The U.S. government "kill[s] people based on metadata," but it doesn't do that with the trove of information collected on American communications, according to former head of the National Security Agency Gen. Michael Hayden.
Hayden made the remark after saying he agreed with the idea that metadata - the information collected by the NSA about phone calls and other communications that does not include content - can tell the government "everything" about anyone it's targeting for surveillance, often making the actual content of the communication unnecessary.
[...]
"We cannot discount the risk, in light of the lessons of our own history, that at some point in the future, high-level government officials will decide that this massive database of extraordinarily sensitive private information is there for the plucking," the President's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies said in a 300-page report.
The next month, Obama complied, announcing the metadata will no longer be collected by the government, but will still be stored by another entity and could be subject to government review.
[...]
Old but gold. Best part:
We cannot discount the risk [...] that at some point in the future, high-level government officials will decide that this massive database of extraordinarily sensitive private information is there for the plucking [...]
Obama complied, announcing the metadata will no longer be collected by the government, but [...] could be subject to government review.
https://media1.tenor.com/m/hixSWGnlmQ8AAAAC/wow.gif
Another good part for me is that I heard this quote ("we kill people based on metadata") from Michael Hayden for the first time in a lecture about privacy-enhancing technologies.
I think the term based was never more fitting for a lecture.
@jb55 just gave a shout out to Stacker News as an incredible product that inspired the idea of adding zaps to Damus
As we approach the end of the week,, I hope we all inch our way to our goals. If you don't have goals, pick a few! it makes a big difference on your behavior. Don't let others pick goals for you, though. That's a path of emotional self-destruction.
I'm still running private and business accounts denominated in Euro. So yes, I am a shitcoiner. And it's a sad thing to say!
Presumably since the algorithm is open source one can derive the game theoretic optimal strategies for zapping and find all the Nash equilibria
You say you're using DLCs and payouts of Lightning. I don't see how you're doing that. The app has no wallet or anything. It seems like a normal custodial lightning app reliant on the website to dictate who gets the money
My lovely wife had this same question a while back. Its a sign of thinking more deeply about bitcoin and incentives.
The short answer is yes, they are a risk. There are many risks besides this one but this is a good one to think about.
The bitcoin core maintainers could go rogue or just change the project in some way that I do not like. We have seen how this plays out. The block size wars were an example of an effort to change the code. It resulted in a code fork to a new project. That project has largely failed in its goal to gain dominance. Why? Because people that run nodes chose to stay with the small block version of bitcoin. Node operators choose which release to run. Node operators are a check on the power of the maintainers and you can see that the maintainers are aware of this with how they take time to consider changes.
Lets talk about incentives. Are maintainers incentivized to make unpopular changes? No. If they have significant bags they will lose value if they increase distrust in the network by doing something shady. I believe this is a huge reason why bitcoin is so resistant to changes.
Lets say that some state actor gets control over one or a few maintainers. They get them to do something shady. Well, unless we get lazy and don't review the code as a community that could be a huge issue. I do think this is unlikely. We see open source projects getting slammed for code changes that have far less impact than bitcoin. If a coder were to do something sly to the code base I believe it would get called out very quickly. There are far to many developers who are incentivized to defend their wealth. A state actor would need to have leverage on a large number of devs, not just maintainers. I do not believe any state actor is this driven or organized. These same states can't stop much weaker actors doing things they don't like. I really think this is NOT the way to attack bitcoin
I believe the way states will attack bitcoin is at the edges. Attacking users by criminalizing our behavior. They may go after maintainers but I don't think they will try to mod the code. I think it is more likely they try to make contributing risky and impossible to do without anonymity. The good news is that I don't think this will happen in all states at the same time. If the US tries to do this their adversaries will be incentivized to support or at least "allow" bitcoin development and usage.
IMO the greatest risk to bitcoin is us. The plebs. We can't be weak, scared, or dumb. We have to remain vigilant and determined to be free. Not just for ourselves but for our descendants. These days I almost exclusively talk to younger people about bitcoin vs. people my age and older. I'm in my 40s. Younger folks seem to be much more open to the ideas and they will benefit from bitcoin more than we will.
You probably had nightmares about never ending notifications
I spend sats everyday. I get sats everyday. Some days more outflows than inflows other days Vice versa. I HODL some sure but I’m always looking for ways to spend!
I'm watching the distressed investing panel, and I realize that my own biases prevent me from getting as much out of a discussion as I might otherwise. Every time one of these Wall Street guys uses the word "crypto" I automatically discard anything they say.
Yes.
People have a bias towards pessimism because they want to sound smart. Pessimists get attention. But optimists keep winning - worldwide hunger and extreme poverty is falling and falling. Literacy and access to plumbing&electricity keep rising and rising. At least as seen from decade to decade.
Old wallstreet wisdom: Pessimists sound smart, optimists make money instead.
Day 65 of snailposting everyday 'til BTC hits $100k.
__@_'-'
Happy to answer any questions!
Hi thanks for doing this AMA. I've always wondered how does the bitcoin code look? Is it pretty / ugly - simple / complex?
What do you think about the threats of intense regulation to the bitcoin space?
"The other interesting aspect of the Ethereum merge is that with Proof of Stake if we do suffer a 51% attack, we can precisely identify the attacker and eject them from the system. More than that, we can penalize them, including by destroying all their stake. And if they want to do a second attack, they have to rebuy."
Basically a CBDC
A defibrillator doesn’t actually 'start' a heartbeat but stops it. It is used during CPR when the heart beats irregularly. It’s basically the 'have you tried turning it off and on again' analogy in medicine.
How can state chain operators like mercury defend themselves from a nation state attack. What stops the government from just shutting down the server.
Consolidate, close LN channels, open LN channels, use this moment :).
I'm reviving my efforts at Minds recruitment. This time, my approach is just to cross-post from SN. Let's see if that works better.
https://m.stacker.news/15808
I like it because there is a diversity of interests but a common core. There are enough new members and enough creativity to keep it peppy, but it's not like Reddit (very young, naive, posting redundant questions every day) or Nostr (so much meme noise that the signal is totally drowned out).
It's also pretty respectful in a way, like armed forces service members. They might knock on one branch or the other, but it's with respect. Here you get both sides of the political aisle (with a heavy dose of "both sides are crooks") but with enough respect and intelligence to see that all issues are more complicated than they seem at face value.
In short, there's a guy trying to make his local government better, talking to a dude eating out of a can in his bunker.
That said, we could use a little more feminine perspective around here. Not that it comes across as sexist; just "male-dominated".
I think ironically the only thing that would stop SN from "flourishing" is to try too hard to be something else, or to be too many things. There are several cool forums that predate all "social media" (or the internet proper, for that matter).
How do you think people (technical and/or non) can best contribute to or work towards improving/accelerating bitcoin advancement and improvement these days?
Said another way: what does bitcoin need most right now? What would you be building if you were starting today from scratch?