4 ms·
If one's goal is to be anonymous, why publicly associate an old site with a new identity? Doesn't that defeat the point? Now, nothing done under the name "Ven P
by jmillikin 13y ago
If one's goal is to be anonymous, why publicly associate an old site with a new identity? Doesn't that defeat the point? Now, nothing done under the name "Ven Portman" will be anonymous because that name is forever linked to the author's previous identity of Ev Bogue.
- sliverstorm 13y agoHe said it was to be a pseudonym. Pseudonyms are used for pseudonymity- "casual" anonymity that is not intended to hold up under examination and scrutiny.
- jmillikin 13y agoThe typical purpose of a pseudonym is to prevent some set of people from connecting certain activities to your legal identity, while still permitting reputation to be accumulated. It's quite possible for pseudonyms to remain completely disconnected from one's legal identity, even under scrutiny. For example, merchants on Silk Road use pseudonyms to manage buyer/seller trust, but still take care to avoid being arrested for drug possession. The important thing is which entity is considered to be the "adversary". If a teenager just wants to hide angsty reddit posts from her classmates, that doesn't require retreating to a crypto-nerd darknet. The author feels that he must abandon the open internet because it's being monitored by the NSA. This implies that he considers the NSA to be his adversary, in which case his choice to link identities has in one step undone all of his sacrifices. There's no point in using a pseudonym on a darknet if your opponent knows about the darknet and knows your pseudonym.