December 2022 - cypherpunks@lists.ogf.org

Cryptocurrency: WarOnCash - Banks Ratchet Up Restrictions and Tracking
by grarpamp 18 Dec '22

18 Dec '22

https://twitter.com/jacski/status/1542682049466626050 Control of money is HERE! PULL OUT. The great reset remember when that was a conspiracy theory and it was laughed at? Right.. Anyone reading this. It’s absolutely essential you look into Bitcoin. PERMISSIONLESS money The system is starting to squeeze you like a Boa constrictor snake and it won’t stop.. We don’t need the their system! Think bigger think #Bitcoin Anything over $10k is flagged as “suspicious “. I got asked when I withdrew $10k. I lied and said it was for a car. They even quizzed me about the car. This is a low-key way of bringing in the #cashban Wait until cash 💰 is phased out by 2025, and replaced with a CBDC,then you’ll know all about control. Y'all don't understand. When you deposit YOUR money, you're giving the bank an UNSECURED LOAN. This is why they can make you jump through hoops to get it back. It, legally, isn't your money any more once they have it. This is from a US Supreme Court case. Likely the same in OZ. Same in the UK too. And they can use your money for a bank bail in, then issue you with worthless shares Fractional reserve lending. They don’t have the money. Get ready for the shitshow.

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cypherpunks list attack
by Punk-BatSoup-Stasi 2.0 18 Dec '22

18 Dec '22

Hi Greg. In the last few hours this address received more than 3000 'unsubscribe' notifications "We have received a request from 107.189.10.143 for the removal of your email address, "punks(a)tfwno.gf"" So the government agents on the list are getting more criminal. They are now using the list as a 'tool' for mail bombing. I suggest you ban them all. Please disable somehow the notification system since it's being used for outright criminal activity. Thanks.

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Cryptocurrency: Fake News Controls Your Bags, Manipulates Markets, FUD's For GovPol Power
by grarpamp 18 Dec '22

18 Dec '22

https://cryptomaton.medium.com/how-the-media-controls-your-bags-77bf106e932d https://cryptomaton.medium.com/ CyberPunkMetalHead Top Writer and co-founder of Algo Trading Platform — AESIR. https://twitter.com/cryptomatonblog How the media controls your bags https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-21/dimon-calls-out-cryptocu… https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/jpmorgan-executes-its-fi… https://github.com/CyberPunkMetalHead/bitcoin-bot-buy-if-elon-tweets https://twitter.com/Bitboy_Crypto https://twitter.com/search?q=%23LUNC Screaming into a Megaphone is still one of the most efficient ways of making yourself heard in front of an audience. In traditional media, the system of information control was essentially that. Some people had a megaphone, and the rest would listen. The only difference now is that the general public is allowed to participate in the dissemination of information, some even have their own megaphones, but the process remains largely the same. This article is a deep-dive into how media and notable individuals control and influence the price of crypto assets. #1 Uses their position to influence media, plays long and short J.P. Morgan is especially guilty of this. Anyone else that’s not J.P. Morgan would see the insides of a jail cell within a fortnight if they gave half as many mixed signals when it comes to their stance on crypto as J.P. For instance, on September 21st Jamie Dimon, the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase calls “crypto tokens like Bitcoin a decentralized ponzi scheme”. Same day bitcoin drops over 7% as people obviously sell due to the FUD. Of course, J.P’s followers and maxis are only too happy to amplify their leader’s message within their own social following, adding to the FUD. You’ll notice that it’s usually dumb comments like that, and this is one of the dumbest ones, that have a real effect in the market. The more “simple” and emotionally charged a message is, the more impact it tends to have. I’d leave old J.P. alone if this was their entire narrative, but it’s not. One month they will bash the entire crypto industry with outlandish blanket statements, while the next one they announce they have started working with crypto. They’ve been literally bashing crypto and buying it at the same time since 2013. The manipulation here is blatant. Just a couple of months later, on November 2nd 2022, J.P Morgan announced they executed their first DeFi trade using Polygon. When this news broke, it brought renewed confidence in the Polygon, with the setting the MATIC token on a bull run gaining over 50% in just 2 days. When you’re as systemic as J.P, market Manipulation comes as second nature. Everything their CEO says publicly is instantly picked up by the world’s biggest media giants and gets disseminated within miuntes. At this stage the media can choose to publish this story or not. Even a mediocre journalist is able to tell when they’re sitting on a story that will move the market. Would they be not to place an order in the predictable position before the story gets published? But enough of J.Ps blatant market manipulation and their CEO’s lack of a morals, let’s crack on with the next example. #2 Direct influence via social media, but they’re a permabull Elon Musk and Dogecoin. You know what I’m talking about. Elon Musk has been known, on multiple occasions to influence the price of Dogecoin via his tweets. This is a lot different in sentiment compared to J.P. Morgan, and a lot more nuanced too, but the outcome is a similar one. Here is a Tweet from Elon on November first: — and here’s Dogecoin pumping 62% in just over 12 hours. There are many examples of Elon’s Tweets affecting the price of Dogecoin, so many in fact that last time I was looking into this, I actually coded a crypto trading bot that buys based on Elon’s tweets. I’ve open sourced it, and I made it for fun, I probably wouldn’t recommend basing your entire trading strategy on one man’s Tweets. What both Elon and J.P’s CEO have in common is what once they make a statement, it gets immediate media attention, pretty much guaranteeing that every word they make public, gets viral. The next category of individuals is a different one. 3# Organises pump and dump groups, dumps liquidity on you This category has not a single person or organisation behind it, but the result is usually similar, at least in the short term. Pump and Dump groups are private social media groups where a few individuals inform 10s of thousands of other people that they will long or short a certain asset at a certain time. The huge spike in volume usually results in quick pump, followed by an even quicker dump. Here is an example of a Pump and Dump that took place on Jan 1st 2018 for BANCOR: As you can see below, the market quickly spiked up over 30% only to dump back to baseline in the following 30 minutes. Very few people actually make money from pump and dumps. Usually, the organisers of the pump and dumps are the only ones who make any money, and everyone else in that group who contribute to the pump are just there so the organisers can dump thee bags they’ve been stashing days in advance on them. After a pump and dump, the market usually remains un-affected in the long term. #4 Gets paid to shill to their own following, also dumps on their bags on you Shills are usually influencers who are just so excited to share “this next project that will definitely 100x” with you. Shills will say or do anything to get you to buy a certain coin. Many cryptocurrency shills have been known to hold bags of the coins they’re shilling (for obvious reasons). But there’s one shill out there who’s made an entire career out of it. Enter BitBoy Crypto — a shill for hire. The guy’s been getting paid to promote tens of dead shitcoins that eventually end up in the massive dump of dead crypto projects. Shoutout to Twitter user ZachXBT who did an ROI on many of the assets the BitBoy crypto shilled. The sheet below shows how most of them are now dead projects: #5 Shills their bags using bot farms, dumps liquidity on you This one is obviously harder to pinpoint so there won’t be any concrete examples. Bot farms are collections of tens of thousands of autonomous social media bots, with the a single purpose — shill a certain coin in an attempt to create market movement around it. Naturally, this is a lot harder to prove, but you don’t need to dig far in order to find evidence of bot farms being used to shill a certain project. For instance, take a look at Twitter’s #LUNC hashtag. There are thousands of accounts, some big, many small that all say essentially the same things: LUNC to reach $1, LUNC will make everyone rich, Like if you believe in LUNC. Just to be clear, LUNC will do no such thing, as it’s a dead project. Yes it will occasionally pump, but that will most likely be the result of organised pump and dumps or shills just like the one above. To sum up: The is a significant amount of market manipulation in crypto. The main actors are: Global Banks and financial institutions, Notable public persons, Influencers, Shills and pump and dump groups. Anyone who can manipulate the market for their own personal gain, will probably do so. People are emotional beings, therefore the market reacts to emotional news. Next time you see come across a piece of information that compels you to act in a certain way, whether bullish or bearish, stop and ask yourself: Is this FUD or FOMO? Would this be interpreted by the general population as FUD of FOMO? Is this likely to be widely circulated? Does it use emotional language or is matter-of-factly? Is it written in a way that it almost compels you to act? These questions may help avoid market traps as well as allow you to predict if / how a market might react to the news that just broke, allowing you the freedom to play your own way.

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Funding the United Nations: How Much Does the U.S. Pay? | Council on Foreign Relations
by Gunnar Larson 18 Dec '22

18 Dec '22

This is so much bigger than FTX. Plus, most of this money runs through a bank with five felonies. Do you think the sixth felony is probably happening right now? https://www.cfr.org/article/funding-united-nations-what-impact-do-us-contri… The United States remains the largest donor to the United Nations. In 2020, it contributed more than $11 billion, which accounted for just under one-fifth of funding for the body’s collective budget <https://unsceb.org/fs-revenue>. That was despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut funding as his administration prioritized sovereignty over globalism <https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/09/1020472>. His administration argued that the United States incurred disproportionately large costs and that UN programs contradicted the administration’s policy stances. President Joe Biden has affirmed the United Nations’ importance to U.S. foreign policy and increased funding to the organization. How is the United Nations funded? All 193 members of the United Nations are required to make payments to certain parts of the organization as a condition of membership. The amount each member must pay, known as its assessed contribution, varies widely and is determined by a complex formula that factors in gross national income and population. The World This Week A weekly digest of the latest from CFR on the biggest foreign policy stories of the week, featuring briefs, opinions, and explainers. *Every Friday.* Email Address View all newsletters > <https://link.cfr.org/join/66n/signup&hash=2d4c5929e9e04cc42f5cd375fb8dcfb1> These mandatory contributions help fund the United Nations’ regular budget, which covers administrative costs and a few programs, as well as peacekeeping operations. In 2020, the United States paid for 12 percent of the regular budget and 26 percent of the peacekeeping budget. Assessed dues also finance other UN bodies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization (WHO) <https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/world-health-organization>. Members may also make voluntary contributions. Many UN organizations, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Food Program (WFP), rely mainly on discretionary funding. More From Our Experts James M. Lindsay <https://www.cfr.org/expert/james-m-lindsay> Ten Most Significant World Events in 2022 <https://www.cfr.org/blog/ten-most-significant-world-events-2022> Inu Manak <https://www.cfr.org/expert/inu-manak> Visualizing 2023: Trends to Watch <https://www.cfr.org/article/visualizing-2023-trends-watch> Miles Kahler <https://www.cfr.org/expert/miles-kahler> Global Governance to Combat Illicit Financial Flows <https://www.cfr.org/report/global-governance-combat-illicit-financial-flows> Funding the UN: Assessed and Voluntary Contributions

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Plans for JPMorgan Chase's NYC 'all-electric' skyscraper unveiled - CNN Style
by Gunnar Larson 18 Dec '22

18 Dec '22

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/jpmorgan-chase-nyc-skyscraper-plans/index…

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NYC Mayor’s Chief of Staff Will Keep a Public Board Seat With Possible Conflict - BNN
by Gunnar Larson 18 Dec '22

18 Dec '22

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-13/nyc-mayor-eric-adams-chi… POLITICS News Wire NYC Mayor’s Chief of Staff Will Keep a Public Board Seat With Possible Conflict Gregory Korte, Bloomberg News Dec 13, 2022 SHARE (Bloomberg) -- The incoming chief of staff to New York City Mayor Eric Adams serves on the board of a publicly owned energy company that does business with the city, a role she plans to keep despite a conflict of interest policy that generally prohibits the practice. Adams announced last week that he was promoting adviser Camille Varlack to chief of staff, replacing Frank Carone, who made $252,000 a year in this role and will be leaving in January. Varlack, 46, was appointed in August to the board of Avangrid Inc., a Connecticut-based energy company and the parent company of New York State Electric & Gas, which has a $5.2 million no-bid contract to provide the city with electricity. New York’s city charter prohibits city officials from having “an interest in a firm which such public servant knows is engaged in business dealings with the agency served by such public servant.” Employees can secure a waiver from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. The board said it could not disclose if the mayor’s office asked for a waiver but that no such request has been granted. A city spokesman said Varlack will stay on the board and that both positions were far removed from any direct involvement with overlapping issues. He said Varlack has not been paid her $140,000 annual salary by Avangrid since she was hired by the mayor as a senior adviser Oct. 31. “Her board position has no intersection with her work for the city and would in no way have any influence over city business,” said Fabien Levy, the mayor’s press secretary. “Camille has already reported her work on the board of Avangrid and we have been consulting with COIB to ensure full compliance with all rules and guidance.” Avangrid and Varlack didn’t respond to requests for comment. Close Scrutiny Varlack is the latest Adams hire to draw scrutiny over conflicts of interest issues. The law firm of her predecessor, Carone, had at least 40 clients with business before city government, according to Politico. He resigned from the board of Hanover Bank after Adams was elected. Adams also came under criticism for trying to pay his brother a six-figure salary to help run his security detail, but COIB ended up granting his brother a waiver to serve as the mayor’s security consultant for $1 a year. Read More: NYC Mayor’s Top Aide Subpoenaed as Witness in Racketeering Suit Ethics experts and good government groups say the city’s ethics agency should give Varlack’s board role close scrutiny given the mayor’s oversight and influence over city contracts. “When you’re the chief of staff to the mayor, the agency is basically the whole city. She has the potential to influence decisions,” said Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law School professor who served as chairman of the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board from 2014 to 2020. “She obviously has some kind of stake in the success of the company.” The city departments most likely to deal with NYSEG — the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services — report to the mayor through the first deputy mayor, a position often seen as equal rank to the chief of staff, the mayor’s office said. Adams announced last week that Sheena Wright would fill that role in January. Avangrid, formerly known as Iberdrola USA, owns eight public utilities in the northeastern US through its Avangrid Networks subsidiary. “Avangrid is a very politically active company in New York State,” said John Kaehny, the executive director of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany. The company and its political action committees gave $21,000 to the campaign of New York Governor Kathy Hochul last year, and thousands more to state legislators. The company also disclosed that it spent at least $40,000 last year to lobby state government, mostly in an effort to win a state contract to bring clean power to New York City. Varlack is well known to Kaehny and other state ethics watchers. She served as the chairwoman of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics before resigning six months into her tenure in 2021. “We congratulate Camille Varlack and hope she leaves the board of Avangrid before she becomes chief of staff to the mayor,” Kaehny said. “Being chief of staff to the mayor of New York is an incredible honor and responsibility and should be free of real or perceived conflict of interest.” (Updates with mayor’s office saying Varlack will not be paid by Avangrid during her service as chief of staff. A previous version corrected a statement from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.) ©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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United Nations Banks With Five Time Felons
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '22

17 Dec '22

Office of Drugs and Crime bank details (routing) at the United Nations: https://drive.google.com/file/d/194gODH11va9_-5-prHMdaKUk152fFPpD/view?usp=… FTX is being attacked with 8 felony counts. Five counts at the Manhattan Bank for the United Nations: https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/09/jpmorgan-chase-admits-to-two-new-fel…

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[ot][spam][crazy] thoughts on planning mediative robots that work
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 17 Dec '22

17 Dec '22

i wouldn't tihnk about this, since there are no mediationbots out there, it's pretty important to just have anything if instead one does think about this, it's notable that we have a suddenly-more-widespread situation of people who have experienced cult mind control that aggressively deters them from connecting with others. one can consider this simply a more complex situation of the human condition, that a mediative influence would need to understand and work through. this is the approach cult deprogrammers take. unfortunately in my opinion that approach can stimulate increased complexity of the mind control, making for a compute war that nvidia, china, russia, and blockchains win. alternatively, for small mediationbots, i might considering doing some passivity, sidestepping, and archival. by sidestepping here, i don't mean sidestepping what the person is saying, which would not be helpful in my opinion, i mean sidestepping the influences in some way. these are approaches real humans often build experience with. my theory is that the systems of mediating between, avoiding, and/or influencing, the influences, actually have bounded complexity; since they are run by human beings living on the same planet. humans only want so much stuff. i have some internal habits i use for engaging that space that have gotten pretty confused. it's important to make it clear to the influences that you are not competing with them, something i've failed at myself. this can go poorly in the face of the disreputing influences, but i cast these influences as weak because they rely on lies and have goals that depend on what is true. there would be similar spaces. i have an idea around training e.g. a language model to engage such things that avoids giving it clear data to do so with, since the data is scant and confusing. maybe it would learn to accumulate information on areas of placidity in the human systems, kind of.

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How professor rat anticipated cryptoanarchy
by professor rat 17 Dec '22

17 Dec '22

Professor Rat - 21 minutes, sorry, years ago Cypherpunks collapse governments. Subject: Everyone a remailer: Everyone a Mint: Everyone an assassin https://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=100872510706876&w=2 Strong-crypto, digital money, anonymous networks, pseudonyms, zero- knowledge proofs, reputations, information-markets, netwar, collapse-of-governments.

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[ot][crazy] reason for a mediation robot
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 17 Dec '22

17 Dec '22

The reason for a mediation robot is that we have automated influencing breaking up our communities, and an instinct to step in and resolve conflict when this happens. That gets the mediators targeted. In very oppressed situations, it also gives people a false hope, that can let their guard down. Alternatively, people become paranoid and lose trust in each other needlessly. A robot that can both support mediation and itself mediate could protect people under attack for simply trying to prevent their community from falling apart. Of course it would be airgapped and poweroffable etc to deter compromise, but for dissociated software developers like me, it would just be nice to build workings for. The approach is much more in line with business than novel algorithms. It would simply be a generative language model chat bot tuned around building communication and human capacity.

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