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> Countries have this neat tool called violence that tends to override all security whenever humans are a linchpin That doesn’t work with distributed systems.
by hk__2 3y ago
> Countries have this neat tool called violence that tends to override all security whenever humans are a linchpin
That doesn’t work with distributed systems. No single country is able to shut the whole Internet down, for example.
- manquer 3y agoThey don’t need to shutdown for everyone , they need to shutdown only for their country . Countries do this all the time , just yesterday we were talking about internet shutdown during elections and exams , then there are restricted countries like say North Korea.
- ben_w 3y ago0) yes they do, in extremis half a dozen HAEMP would basically take out the whole internet (b) "seal the network in their borders" is much easier than that, lots of networks basically act like that already due to either voluntary compliance with local laws, or due to direct government interference with the networks iii. the miners aren't really all that distributed, they group together for the same reason everyone else groups together instead of being free-range anarchists [δ] all you need to do to shut down a currency within a country is arrest people using it, which is very easy and has a long history
- lovich 3y agoThe US is certainly capable of shutting down the internet with their control of some critical pieces of infrastructure like ICANN. They haven’t ever used it because levers like those are ones you only get to use once before other countries build an alternative, like when China shut down rare earth exports to japan years ago so countries like the US started up mines that were previously not worth it