5 ms·

This same story played out 10 or so years ago with Wikileaks, PayPal, and major card processors and banks. The sad realization was that private companies can c

by blhack 8y ago

This same story played out 10 or so years ago with Wikileaks, PayPal, and major card processors and banks. The sad realization was that private companies can control who gets to speak very effectively. Lots of people hoped cryptocurrency would fix this, but so far it hasn't.

xrd 8y ago
This is my attempt at micro contributions using cryptocurrency. Would love any feedback. https://blog.teddyhyde.com/2017/10/11/take-back-your-blog-just-sprinkle-notifications-and-cryptocurrency https://blog.teddyhyde.com/2017/10/11/take-back-your-blog-ju...
- xrd 8y ago
  Or check it out in action here: https://poetry.teddyhyde.io/jaberwocky-3/ https://poetry.teddyhyde.io/jaberwocky-3/
Erlich_Bachman 8y ago
In technological terms, cryptocurrencies really have fixede this. However, the adoption is lacking behind somewhat. However, the few creators that do use cryptocurrency (even just in a rudimentary way of putting a bitcoin address in a video) - have gained from this.
- y4mi 8y ago
  It really didn't. Bitcoins ledger is public, marking every transaction from who to whom the money went. Yes, it's originally only the wallet id that is public, but this id only needs to be matched once to a person... And don't even start with exchanges. They have exactly the same problem as any private entity such as PayPal or patreon has
  - Erlich_Bachman 8y ago
    Couldn't one simply use the other currencies where ledger is not public, if the privacy is needed? Like Zcash, Dash or Monero (no affiliation, I'm just listing options to clearly show that public ledger is in technological sense not a problem). I think that many of these problems stem from censorship, not need of privacy.
    - xte 8y ago
      You can't for a simple reason: to use them you need a combination of hw, sw and connectivity that's largely proprietary and can't be considered safe... You may trust your FOSS-only OS, your FOSS "wallet", but how you can trust your hw? How easy a country can look out citizens from internet services? Mesh network and open hardware exists but mostly at a marginal and embryonic stage...
  - ivrrimum 8y ago
    This is simply false. Modern bitcoin wallets use HD tech. Each transaction has a seperate public wallet
  - lawn 8y ago
    Lookup Monero which obscures all transactions.
xte 8y ago
I fear that cryptocurrency will be even worse: imaging how big the blockchain can became if used as main currency; who can really operate on it the if not very few super-giants that offer "broker services" like today's online wallets services? Also see the actual hw trend: we get more and more closed platforms more and more stuffed with proprietary fw, how can you trust even your UEFI machine or even fw-enabled keyboard, no matter how strongly encrypted your files are... You can't even trust your mobile phone nearby your keyboard since we have enough POCs of how to determinate keys pressed with a simple audio analyze... The sole currency I can trust is paper one: it can be stolen, sure, but if you have it in hand and is legal to use it you can exchange money so exchange values/goods without big dictators in the middle, it doesn't matter if they act for good or bad.
dgudkov 8y ago
>The sad realization was that private companies can control who gets to speak very effectively. It's rather a sad realization that a vocal online minority can control private companies (and public figures) very effectively.

by blhack 8y ago

xrd 8y ago

This is my attempt at micro contributions using cryptocurrency. Would love any feedback. https://blog.teddyhyde.com/2017/10/11/take-back-your-blog-just-sprinkle-notifications-and-cryptocurrency https://blog.teddyhyde.com/2017/10/11/take-back-your-blog-ju...

xrd 8y ago
Or check it out in action here: https://poetry.teddyhyde.io/jaberwocky-3/ https://poetry.teddyhyde.io/jaberwocky-3/

Erlich_Bachman 8y ago

In technological terms, cryptocurrencies really have fixede this. However, the adoption is lacking behind somewhat. However, the few creators that do use cryptocurrency (even just in a rudimentary way of putting a bitcoin address in a video) - have gained from this.

y4mi 8y ago
It really didn't. Bitcoins ledger is public, marking every transaction from who to whom the money went. Yes, it's originally only the wallet id that is public, but this id only needs to be matched once to a person... And don't even start with exchanges. They have exactly the same problem as any private entity such as PayPal or patreon has
- Erlich_Bachman 8y ago
  Couldn't one simply use the other currencies where ledger is not public, if the privacy is needed? Like Zcash, Dash or Monero (no affiliation, I'm just listing options to clearly show that public ledger is in technological sense not a problem). I think that many of these problems stem from censorship, not need of privacy.
  - xte 8y ago
    You can't for a simple reason: to use them you need a combination of hw, sw and connectivity that's largely proprietary and can't be considered safe... You may trust your FOSS-only OS, your FOSS "wallet", but how you can trust your hw? How easy a country can look out citizens from internet services? Mesh network and open hardware exists but mostly at a marginal and embryonic stage...
- ivrrimum 8y ago
  This is simply false. Modern bitcoin wallets use HD tech. Each transaction has a seperate public wallet
- lawn 8y ago
  Lookup Monero which obscures all transactions.

xte 8y ago

I fear that cryptocurrency will be even worse: imaging how big the blockchain can became if used as main currency; who can really operate on it the if not very few super-giants that offer "broker services" like today's online wallets services? Also see the actual hw trend: we get more and more closed platforms more and more stuffed with proprietary fw, how can you trust even your UEFI machine or even fw-enabled keyboard, no matter how strongly encrypted your files are... You can't even trust your mobile phone nearby your keyboard since we have enough POCs of how to determinate keys pressed with a simple audio analyze... The sole currency I can trust is paper one: it can be stolen, sure, but if you have it in hand and is legal to use it you can exchange money so exchange values/goods without big dictators in the middle, it doesn't matter if they act for good or bad.

dgudkov 8y ago

>The sad realization was that private companies can control who gets to speak very effectively. It's rather a sad realization that a vocal online minority can control private companies (and public figures) very effectively.