Bitcoin Forum

Tactics to Be Employed by the Pseudo-Identities
Intensify Discussion: Any news that could be perceived as negative must be amplified to extremes and made into hyperbolic worst-case scenarios. The public departure of Mike Hearn from the Bitcoin space created an environment ripe for exploitation. The media got ahold of that and ran on it for days. This would have been a huge victory for subversives because it further eroded the perceived global integrity of Bitcoin both as a software and a solution. But the Hearn story is only one small example; the list of potential topics is endless: Blocks might fill up...the network will clog...nodes will crash... users will leave...Bitcoin will die!!!! Fear is not difficult to manufacture.

Depress Positive Momentum: Any story with positive attention should be downplayed while messengers of positive news should be accused of “being shills,” “scam artists,” or worse. Blockstream’s acquisition of capital and talent would, in many circles, be viewed as a net positive. Employing the simple tool of implied guilt, however, the perceived value of the asset book becomes a joke, or is used as evidence of foul play. For example: Bitcoin Core’s implementation of mempool limits to prevent the doomsday scenarios of #1 above gets spun as “another fee market!!!” Reality matters less than perception. Another victory.

Character Assassination: Identify flaws and foibles in thought leaders especially; question the integrity and good intentions of anyone who appears to possess either. Any number of names can be pointed to here. With the right amount of assets, you can accomplish quite a bit. Even if you don’t have the facts, choose potentially divisive targets and deploy your sock-puppets to make up rumors. Perception is what matters.

Instigate Fights: Mock and ridicule both sides of any disagreement that forms to accelerate existing antagonism and grow the division between disparate sides. This past month, a spam attack targeting members of the Reddit Bitcoin communities added more fuel to the fire. The message was sent from a variety of accounts, most with no posts or comments. The message was tailored to look like a personal message, championing the Ethereum platform. Naturally, this created a conflict due to the perceived competitive nature of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Maintain Access to Pseudo-neutrality: Maintain a number of pseudo-identities with mild, thoughtful reputations to build support or ridicule when advantageous; ridicule and write off any who openly challenge your intentions; when pressed, claim objectivity. Or if reputation is not needed, go into full-blown troll mode and resort to ad hominems. This creates a scene and adds to the sense of collective group insanity, which demoralizes further.

Deny and Shift Blame: Any attempts by others to accuse of exploitation must be met by either silence or derision (situationally dependent). This is a simple tactic because it never gives any satisfaction of gains made in honest, impassioned debate. If the only result of the majority of your online debates is that you dread the replies to your posts, valuable discussion slows to a crawl.

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Is a game of social engineering being leveled at the Bitcoin community? Based on open source information alone, it’s conceivable that certain individuals or teams are trying  to demoralize and disrupt the Bitcoin ecosystem.
...

So through social engineering, not technical skills. Also - why would you want to do something like this?

It does sound familiar.  :-\

At least we all have one thing to counter this type of attack, our brains. When I hear someone talking about what he did or what she said instead of the issue I assume this is not about the truth. It is an attempt to persuade me based on my feelings about his/her actions. That does not work on me. I base my financial decisions on mathematics rather than emotion. I kinda think this is true of all serious people and that FUD only works on the weak and fearful.

Divide and conquer!It's always the same dirty game.
EDIT: this should definitely be a sticky thread

Anyone who has participated in such campaigns or has educated themselves
in the history and cases of PSYOps and BlackOps knows this is very likely.

Does any of this seem familiar?

Hahaha, Lauda yes it sounds familiar but all of those things happen in a typical day at work for me and on this forum and wherever women gather. 

This is like your horoscope where it's a bunch of generalizations that are just so typical that it's not much of a prediction at all.  The predictions are usually correct.

If not: take a look at the mirror...

What are we trying to imply here?

Interesting move, you've created an account just to make this post which mentions sock-pupets as an important point.

What I'm only uncertain of currently is, who's exactly behind the campaign.

Divide et impera, indeed. This is definitely an article that should be read by everyone in the ecosystem.

I'm looking into spreading my knowledge in these areas (especially concerning open source projects). However, I've recognized behavioral patterns and changes of such in certain members, ergo realizing the campaign in progress a few months ago. Here's a good video: How Open Source Projects Survive Poisonous People (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSFDm3UYkeE).

That if we keep nodding contentedly, thinking that the description applies
only to the "other crowd", we might benefit re-reading the article and perhaps our own
output. That's what we try to do here.

Even better is that this article applies to neither side. Its fluff and nonsense designed to enrage. The article is crap.

Even better is that this article applies to neither side. Its fluff and nonsense designed to enrage. The article is crap.

Even better is that this article applies to neither side. Its fluff and nonsense designed to enrage. The article is crap.

What, it's crap because it's description describes your corpulent position?

These are just social engineering strategies that try to influence the price of bitcoin so that they'll get rich.

I'm pretty sure this is already happening.I have no doubt about that.
Even Andreas Antonopoulos spoke about that at the last DevCore Event.
Divide and conquer!It's always the same dirty game.
So stay calm, be smart and don't fall for these bastards!!

EDIT: this should definitely be a sticky thread

Even if they take down bitcoin, what about the other 1000's of altcoins??? Does these people even have a brain?

It would be rather an incredible destabilization campaign! With incredible ressources thrown into the battle.

This is what you people fail to realize. If Bitcoin dies because of such a reason, then it is most likely that all the other experiments die with it. What is to prevent another coin from suffering the same fate? Nothing.


It does seem like a lot, but it might be just the beginning.

Does any of this seem familiar?

always said, if you are approached by 3 people in a fight, you only need to take down the biggest of the 3... When the biggest guy falls, the other 3 will hesitate and

you will take them down easier or they will run.

This is what you people fail to realize. If Bitcoin dies because of such a reason, then it is most likely that all the other experiments die with it. What is to prevent another coin from suffering the same fate? Nothing.


It does seem like a lot, but it might be just the beginning.

.... the people in this thread wow..

So you think a multi TRILLION.. 100's.. of Trillions.. perhaps even quadrillion dollar organizations wouldn't attack the first threat to them in over 100 years...

... honestly....

Even if they take down bitcoin, what about the other 1000's of altcoins??? Does these people even have a brain?

According to this research (https://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/?fileID=BCDB1364-A105-0560-1332EC9100FF5C83), the world's total wealth is $241 trillion. Phail.

I didn't understand the rest of your post, by the way. What does it mean "the first threat to them in over 100 years"?

Anyone with experience in extended, unconventional conflict should be able to recognize current patterns in the Bitcoin and digital currency space that resemble subversive activity.
Is a game of social engineering being leveled at the Bitcoin community? Based on open source information alone, it’s conceivable that certain individuals or teams are trying  to demoralize and disrupt the Bitcoin ecosystem.

...

Does any of this seem familiar?

What form of money has been a thread to the FED since 1913. None.

That if we keep nodding contentedly, thinking that the description applies
only to the "other crowd", we might benefit re-reading the article and perhaps our own
output. That's what we try to do here.

What I'm only uncertain of currently is, who's exactly behind the campaign.

There was no "divide" until the previously uncontroversial blocksize increase was yoinked in place of something else. All the drama since then is the stuff that is described in your linked article (on both sides) is what created a divide. The entire article is a cheap parody of the "CIA Handbook" in its various incarnations. It reads very naively to me "I'm a green beret.. I'd make sock puppets on reddit".

This article seems intent on furthering the idea of a division.

The article describes controlling everything on the ground. There is inference of some kind of central command, but then nothing describing how that central command would operate. A police force is only as strong a the government that leads it. Controlling the map is done by controlling the generals not the troops. Very little is said about central command.

The article is written assuming that authority is the correct model. It characterises attacks on authority as attacks on bitcoin.

Bitcoin *shouldn't* be controlled by anyone. Any attempt to create an authority structure around bitcoin is in fact an attack on bitcoin.

.... the people in this thread wow..

So you think a multi TRILLION.. 100's.. of Trillions.. perhaps even quadrillion dollar organizations wouldn't attack the first threat to them in over 100 years...

... honestly....

Hahaha, Lauda yes it sounds familiar but all of those things happen in a typical day at work for me and on this forum and wherever women gather.  This is like your horoscope where it's a bunch of generalizations that are just so typical that it's not much of a prediction at all.  The predictions are usually correct.

Firstly Bitcoins can be taken down. Secondly if it is, then there is no furture of Altcoins.
Altcoins are alive because of bitcoins.

.... the people in this thread wow..

So you think a multi TRILLION.. 100's.. of Trillions.. perhaps even quadrillion dollar organizations wouldn't attack the first threat to them in over 100 years...

... honestly....

I honestly do not think such a thing will happen. The reason is because the millions of threads warning of a takeover never include a plausible way for it to happen. Until I see that I will continue to ignore these threads the way I have for years now. Banks may not like it, but what can they do about it?

.... the people in this thread wow..

So you think a multi TRILLION.. 100's.. of Trillions.. perhaps even quadrillion dollar organizations wouldn't attack the first threat to them in over 100 years...

... honestly....

It's more subtle than the idea of a "takeover" by non-technical shadowy people sitting around a table. It's about fooling enough minds so that the project succumbs to the ignorant tyranny of the majority. Cuz, you know, democracy.

It's about getting people to believe that Bitcoin is about making a better PayPal/VISA, as opposed to making third-parties (central authorities) obsolete thus giving people control over their own finances.

It's about leveraging conformist minds (Gavin, Hearn, Garzik, ...) into diverting the project toward a state of increased vulnerability/uncertainty.

It's about creating/promoting the perception of disassociating the crypto-anarchist roots of Bitcoin and placing the steering wheel into the hands of people who don't think there's anything wrong with debt-based money (because they only pay attention to mainstream sources of information).

The github code repository... If the Classic hardfork were to succeed (not that that's gonna happen), Gavin/Toomin would have the greatest access to the proverbial "steering wheel".

Gavin has no more authority than you do.

We're gonna see this year if there's someone of there trying to stop Bitcoin in it's tracks. But the Classic thing is pretty lame attempt to be honest.

What I'm only uncertain of currently is, who's exactly behind the campaign.

Anyone with experience in extended, unconventional conflict should be able to recognize current patterns in the Bitcoin and digital currency space that resemble subversive activity.
Is a game of social engineering being leveled at the Bitcoin community? Based on open source information alone, it’s conceivable that certain individuals or teams are trying  to demoralize and disrupt the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Full article can be found here. (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/i-m-a-former-green-beret-here-s-how-i-would-bring-down-bitcoin-1456165726)

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Does any of this seem familiar?

The easiest answer: who is their target? By knowing the target you know the attacker. I have some clues, do you? :)

Bitcoin has a decentralized flow of money, it brings that power back to the people where it belongs.
This is a threat to the economic elite. At first they did not recognize that threat, but now that it is clear Bitcoin is real, they recognize the threat is real. They can't take it down directly, but what they can do is attempt to seize control of the network. And that is what I believe they are trying to do, using the very social engineering tactics quoted in your original post.

The worst part of this is that genuine people are being manipulated by the campaign and they're indirectly joining it. This does make a lot of sense if you consider:
1) Bitcoin "has many enemies".
2) Bitcoin can't be damaged otherwise (no known exploits).
2) Humans are flawed.

Indeed, people organically spread the meme ("urgent max block size increase required or Bitcoin will stagnate and possibly die") as misinformation, but its origins are probably as disinformation. It's not so much that "humans are flawed", it's more that propaganda and mind control and perception management techniques have gotten quite advanced.

No matter what everyone says, Bitcoins cannot be brought down. It is liked by many peoples as it is easily and readily tavailable.

The current price of Bitcoins also suggests that it is growing in a positive directions.

Wow, what a great article. everybody who does bitcoin should be able to read this. Really good article about bitcoin. Great stuff

I think bitcoin can be brought down if there is a system working better than it and covers the same needs, Something like a crypto but more useful and gaining the trust of the users, I don't think that is happening though.

Regardless, they are still flawed. The first thing that one tries to exploit (e.g.) when hacking is the human. Similarly, Bitcoin can't be broken by mathematics nor technology (as of today), and thus the logical step would be to try to exploit the humans.

Hmm, well, yes, but maybe the term "vulnerable" is better than "flawed" then.

I don't really imagine how bitcoin can be stoped, lol.

Going downhill in what way?

I don't really imagine how bitcoin can be stoped, lol. I don't belive on it but if it will happen i will be so upset  :'(

The exact term used in this case does not matter as long as the message gets through. Humanity is slowly going downhill.

This is all so new to me, it seems quite bonkers. If the government or whoever are trying to undo bitcoin could they not just buy a big load of it and manipulate it that way, or buy a load of mining machines and use the 51% thing.

Surely the government could do that if they wanted? :-\