January 2022 - cypherpunks@lists.ogf.org

Cryptocurrency: War On Cash - CBDCs The Mechanism For Creepy IMF Evil
by grarpamp 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

War On Cash: The Digital Dollar https://schiffgold.com/key-gold-news/war-on-cash-the-digital-dollar/ https://mises.org/wire/dangers-lurking-behind-digital-euro https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20220120a.htm https://schiffgold.com/guest-commentaries/why-should-we-care-about-negative… https://schiffgold.com/key-gold-news/creepy-imf-paper-teaches-governments-w… Last week, the Federal Reserve released a “discussion paper” examing the pros and cons of a potential US central bank digital dollar. According to the Federal Reserve press release, the central bank hopes to get public feedback on the idea. “We look forward to engaging with the public, elected representatives, and a broad range of stakeholders as we examine the positives and negatives of a central bank digital currency in the United States,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said. Government-issued digital currencies are sold on their promise of convenience and security. But there is a darker side – the promise of control. Digital dollars would be similar to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They would exist as virtual banknotes or coins held in a digital wallet on your computer or smartphone. The difference between a government digital currency and bitcoin is the value of the digital currency is backed and controlled by the state, just like traditional fiat currency. The digital dollar could ultimately replace physical cash. Proponents tout its convenience and security. A Business Insider article gushed over the idea. A Fed-backed digital dollar would then provide many of the benefits touted by cryptocurrencies without their wild price swings and usage fees. In theory, a CBDC would meld the best aspects of physical and digital currencies for the average American.” Last year, China launched a digital yuan pilot program. The Chinese government-backed digital currency got a boost when the country’s biggest online retailer announced the first virtual platform to accept the Chinese digital currency. China isn’t the only government exploring the possibility of digital money. Sweden has developed a digital currency of its own. The European Central Bank is pushing for a digital euro. And Russian central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina told CNBC that digital currency is “the future of our financial system.” Ultimately, it would take a congressional act to establish a digital dollar as legal tender. US officials toyed with the possibility of a digital dollar at the height of the pandemic. A Democratic proposal for stimulus payments in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic featured digital currency deposited into digital wallets. Government digital currency is sold to the public as a safe and convenient alternative to physical cash. We’re also told it will help stop dangerous criminals who like the intractability of cash. But at the root of the move toward government digital currency is “the war on cash.” Fundamentally, it’s about control. The elimination of cash creates the potential for the government to track and even control consumer spending, and it would make it even easier for central banks to engage in manipulative monetary policy such as negative interest rates. Imagine if there was no cash. It would be impossible to hide even the smallest transaction from government eyes. Something as simple as your morning trip to Starbucks wouldn’t be a secret from government officials. As Bloomberg put it in an article published when China launched its digital yuan pilot program, digital currency “offers China’s authorities a degree of control never possible with physical money.” The government could even “turn off” an individual’s ability to make purchases. Bloomberg describes just how much control a digital currency could give Chinese officials. The PBOC has also indicated that it could put limits on the sizes of some transactions, or even require an appointment to make large ones. Some observers wonder whether payments could be linked to the emerging social-credit system, wherein citizens with exemplary behavior are ‘whitelisted’ for privileges, while those with criminal and other infractions find themselves left out. ‘China’s goal is not to make payments more convenient but to replace cash, so it can keep closer tabs on people than it already does,’ argues Aaron Brown, a crypto investor who writes for Bloomberg Opinion.” Economist Thorsten Polleit outlined the potential for Big Brother-like government control with the advent of a digital euro in an article published by the Mises Wire. As he put it, “the path to becoming a surveillance state regime will accelerate considerably” if and when a digital currency is issued. Governments around the world have quietly waged a war on cash for years. Back in 2017, the IMF published a creepy paper offering governments suggestions on how to move toward a cashless society even in the face of strong public opposition. As with most things the government does, you should be wary of the digital dollar. It has a dark side you can be sure the mainstream will mostly ignore.

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Dumbass American won't get help
by professor rat 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

North Carolina man who needs kidney transplant won't get it because he refuses to get COVID vaccine. He's like Batshit-Crazy not getting any sympathy if he catches AID's and/or COVID 19. Preferably both.

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Communist Chinese COVID response
by professor rat 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

If I accidentally lead the struggle against Marxist fascism and it useful-idiot, antivax allies then FOLLOW ME! If I ever run away from this fight then SHOOT ME in the BACK! And if I fall in battle then AVENGE ME!

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SciTechDaily: How Big Does Your Quantum Computer Need To Be To Break Bitcoin Encryption or Simulate Molecules?
by jim bell 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

SciTechDaily: How Big Does Your Quantum Computer Need To Be To Break Bitcoin Encryption or Simulate Molecules?. https://scitechdaily.com/how-big-does-your-quantum-computer-need-to-be-to-b… Quantum computers are expected to be disruptive and potentially impact many industry sectors. So researchers in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands decided to explore two very different quantum problems: breaking the encryption of Bitcoin (a digital currency) and simulating the molecule responsible for biological nitrogen fixation. n AVS Quantum Science, from AIP Publishing, the researchers describe a tool they created to determine how big a quantum computer needs to be to solve problems like these and how long it will take. “The majority of existing work within this realm focuses on a particular hardware platform, superconducting devices, like those IBM and Google are working toward,” said Mark Webber, of the University of Sussex. “Different hardware platforms will vary greatly on key hardware specifications, such as the rate of operations and the quality of control on the qubits (quantum bits).” Many of the most promising quantum advantage use cases will require an error-corrected quantum computer. Error correction enables running longer algorithms by compensating for inherent errors inside the quantum computer, but it comes at the cost of more physical qubits. Pulling nitrogen out of the air to make ammonia for fertilizers is extremely energy-intensive, and improvements to the process could impact both world food scarcity and the climate crisis. Simulation of relevant molecules is currently beyond the abilities of even the world’s fastest supercomputers but should be within the reach of next-gen quantum computers.

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Steve's Sheer bleating
by professor rat 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

Probably best not to say these things, at least until after you've recovered from Covid19 and have substantial reinfection immunity. .." You forgot to add - " ...and are a long time member of the circle-of-eunuchs here ".

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Cypherpunks advocate for three-things - anarchism - encryption - and dead Tech-Crunch journalists.
by professor rat 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/27/web3s-early-promise-for-artists-tainted-b…

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Re: [liberationtech] Academic Research on Compliance within the Software Industry
by grarpamp 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

> want to help shape compliance practices within the software industry? > We want to understand how software practitioners perceive and > experience regulatory ... compliance in the industry. > We want to know what compliance practices are practical > versus what is on the books. Free markets always capable of creating and valuing "books" on software "practices", as is the personal responsibility within voluntaryism which books and SW to write teach and use or not. Liberation... freedom... its free nature, doesn't "comply" with government "best practices" "regulation" "policy" etc. Cryptocurrency "software" should have taught people that. Compliance, devaluation, rulers and now much censorship within... GovBank CBDC's, CorpCoins, their Fiat's... these are all against nature of human freedom. Crypto and cryptocurrency's historic and explicit choice to skip ignore and route around all such "compliance" is the only reason that cryptocurrency exists today and is now rightly and necessarily being used and adopted outside of GovBankCorp "industry" reach and "controls" by millions of people, humans, humanity, around the planet to seek out personal and financial sovereignty and community freedom, out from under a global central authoritarian hierarchy that has gone and grown too far. Freedom does not need nor seek permission from authority. Neither did nor does the entire opensource "software" movement upon which the world now depends. The future is a free, "practical", efficient, and "noncompliant" one, p2p, around the planet, voluntary, without "regulatory" force, together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWAwK2fHArc No Regulators Put that in some .edu theses and defend it, if anyone dares. > This survey has been approved by the UMBC IRB and titled > "Enabling Regulatory Compliance for Software Engineering.” > Research Protections and Compliance Office Apparently the world has got so brainwashed that people now feel they have to "institute" and submit to and get "approval" from "compliance" to take a survey. Lol. Perhaps people should consider adopting distributed cryptocurrencies to help the world defund and liberate themselves from the Offices of Nonsense in preference of freedom too.

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SpyVeillance: Protonmail Taking Heat For Giving Up Logs
by grarpamp 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

Protonmail in the news lately... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm--we5-nPc Protonmail, Surveillance Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ppl62Bl9RE Protonmail, Internet Privacy Guy

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Censorship: List of 100's of Censorbanned Channels
by grarpamp 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

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MIT physicists have discovered a new quantum bit or 'qubit' | World Economic Forum
by jim bell 31 Jan '22

31 Jan '22

https://news.mit.edu/2022/vibrating-atoms-qubits-0126#:~:text=MIT%20physici…. - The new qubits, discovered by MIT physicists, stay in “superposition” for up to 10 seconds and could make a promising foundation for quantum computers. - In this state, a qubit should be able to communicate with other qubits and process multiple streams of information, to quickly solve problems that would take classical computers years to process. - To make a functional quantum computer using vibrating qubits, the team will have to find ways to also control individual fermion pairs. MIT physicists have discovered a new quantum bit, or “qubit,” in the form of vibrating pairs of atoms known as fermions. They found that when pairs of fermions are chilled and trapped in an optical lattice, the particles can exist simultaneously in two states — a weird quantum phenomenon known as superposition. In this case, the atoms held a superposition of two vibrational states, in which the pair wobbled against each other while also swinging in sync, at the same time.

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