
I am aware of the scrutiny and good will that is incorporated into th system. The reason I SUSPECT a POTENTIAL weakness is the fact that it has been allowed to proliferate as much as it has.
I also understand the need for anonymity and believe that it is more essential for honest people against tyrants than crooks against society because tyrants are the greater danger when pitted against crooks.
While I had top marks in maths at school I understand my limitations from an ossified brain, in this matter I will defer to others but reserve my small doubts.
Amateur radio will not directly save us, I was licenced in South Africa and appreciate that knowing the fundamentals and certain practicalities are very beneficial to making mesh networks function. As a medium for moving any crypto currency, HAM radio will be squelched fast. The bands are hard won and under constant threat and if they find use against the state the mere fact that crypto currency has the word crypto will be enough to ban bitcoin from the amateur bands, they have rights based on fundamental obligations of no commercial and no encrypted traffic. Having a BTLE network that works with "uucp" addressing or modern variants is a great idea because the overlords cannot manage to licence the IoT bands due to sheer pervasiveness.
The fact that there are multiple satellite networks is window dressing one of them will be the leader, probably StarLink. If the plan requires humanity to be corralled into one (or more) privately owned network then that will be executed. If everyone is a subscriber to a single provider the possibility to hide traffic becomes much harder.
I have done much thinking about this and realise that many have not and you might not cross paths with those that have a wider view often. Your rubbing shoulders with the architects of digital freedom is good, it means they are human enough to engage and that means a lot.
I mentioned in another comment I think on one of your posts a system that I would like to see happen, a system that I think even a crooked politician would like to have access to. It goes as follows, a notice board where anyone (perhaps restricted to customers of one-time-pad-sets) can post random data block of a restricted size. The data blocks are entered by scanning a QR-code or direct entry via API but the QR-code allows for air gapped input into the network. The code is then broadcast to any connected listeners and displayed on the app as a QR-code or via API if you trust the connected device. A air-gapped device will scan the displayed QR-code and then decode it using the other copy of the one-time-pad. The plain text never resides on a device connected to the network. The user device would typically be a R-Pi with a camera and small display (or an older jail-broken tablet with wireless hardware removed). The communicator a regular smart phone that is watching a feed. The feed would be random looking packet strings that are flashed on the screen as QR-codes as fast as the crypto unit can decode them and decrypt them using a one time pad (or other suitable method using 128GB key). Only the intended recipient will know what is in the message and to everyone else on the network it will be random data. Like I yearn for robust government that serves society I too want at least one form of communication that is conceptually secure from eavesdropping even if it is a little bit inconvenient.
There would be a niche market for a small operator like me to sell pairs of USB memory sticks with best of breed random number sequences and host a server to handle the traffic my pads require. A federated network of independent servers would then allow a second tier, perhaps using a second key from another provider who offers another server and traffic will route between servers addressed by the key generators. The end user could run their own server or run one for the community, Random traffic would be generated to fill the empty spaces with mo messages.
One time pads are an interesting technology. But very few randomness generators do a good job. There are other ways to proceed. I don't think your analysis of your suspicions allows for the possibility that God is alive and interested in our success. God loves us and wants us to be free will. God loves free will, He made so much of it. Amen.
You are correct that generating random numbers is hard, my proposed solution is to collect randomness, such as the image texture of the surface of a pile of sand that has sand continuously added. The solution provided by one time pads is that for short messages they are more than adequate and if totally random they are totally secure.
I had a few other ideas on the message platform. Purchase of a physical pair of one time pads also provides public keys that the server will accept messages from. Every server will announce their address in bitcoin transaction, people who care can order keys. Sending server uses one key, receiving server uses another key. The choice of receiver key determines which server it sends the twice encrypted message to. This means that only one key pad needs to be secure and it can be your own. The other party can do likewise. Depending on the pad ID the sender can find the address of the receiver in the blockchain. Random data can be sent to any receiver and it will display it on a web app or a local display. The air gapped decoder will be able to make sense of it if it has the correct one time pads.
Yes, the God question is irrelevant in matters of politics. It is relevant only for personal peace of mind. The point is that hoping or waiting for God to intercede is counterproductive, the level of interference from God is at the exact level it always has been, persona insight and intuition.