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Topic: Snowden Says Bitcoin is Flawed (Read 3526 times)

AGD
legendary
Activity: 2070
Merit: 1164
Keeper of the Private Key
August 19, 2015, 10:10:03 AM
#59
Yeah, and this is the other guy:

hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
August 19, 2015, 08:06:02 AM
#58
This off topic is becoming more interesting than the original one...

yup, the more you dig into this intelligence stuff, the more you realize how strange (but real) it is.  Amazingly, this story just coming out is about AT&T's "extreme willingness" to help out the NSA:

https://www.rt.com/news/312567-nsa-spy-un-internet/

The line from enemy of the state says it all "the gvt has been in bed with the telecommunications industry for the last 40 years".  That was from 1998, so this isn't exactly new info, its just being 100% confirmed and widely reported now.

Well, I brought up this idea of Snowden beeing a covert op for a reason. I mean, look how happy the Russians were to get their hands on this load of "secret" information. The US could sit back, relax and watch the Russians take the bait.

yeah, I guess stranger things have happened.  Recognize anyone from this picture?

This is Vladimir Putin in his days with the KGB, posing as a photographer...

AGD
legendary
Activity: 2070
Merit: 1164
Keeper of the Private Key
August 19, 2015, 02:43:57 AM
#57
This off topic is becoming more interesting than the original one...

yup, the more you dig into this intelligence stuff, the more you realize how strange (but real) it is.  Amazingly, this story just coming out is about AT&T's "extreme willingness" to help out the NSA:

https://www.rt.com/news/312567-nsa-spy-un-internet/

The line from enemy of the state says it all "the gvt has been in bed with the telecommunications industry for the last 40 years".  That was from 1998, so this isn't exactly new info, its just being 100% confirmed and widely reported now.

Well, I brought up this idea of Snowden beeing a covert op for a reason. I mean, look how happy the Russians were to get their hands on this load of "secret" information. The US could sit back, relax and watch the Russians take the bait.
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
August 18, 2015, 10:23:41 AM
#56
This off topic is becoming more interesting than the original one...

yup, the more you dig into this intelligence stuff, the more you realize how strange (but real) it is.  Amazingly, this story just coming out is about AT&T's "extreme willingness" to help out the NSA:

https://www.rt.com/news/312567-nsa-spy-un-internet/

The line from enemy of the state says it all "the gvt has been in bed with the telecommunications industry for the last 40 years".  That was from 1998, so this isn't exactly new info, its just being 100% confirmed and widely reported now.
AGD
legendary
Activity: 2070
Merit: 1164
Keeper of the Private Key
August 18, 2015, 01:43:13 AM
#55
This off topic is becoming more interesting than the original one...
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
August 17, 2015, 08:00:50 PM
#54
BUT, I don't think the us gvt would willingly let these classified documents out just so he could get access to russia.  His leaks have greatly hurt the rapidly growing spy grid that they are building.  It brought to light too many of the programs they have going on.    I think there are MUCH more discreet ways they can operate.

Here's my take.

You're the government. You've been recording as much telephone data as you can since the 1980's (when analogue telephone exchanges were phased out). You've been running analysis on the telephone data for years: auto-dictation, behavioural patterns, social connections, voice recognition etc. You can't make use of all of it. Because that would involve admitting to what you've been up to. But you want to use it. So, how do you announce it to the citizenry?

To be honest, it seems like their way of doing business is flat out deny deny deny anything and everything (just like when Clapper lied directly to congress about the NSA spying)
http://www.hasjamesclapperbeenindictedyet.com/

Then after many years (even 50 years in the case of the mk ultra/lsd human experiments) you declassify the documents in the least noticible way, and say well here it is!

I think it is possible hes still CIA/intelligence, but it just seems like these people are too egotistical to go this far in terms of hurting their public image as "leaders".
legendary
Activity: 3430
Merit: 3080
August 17, 2015, 06:14:56 PM
#53
BUT, I don't think the us gvt would willingly let these classified documents out just so he could get access to russia.  His leaks have greatly hurt the rapidly growing spy grid that they are building.  It brought to light too many of the programs they have going on.    I think there are MUCH more discreet ways they can operate.

Here's my take.

You're the government. You've been recording as much telephone data as you can since the 1980's (when analogue telephone exchanges were phased out). You've been running analysis on the telephone data for years: auto-dictation, behavioural patterns, social connections, voice recognition etc. You can't make use of all of it. Because that would involve admitting to what you've been up to. But you want to use it. So, how do you announce it to the citizenry?
legendary
Activity: 2296
Merit: 1014
August 17, 2015, 06:05:03 PM
#52
He is obv. no Bitcoin expert.
Yeah, many people working on this "bitcoin flaws" to adress them in best way
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1047
Your country may be your worst enemy
August 17, 2015, 05:59:25 PM
#51
I'm surprised there's still someone scaring people with the risk of a 51% attack.
I wish someone could calculate the probability of such an event. What's the likeliness of a 51% to occur tomorrow? What's the likeliness of this attack to be successful? I don't deny the risk. It is real, but it's a very small risk.
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
August 17, 2015, 02:27:43 PM
#50
Tom Secker has emotional/ego problems. That affects people's perception of him (well, mine at least), but it doesn't appear to affect his analytical abilities; he's frequently very astute. Check out his other work if that series interests you, the guy he co-presents CIA and Hollywood with (Pearse Redmond) is also one of the best spycraft journalists (and doesn't make a public display of his character flaws).


he does seem to be pretty astute with his analysis, nothing over the top like some "alternative" analysts can be.

Once you are awoken to this kind of stuff it's hard NOT to notice it in a lot of movies.  One example is Iron Man 3.  I saw it a while back and then of course isis starts coming out with their highly edited and almost hollywood style HD video releases.  I immediately thought back to the "Mandarin" in iron man 3, who really was nothign more than a boogey-man actor who was used to put out videos to scare the public into submission.  It just lined up too perfecly with whats currently going on
legendary
Activity: 3430
Merit: 3080
August 17, 2015, 02:26:16 PM
#49
So what about Bitcoin or things like Bitcoin that says at least the market transactions get anonymized when...
Edward Snowden: So, the Bitcoin thing is – I mean this is – nobody really likes to talk about Bitcoin anymore.

Nobody's talking about it? Who does he mean by nobody? I think plenty of people are still talking about it but sure its still pretty underground right now.

Indeed, no-ones talking, although he's happy to give it some air-time. Surely a genuine non-event requires zero discussion at all, eh Ed?  Wink
jr. member
Activity: 59
Merit: 10
August 17, 2015, 02:16:26 PM
#48
So what about Bitcoin or things like Bitcoin that says at least the market transactions get anonymized when...
Edward Snowden: So, the Bitcoin thing is – I mean this is – nobody really likes to talk about Bitcoin anymore.
[/quote]

Nobody's talking about it? Who does he mean by nobody? I think plenty of people are still talking about it but sure its still pretty underground right now.
legendary
Activity: 3430
Merit: 3080
August 17, 2015, 01:59:09 PM
#47
In the "Making of..." bonus DVD feature, it's stated that the Enemy of the State production team employed actual NSA technical consultants to get all the surveillance capabilities correct. I can't remember whether the film was one of so, so many that was directly funded by the CIA, but even if it isn't officially attributed that way (as so many Hollywood films are), it's heavily suspected of being such a production (i.e. CIA propa-tainment).

Check out the "The CIA and Hollywood" documentaries here: https://vimeo.com/tomsecker

well, that guy is spot on.  I guess "predictive programming" is what I was getting at, and it's been around a LOT longer than just the last 15-20 years.

Tom Secker has emotional/ego problems. That affects people's perception of him (well, mine at least), but it doesn't appear to affect his analytical abilities; he's frequently very astute. Check out his other work if that series interests you, the guy he co-presents CIA and Hollywood with (Pearse Redmond) is also one of the best spycraft journalists (and doesn't make a public display of his character flaws).

Amazing that hollywood references to the NSA go back to before the agency was even publically know about! And apparently that is the same for the CIA/MI6, they appeared in novels and movies before being publically acknowledged...

"No Such Agency" is one of their little in-jokes.
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
August 17, 2015, 01:47:19 PM
#46
In the "Making of..." bonus DVD feature, it's stated that the Enemy of the State production team employed actual NSA technical consultants to get all the surveillance capabilities correct. I can't remember whether the film was one of so, so many that was directly funded by the CIA, but even if it isn't officially attributed that way (as so many Hollywood films are), it's heavily suspected of being such a production (i.e. CIA propa-tainment).

Check out the "The CIA and Hollywood" documentaries here: https://vimeo.com/tomsecker

well, that guy is spot on.  I guess "predictive programming" is what I was getting at, and it's been around a LOT longer than just the last 15-20 years.

Amazing that hollywood references to the NSA go back to before the agency was even publically know about! And apparently that is the same for the CIA/MI6, they appeared in novels and movies before being publically acknowledged...

Kind of makes you wonder what really happened to tom clancy, apparently his books were too spot on, and someone didn't like it...
AGD
legendary
Activity: 2070
Merit: 1164
Keeper of the Private Key
August 17, 2015, 12:46:17 PM
#45
Offtopic: Has someone thought about Snowden beeing an US spy, released to gain the enemies trust with these documents?

These days you never know, but you know what they say, "Once CIA, always CIA".
Some don't know this but he worked for the cia as a computer systems admin.
 

BUT, I don't think the us gvt would willingly let these classified documents out just so he could get access to russia.  His leaks have greatly hurt the rapidly growing spy grid that they are building.  It brought to light too many of the programs they have going on.    I think there are MUCH more discreet ways they can operate.

You are possibly right. I still think it's a good tactic, though.
sr. member
Activity: 641
Merit: 253
▰▰▰ Global Cryptocurrency Paymen
August 17, 2015, 12:33:33 PM
#44
That guy is just an idiot, plain and simple
No, he just needs to learn a bit more about Bitcoin. He's a smart guy, but every smart guy needs to read for a bit before he takes this or that side in a conversation.
We have yet to see how this fork works out and then the halving. If Bitcoin keeps standing strong 12 months from now he'll change his opinion.
legendary
Activity: 3430
Merit: 3080
August 17, 2015, 12:33:21 PM
#43
Offtopic: Has someone thought about Snowden beeing an US spy, released to gain the enemies trust with these documents?

These days you never know, but you know what they say, "Once CIA, always CIA".
Some don't know this but he worked for the cia as a computer systems admin. 

Straight out of high school, apparently.
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
August 17, 2015, 12:18:06 PM
#42
Offtopic: Has someone thought about Snowden beeing an US spy, released to gain the enemies trust with these documents?

These days you never know, but you know what they say, "Once CIA, always CIA".
Some don't know this but he worked for the cia as a computer systems admin.
 

BUT, I don't think the us gvt would willingly let these classified documents out just so he could get access to russia.  His leaks have greatly hurt the rapidly growing spy grid that they are building.  It brought to light too many of the programs they have going on.    I think there are MUCH more discreet ways they can operate.
copper member
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1528
No I dont escrow anymore.
August 17, 2015, 12:17:18 PM
#41
I would have expected him to use some of his copious spare time to actually research the topic if he was giving an ietf interview.
'Course the interviewer may have played loose with the quotes. I couldn't find audio or video anywhere....

Use the source:

transcript: https://gist.github.com/mnot/382aca0b23b6bf082116#bitcoin
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NvsUXBCeVA

Snowden is basically avoiding an answer on the question, which was
Quote
...but the metadata and the correlation...but the big thing might be for money.

So what about Bitcoin or things like Bitcoin that says at least the market transactions get anonymized when...
Edward Snowden: So, the Bitcoin thing is – I mean this is – nobody really likes to talk about Bitcoin anymore.

If you read the whole transcript or watch the whole video up to this point you will see that Snowdens main points are not money, but larger in scale. If you have an Internet where the is no connection to your person you dont have to worry about a specific service like bitcoin beeing anonymous.

If you take the specific point that you can pay for things without allowing a correlation to your person "bitcoin or things like bitcoin" already allow that, regardless of the correlation that your IP address might allow.
legendary
Activity: 3430
Merit: 3080
August 17, 2015, 11:54:44 AM
#40
As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more. Smiley

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

Elwar, as a defense intellignce guy, how do you greet the claims the Snowden isn't a genuine whistleblower? Is it really credible that a defense intelligence contractor was attending key-swapping parties with high-ups in the Tor Project on Hawaii, immediately prior to his escape to Hong Kong? Communicating via email with these people using his "esnowden" LavaBit account? Would a Booz Allen Hamilton employee not attract attention to themselves behaving like that?

Hadn't heard about anything about that but defense contractors do all sorts of things outside of work that everyone else does. As long as you're not giving out classified information or doing drugs/breaking laws you can live your life.

What, everyday things like going to key-signing parties with significant members of the Tor Project? Arranged by email?

I didn't know Tor was illegal. I meet up with members of the Bitcoin project and there has been some illegal activity using bitcoins.

Hawaii probably has a small nerd community and there are a lot of military folks there in the shitty part of Hawaii (from what I heard) where he worked. So I'm sure the social circles are pretty small.

No, Tor is not illegal and I didn't say that it was. I wasn't talking about Tor itself, I was talking about this small circle of Hawaiins that you refer to.

Is it really credible that Snowden was moving in high circles with all these types, and wasn't himself subject to close scrutiny? The kind of scrutiny that makes defecting to Russia a delicate manoeuvre?
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