Bitcoin Forum

North Korea has been voted the most popular country in the world.

So please tell me, how do you Bitcoin people like North Korea?

Sincerely,
Supreme Leader of Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Kim Jong Un

The Internet is a scary and powerful tool against the state, good thing the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea don't have access to it, and that is not a problem, people can store their bitcoins in this latest technological breakthrough:

http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/48-North-Koreas-secret-weapon.jpg

You are not to underestimate the effectiveness of sneakernet...

NK is bit on authoritarian side for this forums preferences I think...

No it isn't, they have Democratic in the name!!!  :D

So United States of America is less democratic as they don't have democratic or Republic in it's name?

It's just a joke...

Back in the old age of Atari ST, Amiga 1000, we use to exchange our games in shoe boxes from all over Europe. The shoe box was the unit of floppies the "big nodes" would use and copy. It was almost a full time job for them. You only had one (expensive) machine.
NK is pretty bleak no matter who's in charge.

Oh crap - Is that the NOC list?

lol :D

How many BTC are in the NK treasury?

They have all, the new ones being mined are just NK being generous.  :D

Does anyone know what percentage of the North Korean population has access to broadband internet? 

Probably, only the elite can have Internet access.

My bounty of 1 BTC for a special postcard from North Korea is still open:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=258745.msg2761795#msg2761795 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=258745.msg2761795#msg2761795)

Any takers? Kim? ;D

Sounds right.

 :D

Welcome, oh great one!

I think Kim Jong Un has an import ban on everything EXCEPT twinkies. ;)

Twinkies are imperialist food for greedy capitalist consumerist american gluttons.
http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/8846/rations.jpg

I was thinking just the other day about how great it would be to do some sort of crowdfunded operation where you make hundreds of thousands of USB keys with Liberte Linux or some similar setup, then covertly distribute them in places like north korea.

Nothing like getting shot at... And only in pyongyang is there wifi. Heavily monitored by the government.

Hmm... What kind of cell phone coverage infrastructure do they have? I suppose distributing satellite-internet-enabled devices would be prohibitively costly...

Still, there should be some sort of "save the koreans by giving them internet access" thing going on

That actually would be a good idea, maybe do one for multiple local rebel groups. Would be somewhat hard to smuggle in, especially if you wanted to direct it inside NK.

After connecting to the Internet for the first time in North Korea:
http://pixelsmashers.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Police-Raid.jpg

Only the ruling class, actually.  :) :D

My only knowledge of North Korea is that they want to bomb the US.
AND the citizens inhabiting in there are not allowed any sources of news other than just in North Korea, no internet.

Leaving the best to yourself, eh?

IF you start hashing you can get food aid :)

If North Korea was smart they would buy as much Bitcoin as possible.  Their currency is not worth much.

Also, they will not be able to counterfeit the new US $100 bills very easily:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2013/1008/New-100-bill-why-North-Korea-won-t-be-very-happy-video


I was hoping Kim Jong-Un, as a fan of Rodman (he at least likes some American sports!)  would embrace capitalism and create a more democratic society.  I guess the apple does not fall far from the tree, unfortunately.

They drop Bibles using helium filled ballons.  I am sure that USB keys could be distributed the same way.

The only problem:  Who actually even has computers there??? They would not even know what a USB stick is.  Then the propaganda would say that the devices were small bombs from the US or something.  ;)

The leaders of the US have great regard for North Korea as they are trying to emulate your country all the time.

Hahaha! Hadn't seen that before. Good read.

That's pretty much the same line of thought I had... Which led me to thinking of smartphones with an internet connection of some sort.

Check out the mock North Korean documentary "Propaganda!".

The premise is that Western civilised culture is weird and stifling, creating neurotic and despondent consumers who are blinded to the criminal behaviour of their governments through heavily propagandised newsmedia.

It's weird how our opinion of North Korea is basically the same, except you invert "neurotic and despondent consumers" to "jingoistic and compliant slaveworkers".

This: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2279306/ ?

I assume it has subs in the korean parts, right?

I've always found North Korea's propaganda fascinating, like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWrG7jzEZio

Now a full documentary!!  :P

Wow.  I love how on the Youtube clip the background music is "We are the World."  Such happy music as they show America being blown up. 

Hi-ya Kim!  The only notable thing I can think of about N. Korea is that there are some really pretty women in your military.

We can watch the entire made up documentary here: http://propagandafilm.net/

I am still not sure what to think of the film.  I guess it was not really done in North Korea but by a guy from New Zealand.  Does he really think America is that bad or is it just Satire?  I personally think that the movie distorts reality, just like the North Koreans would, to try to get the point across that our culture is bad.  We have so many freedoms here still compared to some places in the world though.

Stop joking around guys.
North Korea has a huge 1024 IP addresses and probably have many bitcoin users !

It's really interesting what can be done where something you know really well is cast in the most ugly and unflattering light, this Propaganda! film proves it rather concerningly. Of course, it does what it says on the tin, it's a propagandised view. But it's very close to the truth of the prevalent culture and society in the West, the majority of people do fall for all this bs at least at some point of their lives, and some never figure the manipulations out. Still not moving to North Korea any time soon, though.

Wow this is a really good documentary and it touches at all the points where USA is wrong on multiple levels
Vague slogans, media propoganda, new imperalism through globalization
Still watching through but worth recommending
The movie seeks out to do what it says it will do Propoganda and it does it well

You can, but you probably wouldn't want to.

This is an evil country.

No more words needed to describe it.

Just out of interest, how do you know?

Just watched Propaganda!, it is not what I was expecting, I know it's a mock documentary, but I actually agree with a LOT of things in there, a lot!

And of course, it's a deliberately 100% cynical view of the West, made by a westerner. I saw an interview with the guy who made it, and he started out wondering which country he was going to pretend it was coming from: Cuba, Iran or North Korea. He reasoned that North Korea was best, as no-one can reliably prove what the North Koreans do or don't think about any of this stuff. He mostly guessed about alot of things. The writer said his next project is to try and get into to North Korea, show the film to people and then ask them if it's accurate!

He done a very nice job, I was hoping to give a few laughs but it's not one of those mock documentaries.

Can you point to the interview?

I think people in North Korea don't know about reality shows and western celebrities and much of history, but let's see if the guy gets in there and grabs some testimonies...

Is it really a good idea to show the Propaganda move in North Korea?  They already hate us so it would just be adding fuel to fire.  Chances are they would love it and start playing it.  More reasons they want to nuke us?  Ummmm.  Please don't.

If not, why do they forbid basically anyone of their people to leave the country on his own?

It's known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or simply Korea - nobody in this country refers to it as 'North Korea'. You're not the real Kim Jong Un.

Yah, I don't think they hate us, it's a hostage situation there, like any other dictatorship, if they say they like something western they end up in the labor camps.


And from speaking with South Koreans or any other tourists...

But is it done for no other reason that the leadership are evil? I think not. Clearly they're being very controlling, but what's the reason for that? I suspect that "being evil" isn't even one of the reasons why the leadership have very tight controls in all sorts of areas.

Cite other North Korean government controls.

a) intended to be evil ? If not, what's the real intention?
b) even true at all? How do we know it's true, when the place is so strictly controlled?

It is the control and other actions that reveal the government as evil.  Intentions don't mean squat.

Yes they do, particularly if they achieve their aims. I'm not sure that you're imagining the fullest possible range of intentions here. How about: intending to preserve their society by way of aggressively removing any chance of outside influences? That's not control for it's own sake, or for some sadistic satisfaction, it's a very introspective and unambiguous way to keep external influences out. The Japanese did this for many centuries throughout the Middle Ages, until the West "liberated" them.