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Topic: Mike Hearn, Foundation's Law & Policy Chair, is pushing blacklists right now - page 4. (Read 84386 times)

legendary
Activity: 1232
Merit: 1076

You guy really need to read the senate testimony.  Not one law enforcement agency or regulator blamed bitcoin the protocol for anything.

...

knuckleheads...

did you see the task force?

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-09/13/digital-economy-task-force

Quote
The Task Force, which launched in August, is not solely focussed on child exploitation. It has developed working groups that aim to combat a range of illicit activities, to safeguard human rights and to encourage inter-agency coordination and law enforcement.

Quote
The report detailed how criminal and terrorist organisations have turned to digital currency to reap profits from drug trafficking, prostitution and the dissemination of child abuse images.

Steve Rubley, managing director, Government Segment for the Legal business of Thomson Reuters points out that the digital economy provides a plethora of new opportunities and is central to how business is conducted but there are also "dark corners" where drug cartels can easily launder money and human sex traffickers operate in near obscurity.

this is pandering in the hope of being spared from harsh treatment. nothing good will come of this.

bitcoin is what it is: world changing technology.

the printing press fundamentally altered old power structures against their will. so too will bitcoin. we haven't even begun to explore the possibilities it brings. we don't need to ask permission. the market is here and won't be stopped. we need to be bold and brazen in how we nurture this early and exciting technology.

it is a tool of the black market. it will transform humanity for the better. government education begins and ends with those statements - nothing more. we don't need anything the legacy system has to offer. sooner or later, the people will come around as the pull of bitcoin will be too strong. from the ashes of a corrupted system rises a bold new paradigm for global humanity.
hero member
Activity: 815
Merit: 1000
The fact that the foundation or Hearn has not come out and said "total misunderstanding, my bad" should tell everyone something.

These people can't WAIT to sell out.
legendary
Activity: 1232
Merit: 1076
But I don't find them malicious, just incompetent.

... corrupt lovers of power and control freaks.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1147
The revolution will be monetized!
...
knuckleheads...
Some people seem to make paranoia about the government their religion. Like any zealot the facts have no persuasive effect. Don't get me wrong. I have a lot of criticisms of my government. But I don't find them malicious, just incompetent.  
legendary
Activity: 1232
Merit: 1076
This is fantastic news. I was expecting it for a long time, actually at the Amsterdam conference last week I was talking to a member of the Dutch police who had taken part in a panel, and mentioned I was waiting for DPR to show up in a US court at some point. I didn't think it'd happen a week later, but this outcome was eventually inevitable.

The point I made to Niels (the police guy) was that DPR had way too much confidence in the technologies he was using to keep him safe. I said I understood Tor and Bitcoin very well and there's no way I'd treat either of them as a silver bullet. And that's assuming NO mistakes. I didn't even know how I'd cash out. The best some people listening in could offer was "find someone who would help you cash out that's not an exchange". But where would you find someone capable of sinking non-trivial amounts of Bitcoins for dollars, outside of an exchange?

It's hard to tell from the documents to what extent he cashed out. Perhaps those details will come at trial. But given he was living with flat mates I guess his lifestyle was cheap and he probably didn't ever cash out into dollars in a big way - obviously lacking any fake IDs he didn't have any way to use the exchanges. This is also very good news. It is a strong argument that Bitcoin is not some super trivial way for criminals to make wild profits - despite the huge sums being quoted by the FBI agent, those are theoretical amounts of dollars he could have obtained if he'd had some way to do so, not amounts he actually made (given the tiny size of the Bitcoin economy).

By the way - I'm amazed at how many people are surprised that a drug dealer with extreme anarcho-capitalist tendencies turned out to be not a swell guy! Imagine that!

mike, your bitcoin users are silk road users. why are you helping the police? they don't use bitcoin.

are you going to quit your job at google now it's public they are collaborating with the NSA. or does google pay too well? how much is the NSA offering bitcoin developers?

behind closed doors we don't know what's happening and who at which corporation is now being tasked to write code against bitcoin users to protect their business interests or even with a hefty salary from law enforcement themselves.
BCB
vip
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1002
BCJ
This is how you fight Cryptolocker, Mickey:

http://malwaremustdie.blogspot.de/2013/11/tango-down-of-44-cryptolocker-cnc.html

(Hint: No need to change Bitcoin.)

+1^^. Why don't dollars get 'blamed' for illicit activity?

Eventually everyone will understand it's a law enforcement issue, not a currency issue.

You guy really need to read the senate testimony.  Not one law enforcement agency or regulator blamed bitcoin the protocol for anything.

http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/hearings/beyond-silk-road-potential-risks-threats-and-promises-of-virtual-currencies

"[FinCEN] recognized the innovation virtual currencies provide, and the benefits they might offer society" - Jennifer Shasky Calvery, Director, FinCEN.
http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/download/?id=e92d0cf1-9df0-44d9-b25a-d734547c0c30

"Digital currencies have the potential to support more efficient and transparent global commerce."
Edward Lowery III, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service
http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/download/?id=5ce8c610-34ae-424b-b69d-52098f3edeca

"The Department of Justice recognizes that many virtual currency systems offer legitimate financial services and have the potential to promote more efficient global commerce."
Mythili Raman, Acting Assistant Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice.
http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/download/?id=5ce8c610-34ae-424b-b69d-52098f3edeca

knuckleheads...
member
Activity: 130
Merit: 10
This is how you fight Cryptolocker, Mickey:

http://malwaremustdie.blogspot.de/2013/11/tango-down-of-44-cryptolocker-cnc.html

(Hint: No need to change Bitcoin.)

+1^^. Why don't dollars get 'blamed' for illicit activity?

Eventually everyone will understand it's a law enforcement issue, not a currency issue.
legendary
Activity: 1148
Merit: 1018
I suggest we (the community) blacklist all the coins of Mike Hearn and the other suckers at the Bitcoin Foundation.

Shame on them.
member
Activity: 130
Merit: 10
...
If you aren't whitelisted, the merchant can't accept you.

666 anyone?

...

base58(666) = BS  ... " Bitcoin System" ? or just coincidence?!  Shocked

legendary
Activity: 1204
Merit: 1002
Gresham's Lawyer
Send your "dirty" BTC to a non US based exchange, buy LTC/PPC/XPM/whatevercoin, send you whatevercoins to an other exchange, sell it for BTC, withdraw you shiny clean BTC, then Mike, the Foundation, and the Land of the Free can roll up their lists tightly and use it as the most convenient for them Smiley.

What about the poor fellow who buys them from the exchange?
legendary
Activity: 1512
Merit: 1000
Send your "dirty" BTC to a non US based exchange, buy LTC/PPC/XPM/whatevercoin, send you whatevercoins to an other exchange, sell it for BTC, withdraw you shiny clean BTC, then Mike, the Foundation, and the Land of the Free can roll up their lists tightly and use it as the most convenient for them Smiley.
legendary
Activity: 1232
Merit: 1011
Monero Evangelist
Bla, bla, bla smart guy and who cares about his bitcoin achievments? If he now kills bitcoins. It doesn't make it better.
legendary
Activity: 1204
Merit: 1002
Gresham's Lawyer
... If you work for a corporation, your choices are going to be different to the guy running black markets and doing p2p trades. You just both value different feature sets and the software optimised in a different way.

From this article: https://letstalkbitcoin.com/the-regulation-of-bitcoin/


The corporation may well have much stronger privacy concerns than the black market, and can afford to push the legislature to preserve it.  They may have less to hide, but they probably have much more to protect.
Visibility into the quantity of trade and the particular business partners, or even their locations, can cost a large corporation billions in competitive losses.
legendary
Activity: 1232
Merit: 1011
Monero Evangelist
legendary
Activity: 1470
Merit: 1006
Bringing Legendary Har® to you since 1952
Mike Hearn is a modern Trojan Horse and/or Ephialtis - remove him from core devs asap!
Oh, I think that nobody outside the foundation trusts or likes him anymore.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1000
Mike Hearn is a modern Trojan Horse and/or Ephialtis - remove him from core devs asap!
legendary
Activity: 1232
Merit: 1076
The risk is bigger than you realise. It isn't even overt mailicious features that don't require changes to Bitcoin itself, but small corruption of Bitcoin in deep underlying hard-to-perceive ways.

It's not only bugs but the values of the programmers and how they mold the software. For instance there are deep issues in the protocol where the decision is not always clear (and the community is ignorant of them). If you work for a corporation, your choices are going to be different to the guy running black markets and doing p2p trades. You just both value different feature sets and the software optimised in a different way.

From this article: https://letstalkbitcoin.com/the-regulation-of-bitcoin/

Quote
"If development is too centralized, with a small core infrastructure, then businesses will put real pressure to have features that destroy the integrity of the Bitcoin network. The excuse will be to protect themselves from liability. Self-censorship.

And what they demand does not have to be protocol changes. They will demand features in the software they use. Software which remains compatible with the network, but works against the interests of individuals, small businesses and the black market.

The possible malicious scenarios are endless. Stuff like p2p blacklists to create a ‘legitimate’ walled garden, or tracking technologies like large databases of IP addresses to triangulate where transactions came from. At the other end of the spectrum, is putting development effort into diversifying the ecosystem to protect against censorship and proxy relay nodes, anonymizing mixers, small privacy tweaks and other technologies. That’s where developers who believe in Bitcoin should devote time to. Corporations are powerful enough. To developers: serve your community."

Blacklists from both the merchant and the miner (prefer to build off blocks with txs containing whitelisted addresses) will push Bitcoin users towards monitoring. We need a strong hard push against this stuff right now. We need to be vocal and build tools for black markets. Pretending we are friends of the NSA is not helping our cause.
legendary
Activity: 1232
Merit: 1011
Monero Evangelist
This is how you fight Cryptolocker, Mickey:

http://malwaremustdie.blogspot.de/2013/11/tango-down-of-44-cryptolocker-cnc.html

(Hint: No need to change Bitcoin.)
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 521
legendary
Activity: 1204
Merit: 1002
Gresham's Lawyer

You are highly uninformed, mixers don't help:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3634390

Mixers can hurt. (and don't mean getting hands caught in the spinning blades)
Computers are pretty good at sorting things, dontchaknow.
It is like going to a party with some shady folks, when the party gets busted, everyone gets questioned.

Am in a situation that can benefit from what you contemplate.  I am not anonymous at all, but I know (socially) a great many who are deeply anon, and we can't really do business together other than just to talk and hang out, so am looking forward to see what comes of this.
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