|
1402
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 23, 2014, 05:48:17 PM
|
But it isn't stealing, because those wallets never exist in the new chain. It is simply following the protocol. Now if he sells those coins (if possible but apparently not likely), the new owners are not going to agree to rollback of the block chain.
I assume this is common knowledge right? That is what TW attacks do correct?
That's one way it works. ArtForz introduced it as "A very profitable 51% attack". Though I don't know if it has been actually done in its full glory. Seems to me that it would be more common if it were that easy. Why not more common? TW takes significant resources to execute against a live chain or it will be simply discarded as insufficient difficulty. Most folks are less keen to exhaust resources in an attempt to destroy things than they are to create them, but it takes all kinds. This is especially true with the additional resilience added over the years to modern crypto code. There are a variety of potential effects depending on the peculiarities of the code and network: Difficulty adjustment manipulation Network congestion Coinbase wins and fostering 51% type effects are among these effects, and there may be others. Forking during such an event compounds the problems, as it reduces the effective mining until they are unified on a good chain, and done spinning resources on verifying that effort. |
|
|
|
|
1403
|
Economy / Speculation / Re: Gold collapsing. Bitcoin UP.
|
on: September 23, 2014, 02:55:24 PM
|
Peter Schiff still coming out very strongly against Bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMfoFlJhcck&list=UUIjuLiLHdFxYtFmWlbTGQRQNo valid arguments in the whole thing, but it does show his mindset pretty clearly. If you're still holding these bitcoins, DO NOT GO DOWN WITH THE SHIP. Go to my gold company, Schiff Gold... if you've got 30 or 40 bitcoins you can buy a few ounces of gold. At some point you may not be able to buy a pack of chewing gum with those bitcoins. LOL, Keep in mind who is on the other side of that trade for our "chewing gum money". (He is) |
|
|
|
|
1404
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 23, 2014, 02:52:31 PM
|
as far as XMR goes, even its supposed untraceability is being questioned, due to the linkability of transactions.
i am hopeful that these issues will be worked out, but i am not naive enough to believe that i can remain guy fawkes with my money just yet, nor do i do anything online or elsewhere that violates laws.
Anonymity will never be 100% absolute. It will always be probabilistic. This is why my recent contribution to CN might be important, as it can help quantify the anonymity we have with CN. Everyone sees everything PIR (e.g. Bitmessage) is the only absolute anonymity, but it can be DDOS'ed with message spam (Bitmessage being forced to abandon it now due to message spam). Zerocash is ontologically PIR if viewed from a certain representation transformation, except that the creator of the masterkey is not equal to all others. QFT 50 signatures of grey. |
|
|
|
|
1405
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 23, 2014, 02:37:20 PM
|
I understand CN's difficulty retarget throws away 20% of the "outliers". That is probably a vulnerability.
It is both a defense and a liability (for problem recovery). |
|
|
|
|
1406
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 23, 2014, 01:02:39 AM
|
Lol the devs said the wuld just sit, wait and watch
Shame on you. You should know better. |
|
|
|
|
1407
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 23, 2014, 12:56:05 AM
|
Can you elaborate a bit more?
Sure, I could elaborate a lot more, but am not inclined to do so here and now for reasons that should be obvious. I can only speak for myself, but with what I have seen so far, I am very pleased with what BCX's game may ultimately produce, win or lose. Personally, I see the threat as a serious one, and treat it like an unexpected red-team exercise. Been there done that, from both sides of the keyboard. All new coins with this modern design are vulnerable in the early days in this same way. The game has encouraged me to look deeper at some old ideas and to learn things some things that I didn't know previously. And so I've given what I learned to the XMR devs because I am grateful to the work they have done so far in this effort. I am hopeful that they will have the opportunity to make use if it in the time they have, but I know they are very busy. What I won't do is publish anything more broadly. At least not until this game has fully concluded. The devs however may do what they please. I'm old and slow and my coding skilz are as well. I was kicked upstairs into design and management years ago but I was not content to remain completely idle during this game. If these devs are able to do something amazing, they should get all the credit along with all the rest that are helping them (more folks than you might think). Other than this little contribution I don't have a lot to give, I'm just here along with the rest of you in the peanut gallery with a couple months salary at stake, but from where I stand, my little bit of XMR looks to be in very good hands. |
|
|
|
|
1408
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 22, 2014, 10:45:48 PM
|
It is possible that he has an accomplice that is the brains behind the operation and BCX has the means.
well it was weird how he announced it. that's how i know he isn't bluffing he said "i'm not gonna attack twice" then he changed his mind.  wanna know what dat means? he knows he can do it - he looked deeper and figured out then decided to  i still say it's timewarp or 51 ... not decrypting (lol) ring sigs and stealing wallets (rofl) I think that the devs very well understand the threat, the problem, the risk... and the solution. But do they have the time...? what do they need time for? don't they just need hashpower? Hashpower is very very helpful, but I understand they also have something more in mind. Something new. Something that may end this sort of TW threat for all nascent coins, forever, if they follow XMR's lead on it. I don't want to say much about it yet as it is still in review, and discussion on feasibility. Occasionally necessity is the mother of invention after all... when he father is dedicated brilliance. If this comes to fruition, I may end up thanking BCX for this game, once all is said and done. It has led me to look at things in a different way, and maybe there is a solution to a problem that has plagued crypto since 2011. |
|
|
|
|
1409
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 22, 2014, 09:47:37 PM
|
It is possible that he has an accomplice that is the brains behind the operation and BCX has the means.
well it was weird how he announced it. that's how i know he isn't bluffing he said "i'm not gonna attack twice" then he changed his mind. wanna know what dat means? he knows he can do it - he looked deeper and figured out then decided to i still say it's timewarp or 51 ... not decrypting (lol) ring sigs and stealing wallets (rofl) I think that the devs very well understand the threat, the problem, the risk... and the solution. But do they have the time...? |
|
|
|
|
1410
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 22, 2014, 07:50:36 PM
|
Maybe I'm in the minority about Moneroman88. But in my opinion it was easy to tell he was anti monero from the very beginning. At some point well before BCX telling everyone in the trollbox he was going to take XMR down - BCX KNEW this.
So. In my opinion BCX is pretending to be provoked by the fake XMR supporter.
What's actually going on is anyone's best guess.
This is a BS conspiracy theory. I'm all for XMR and I'm one of the few that know BCX is using his Proof of Words tactic (this is his sole skill), yet certainly not Proof of Action. It's all hot air, see for yourself. We'll all have a great laugh once his wannabe-Attack has failed miserably and Monero's triumph has become clear. On top of that we'll all have scooped up real cheap XMR, so that's one point to be grateful for. Thanks BCX, you retard! Moneroman88, you are the one that is only words. BCX mines and has contributed to the community for years, for better or worse. This is an example of the pot calling the daylight black. Stop. You are embarrassing yourself and adding only vitriol, no matter your intent. |
|
|
|
|
1411
|
Economy / Speculation / Re: Gold collapsing. Bitcoin UP.
|
on: September 22, 2014, 03:41:51 AM
|
James Rickards, a financier and author, says he sees potential in technologies that process faster, cheaper and more transparent exchanges that go beyond trading money. Companies using these new technologies, he says, "allow consumers to buy products or to send payments in seconds at a fraction of the cost" of regular currency.that's actually very good for him He's been increasingly positive on crypto currency. In sort of a cagey way, he mentioned it positively in his latest book too. He still sees gold as the endgame for the dollar though. He figures that when dollar hegemony fails, all the others will go with it and the US will be the first to issue a gold backed currency, and thereby regaining currency hegemony. Bitcoin is potentially a game changer though. If it progresses in time. |
|
|
|
|
1412
|
Economy / Economics / Re: The Export-Import Bank
|
on: September 21, 2014, 08:46:14 PM
|
The reason the government is involved in the export-import bank is because other countries could economically attack the US if they were to engage in a trade war. If a country (say China) were to get it's companies to order a lot of American products with no intention of paying for them nor taking delivery of them then the US government can use it's political influence to get this to stop and reverse this policy of China (in this scenario). The private sector would not be able to exert this influence.
The ex-im bank is in no way required for political action regarding this concern. If the ex-im bank is going to take a loss because a country is cancelling orders from US companies in mass, then the US government would likely contact the country via diplomatic channels to try to get these order cancellations to stop. I'm baffled as to why you think the government needs the ex-im bank for an excuse to do this. If this is the reason we need it, it is the flimsiest justification for it yet. Creating a intermediary bureaucracy so that it can lose money in order to give a reason for foreign policy action? Even the more obvious justification is better, as a means to extract donations from corporations to political campaigns, and a way to channel the extracted wealth of citizens to advance those interests. At least there is some perverse logic to that. It will not lose money. It can use the influence of the government to prevent it from losing money. Private sector insurers would not have this influence. That people think this is a good thing is also astounding.. How far we have fallen. How would this not be a good thing? The government protecting the american economy from foreign governments can only be a good thing unless you wish to see the economy fail/decline A few companies in the pockets of a few government employees !== the US economy. If the US economy is threatened, the ex-im bank is not a significant factor other than as a measurement tool. It should not be a government entity. It should not be subject to political influence and corruption. It is as wrong when we do it as when "the other guy" does it. Why be in a race to burn moral authority for no marginal gain and only increased moral hazards? |
|
|
|
|
1413
|
Other / Politics & Society / Re: Anyone following the ebola outbreak?
|
on: September 21, 2014, 08:34:34 PM
|
With an already severely compromised immune system, and the huge variation of blood borne diseases, there is nothing much helpful from doing this in this way.
The existence of any antibodies in the bought blood are not going to be helpful in the creation of the infected person's own antibodies.
It is more sympathetic magic than anything curative.
As a vaccine, that is a different matter, but you are giving yourself a disease (or several) that is likely just much better avoided.
There is one paper which shows that in some cases the blood transfusions may actually help to survive: http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/179/Supplement_1/S18.longHowever, the method was tested only with 8 patients: "because of the small number of patients studied and the lack of control subjects, we cannot conclude that the neutralizing antibodies in transfused convalescent blood improves the outcome for EHF patients." I would speculate that this would very well be the result of "good luck" on the part of the people who received the blood transfusions. It is said that ~50% of people that are infected with ebola will survive the disease. With such a small sample of people it would not be unrealistic to say that all of these 8 people would be part of the "lucky" 50% that survive. I'm guessing that this study was not done with blood bought off the street. Buying and transfusing blood from the "black market" (without even a SR-like rating system)? That is desperation. |
|
|
|
|
1414
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 21, 2014, 07:50:52 PM
|
What the heck? One of my VPS just threw this: [2014-09-21 19:40:51] Stratum detected new block
[2014-09-21 19:41:08] Pool set diff to 96483.6
[2014-09-21 19:41:08] Stratum detected new block
XMR going down like the TitanicXMR going down like the TitanicXMR going down like the Titanic^[[2014-09-21 19:43:08] Stratum connection timed out
[2014-09-21 19:43:08] Stratum connection interrupted
Maybe it's personal. (If only the Titanic had an icebreaker) |
|
|
|
|
1415
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 21, 2014, 07:24:41 PM
|
As for Risto, I know he values your input.
I thought so too when he gifted me 2 BTC. This time I don't think so. I feel like I am viewed as a trouble maker or feeding "the troll BCX". I strongly disagree with that assessment. He is seeking advice and knowledge in an uncertain time. I know your analysis is not being dismissed, not at all, just not factored in completely because it is not yet complete. I for one am certain you are not trolling and that you also have serious concerns, so I am looking at some similar things. And to how the effects of Nash equilibrium may mitigate the Sybil attacks on anonymity. This is one of the reasons for the urgency for translations clients and geographic diversity. It is not a perfect solution, but it can mitigate some effects. The weighting of this planning is done from consideration of your work and analysis, so I know it is being considered seriously. Looking forward to more when you are rested and ready to give it the concentration it would require. |
|
|
|
|
1416
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 21, 2014, 07:15:17 PM
|
MEW - Monero Economy Workgroup communication
A taskforce is set up to address the issue of a possible "BCX exploit", and an ultimatum by BCX to find and fix it in 72 hours lest a serious attack is launched upon Monero.
The taskforce consists of several Monero developers, AnonyMint, CZ, jl777 and me.
There are differing opinions in the taskforce concerning the severity of the threat. No coinkiller is yet found and several avenues are probed. The members who have technical competence are talking about their views themselves.
Regardless of the outcome in the technical side, this is a serious economic attack on Monero - about 15% of the pre-ultimatum value is lost, and there is a great information asymmetry plaguing traders currently. It is notable that nobody has offered to borrow XMR for shorting (which I could provide against full guarantee deposit of BTC). Neither has anyone bought the PUT options. This means that the downside speculation has so far been limited to selling out from a trader's own stash. An economically motivated player who knows for sure about a lethal attack might decide to take leverage for personal gain.
I believe that the Monero devs are up to their task and can mitigate the potential exploit, and fix the code in preparation of the announced attack. I further believe that Monero will rise even stronger. Since I am not in possession of any knowledge that indicates that a realistic attack could take place, I can only estimate the probability that it exists unnoticed, and my estimate is 4-8%.
The MEW will be inaugurated on Tuesday, and also the devteam has important announcements (not related to the attack). Provided that our coin still exists, I am sure we have a great future ahead of us as a community with these new methods of organizing our activities for the mutual benefit.
His prior version of that which he sent to us in a PM stated that I had not discovered anything that smooth and fluffy had not already known. And that he trusts them more than me (and jl777). That irked me, because smooth knows I had not given him anything final and was in a mad rush to characterize and refine my understanding of ability to break the anonymity. It irked me not only because he said that to us, but because apparently fluffy and or smooth rushed to tell him that "he found nothing", without giving me time to sleep, wake up and digest their whitepaper and finish refining my anonymity attack algorithm. Couple that with the posts fluffy made as I awoke today, and I am sorry but I don't think these guys are respectful. Doesn't feel right to me. I am doing sleep deprivation and they are busy dissing me behind my back. Who is in charge? Sounds like fluffy and smooth are? No one is in charge really. As for Risto, I know he values your input. Fluffy and Smooth are also among the advisers that Risto is listening to wrt monero. I think he is also listening to your advice and is still awaiting something more conclusive to have analyzed. I've looked at parts of where you are going with it, but you are ahead of me still on it. Some decisions he probably made with too little information, but that is the nature of deciding. When the time comes, you have to decide. |
|
|
|
|
1417
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 21, 2014, 05:05:06 PM
|
Trolling 101: This is the message you can send if you get any response. If you don't get a response, keep going, but add that they are unresponsive and uncaring. Cycle as needed. Yeah wtf? These devs are here arguing and crying like babies. This is totally unprofessional.
Why would anyone want to invest in a bunch of hotheads?
|
|
|
|
|
1418
|
Alternate cryptocurrencies / Altcoin Discussion / Re: I lost faith in rpietila's Monero Pump
|
on: September 21, 2014, 04:32:47 PM
|
I think I know what the mitigation is for anonymity aspect of the exploit. I will tell you I think it can be fixed going into the future, but we can't restore the anonymity from the past. It is fucked. Meaning if you thought you were anonymous you were not. The NSA can compute the intersections.
The best we could do (if I am correct) is to quickly checkpoint the code and get it out to 51% of the miners so we can prevent BCX's Time Warp attack. But fluffypony says we don't have to do anything rushed and he is at beach any way.
Then we put the mitigation in place so the future anonymity isn't broken.
However my mitigation proposal may still fail in the future when the attacker (NSA?) owns many inputs to many rings on the block chain. I haven't gotten that far in my very rushed analysis. So maybe I can devise a solution (but unlikely because I won't know which inputs the attacker owns) or it doesn't scale well for the attacker (our best hope but I am not optimistic).
So I would say yes ring signatures may be doomed, but I am not sure yet. Maybe not also. I hope not.
If only XMR was affected, there is one of my emotions that would love to see it destroyed. But on rational thought, I don't want to hurt the innocent parties who invested, some of whom are my friends (including but not just Rpietila).
So: Checkpoint the block chain, periodically but unpredictably. And: Consider whether the ring signature NSA sybil issue you've contemplated is mitigated through Nash equilibrium effects? (Unraveling the privacy is complicated by multiple uncooperative entities attempting it, the more the merrier.) TOR has the same concern, though a less effective implementation due to resources. Further consider the extent to which initiating such sybiling enriches mining efforts and further secures the coin. The current plans for extending geographic diversity in userbase will also assist. |
|
|
|
|
1419
|
Other / Archival / Re: delete
|
on: September 20, 2014, 10:09:15 PM
|
|
Well, I may just fire up some XMR miners this weekend.
Just to make it cost BCX a bit more to try this.
So long as he doesn't go off early, this can make it more expensive.
He's not the only one that can light up a datacenter.
|
|
|
|
|
1420
|
Economy / Economics / Re: The Export-Import Bank
|
on: September 20, 2014, 08:00:43 PM
|
The reason the government is involved in the export-import bank is because other countries could economically attack the US if they were to engage in a trade war. If a country (say China) were to get it's companies to order a lot of American products with no intention of paying for them nor taking delivery of them then the US government can use it's political influence to get this to stop and reverse this policy of China (in this scenario). The private sector would not be able to exert this influence.
The ex-im bank is in no way required for political action regarding this concern. If the ex-im bank is going to take a loss because a country is cancelling orders from US companies in mass, then the US government would likely contact the country via diplomatic channels to try to get these order cancellations to stop. I'm baffled as to why you think the government needs the ex-im bank for an excuse to do this. If this is the reason we need it, it is the flimsiest justification for it yet. Creating a intermediary bureaucracy so that it can lose money in order to give a reason for foreign policy action? Even the more obvious justification is better, as a means to extract donations from corporations to political campaigns, and a way to channel the extracted wealth of citizens to advance those interests. At least there is some perverse logic to that. It will not lose money. It can use the influence of the government to prevent it from losing money. Private sector insurers would not have this influence. That people think this is a good thing is also astounding.. How far we have fallen. |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
