Snowden Says Bitcoin is Flawed

[TinEye]

he just want to drive attention to some of his future proposal, every flaw in bitcoin can be fixed easily in  the future, they are not a major flaw that make bitcoin insecure or unusable
also he talk about a lot of weakness but he mentioned only the 51% attack, and this attack is not a real weakness because it isn't really attainable without great loss

i think he is one of those that lost the early adopter train and he is butthurt

[harrymmmm]

he just want to drive attention to some of his future proposal, every flaw in bitcoin can be fixed easily in  the future, they are not a major flaw that make bitcoin insecure or unusable
also he talk about a lot of weakness but he mentioned only the 51% attack, and this attack is not a real weakness because it isn't really attainable without great loss

i think he is one of those that lost the early adopter train and he is butthurt

I think the other weakness he was referring to was the ease with which 'personas' (pseudonyms/bitcoin addresses) can be linked together and to a persons real identity. He's got a point there too.

[Elwar]

As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more.

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

[Dire]

He is obv. no Bitcoin expert.

even though you are right, but, what would you say if what he said "bitcoin's flaw" was proven?
now, what is your evidence that what he just said is no legitimacy?

You do realize how many millions of dollars it requires to perform a 51% percent attack, no? It's barely feasible. And even if it does occur, it's still going to have to deal with the chance that the other side/group/chain may pull together that extra 1/2/3 % or whatever to keep a particular chain of consensus.

Look at the Bitcoin XT deal. It needs to hit 75% before anyone will really get anywhere. A 51% attack in no way implies that the attack will succeed.

The evidence that what Snowden says has (virtually) no legitimacy is that he displays deep ignorance about the Bitcoin protocol in other things he throws out there, namely that there is an identity issue with Bitcoin, when there's only an identity issue because people keep using their identity to get Bitcoin.

Create some other token - like he says - and then we can apparently do lots of things. Erm. No. That would be the Bitcoin blockchain potential already that he's just mentioned.

Like others have pointed out, he should have done his research. Really he should have.

I will say one thing though... I do find the Obama commissioning a supercomputer to be worrying, I have to admit.

i don't wanna war with you, dude.
at the red words, as the people left their XT node wallet due to the blockchain matter, people would start using the online wallet.
did you realise that the XT is used to centralise the power of bitcoin and get it to regulate? unless we would not be in struggle with the excessive blockchain size, otherwise, 75% attacks would be just a piece of cake.

Okay, perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned the XT thing as that's a whole different topic and there are plenty of threads about that. My point was simply that a 51% attack is a huge endeavor in the first place and no small thing.

[Carlton Banks]

As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more.

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

Elwar, as a defense intellignce guy, how do you greet the claims the Snowden isn't a genuine whistleblower? Is it really credible that a defense intelligence contractor was attending key-swapping parties with high-ups in the Tor Project on Hawaii, immediately prior to his escape to Hong Kong? Communicating via email with these people using his "esnowden" LavaBit account? Would a Booz Allen Hamilton employee not attract attention to themselves behaving like that?

[MF Doom]

As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more.

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

I still cannot figure out why Snowden is portrayed as the one to out all the NSA secrets.  I mean yes he had the actual documents that detailed the NSA programs, but the knowledge of these programs was somewhat out already.

Watch the movie "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith from 1998.  It shows how the NSA can and will use anything and everything to spy/track people.  Phones, email, cameras, etc.  And this was almost 20 years ago.  I watched it recently and was blown away once I realized it came 15 years before snowdens leaks.

[Elwar]

As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more.

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

Elwar, as a defense intellignce guy, how do you greet the claims the Snowden isn't a genuine whistleblower? Is it really credible that a defense intelligence contractor was attending key-swapping parties with high-ups in the Tor Project on Hawaii, immediately prior to his escape to Hong Kong? Communicating via email with these people using his "esnowden" LavaBit account? Would a Booz Allen Hamilton employee not attract attention to themselves behaving like that?

Hadn't heard about anything about that but defense contractors do all sorts of things outside of work that everyone else does. As long as you're not giving out classified information or doing drugs/breaking laws you can live your life.

[Bitcoin.ProGambler]

snowden is right but as share holders view because bears effect the markets very negatively. so its not good for normal people daily use. if price move 15 to 30 usd daily up and down everyday it would be much more inflation than normal currency

[Carlton Banks]

As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more.

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

Elwar, as a defense intellignce guy, how do you greet the claims the Snowden isn't a genuine whistleblower? Is it really credible that a defense intelligence contractor was attending key-swapping parties with high-ups in the Tor Project on Hawaii, immediately prior to his escape to Hong Kong? Communicating via email with these people using his "esnowden" LavaBit account? Would a Booz Allen Hamilton employee not attract attention to themselves behaving like that?

Hadn't heard about anything about that but defense contractors do all sorts of things outside of work that everyone else does. As long as you're not giving out classified information or doing drugs/breaking laws you can live your life.

What, everyday things like going to key-signing parties with significant members of the Tor Project? Arranged by email?

[Brad Harrison]

That guy is just an idiot, plain and simple

[MF Doom]

What about the fact that any given billionaire could single handedly buy up enough btc to essentially control the market forever?  (at least at the current price being under $260)

If someone wanted to buy a few million btc they hypothetically could.  That combined with all of the coins being "lost" (including all the ones from mt gox) and the ones owned by "satoshi" could equal a large chunk of the btc in existance, and if enough are bought up/taken out of circulation I think that could be a major issue too.

[Scream]

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, Mosaic was the first browser ... anyone still using Mosaic? Crypto is rapidly evolving, but bitcoin isn't - too many people have become heavily invested in bitcoin as it stands and change is not wanted unless it clearly impacts the price ... this means bitcoin will continue to stagnate. There are many interesting alternatives out there ... do the math.

[gentlemand]

What about the fact that any given billionaire could single handedly buy up enough btc to essentially control the market forever?  (at least at the current price being under $260)

Then everyone could take said billionaire's billions, and I'm pretty sure the last few coin owners would charge tens or hundreds of millions each, and abandon BTC and start anew if it clear that the whole thing had been cornered.

[MUFC]

As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more.

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

I still cannot figure out why Snowden is portrayed as the one to out all the NSA secrets.  I mean yes he had the actual documents that detailed the NSA programs, but the knowledge of these programs was somewhat out already.

Watch the movie "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith from 1998.  It shows how the NSA can and will use anything and everything to spy/track people.  Phones, email, cameras, etc.  And this was almost 20 years ago.  I watched it recently and was blown away once I realized it came 15 years before snowdens leaks.

Enemy of the State is a fiction film, not a documentary. Might as well use The Interview as an example of what's going on in North Korea. I think it was more of a conspiracy theory before the Snowden revelations (and sometimes conspiracy theories turn out to be true). The USG was denying it collected such info right up until he leaked the info.

[MF Doom]

As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more.

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

I still cannot figure out why Snowden is portrayed as the one to out all the NSA secrets.  I mean yes he had the actual documents that detailed the NSA programs, but the knowledge of these programs was somewhat out already.

Watch the movie "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith from 1998.  It shows how the NSA can and will use anything and everything to spy/track people.  Phones, email, cameras, etc.  And this was almost 20 years ago.  I watched it recently and was blown away once I realized it came 15 years before snowdens leaks.

Enemy of the State is a fiction film, not a documentary. Might as well use The Interview as an example of what's going on in North Korea. I think it was more of a conspiracy theory before the Snowden revelations (and sometimes conspiracy theories turn out to be true). The USG was denying it collected such info right up until he leaked the info.

yes, I know it was a work of fiction, but my point is that it was 100% correct in the ways it depicted the phone tapping, email monitoring, cell phone gps tracking, etc that the NSA is capable of doing, and does to their surveillance targets (and the general public whenever they want).  The writers weren't just guessing as to what the NSA was capable of, the knowledge was out there, just no one had the actual documents to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Now the documetns are out there (a small fraction of them?), so the gvt can no longer deny what it is doing.

[Carlton Banks]

I still cannot figure out why Snowden is portrayed as the one to out all the NSA secrets.  I mean yes he had the actual documents that detailed the NSA programs, but the knowledge of these programs was somewhat out already.

Watch the movie "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith from 1998.  It shows how the NSA can and will use anything and everything to spy/track people.  Phones, email, cameras, etc.  And this was almost 20 years ago.  I watched it recently and was blown away once I realized it came 15 years before snowdens leaks.

Enemy of the State is a fiction film, not a documentary. Might as well use The Interview as an example of what's going on in North Korea. I think it was more of a conspiracy theory before the Snowden revelations (and sometimes conspiracy theories turn out to be true). The USG was denying it collected such info right up until he leaked the info.

yes, I know it was a work of fiction, but my point is that it was 100% correct in the ways it depicted the phone tapping, email monitoring, cell phone gps tracking, etc that the NSA is capable of doing, and does to their surveillance targets (and the general public whenever they want).  The writers weren't just guessing as to what the NSA was capable of, the knowledge was out there, just no one had the actual documents to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Now the documetns are out there (a small fraction of them?), so the gvt can no longer deny what it is doing.

In the "Making of..." bonus DVD feature, it's stated that the Enemy of the State production team employed actual NSA technical consultants to get all the surveillance capabilities correct. I can't remember whether the film was one of so, so many that was directly funded by the CIA, but even if it isn't officially attributed that way (as so many Hollywood films are), it's heavily suspected of being such a production (i.e. CIA propa-tainment).

Check out the "The CIA and Hollywood" documentaries here: https://vimeo.com/tomsecker

[MF Doom]

I still cannot figure out why Snowden is portrayed as the one to out all the NSA secrets.  I mean yes he had the actual documents that detailed the NSA programs, but the knowledge of these programs was somewhat out already.

Watch the movie "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith from 1998.  It shows how the NSA can and will use anything and everything to spy/track people.  Phones, email, cameras, etc.  And this was almost 20 years ago.  I watched it recently and was blown away once I realized it came 15 years before snowdens leaks.

Enemy of the State is a fiction film, not a documentary. Might as well use The Interview as an example of what's going on in North Korea. I think it was more of a conspiracy theory before the Snowden revelations (and sometimes conspiracy theories turn out to be true). The USG was denying it collected such info right up until he leaked the info.

yes, I know it was a work of fiction, but my point is that it was 100% correct in the ways it depicted the phone tapping, email monitoring, cell phone gps tracking, etc that the NSA is capable of doing, and does to their surveillance targets (and the general public whenever they want).  The writers weren't just guessing as to what the NSA was capable of, the knowledge was out there, just no one had the actual documents to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Now the documetns are out there (a small fraction of them?), so the gvt can no longer deny what it is doing.

In the "Making of..." bonus DVD feature, it's stated that the Enemy of the State production team employed actual NSA technical consultants to get all the surveillance capabilities correct. I can't remember whether the film was one of so, so many that was directly funded by the CIA, but even if it isn't officially attributed that way (as so many Hollywood films are), it's heavily suspected of being such a production (i.e. CIA propa-tainment).

Check out the "The CIA and Hollywood" documentaries here: https://vimeo.com/tomsecker

I agree, it seemed almost too accurate to not have direct nsa input.  And the more I research about the CIA, the more I wonder how certain things make way into movies.

I'd have to say yeah, its definitely a form of propaganda.  Like they can put all the NSA stuff into that movie, and so when people hear about those spying capabilities being abused they associate it with a work of fiction, and it doesn't exactly register as somehting they need to be worried about.  I think they have a way of foreshadowing things like that, so it subconsciously is known to people, and doesn't really shock or surprise most people.

I think they must have a lot of influence with how the military is portrayed in movies as well, not to mention the heavy military propaganda you see in any sporting event, especially football games.

[Elwar]

As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more.

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

Elwar, as a defense intellignce guy, how do you greet the claims the Snowden isn't a genuine whistleblower? Is it really credible that a defense intelligence contractor was attending key-swapping parties with high-ups in the Tor Project on Hawaii, immediately prior to his escape to Hong Kong? Communicating via email with these people using his "esnowden" LavaBit account? Would a Booz Allen Hamilton employee not attract attention to themselves behaving like that?

Hadn't heard about anything about that but defense contractors do all sorts of things outside of work that everyone else does. As long as you're not giving out classified information or doing drugs/breaking laws you can live your life.

What, everyday things like going to key-signing parties with significant members of the Tor Project? Arranged by email?

I didn't know Tor was illegal. I meet up with members of the Bitcoin project and there has been some illegal activity using bitcoins.

Hawaii probably has a small nerd community and there are a lot of military folks there in the shitty part of Hawaii (from what I heard) where he worked. So I'm sure the social circles are pretty small.

[AGD]

Offtopic: Has someone thought about Snowden beeing an US spy, released to gain the enemies trust with these documents?

[Carlton Banks]

As someone who works in the same field as Snowden used to,

Tell us more.

Just listen to Ron Paul, he's been telling everyone his whole career what's going on. Snowden ruined his life for nothing.

Elwar, as a defense intellignce guy, how do you greet the claims the Snowden isn't a genuine whistleblower? Is it really credible that a defense intelligence contractor was attending key-swapping parties with high-ups in the Tor Project on Hawaii, immediately prior to his escape to Hong Kong? Communicating via email with these people using his "esnowden" LavaBit account? Would a Booz Allen Hamilton employee not attract attention to themselves behaving like that?

Hadn't heard about anything about that but defense contractors do all sorts of things outside of work that everyone else does. As long as you're not giving out classified information or doing drugs/breaking laws you can live your life.

What, everyday things like going to key-signing parties with significant members of the Tor Project? Arranged by email?

I didn't know Tor was illegal. I meet up with members of the Bitcoin project and there has been some illegal activity using bitcoins.

Hawaii probably has a small nerd community and there are a lot of military folks there in the shitty part of Hawaii (from what I heard) where he worked. So I'm sure the social circles are pretty small.

No, Tor is not illegal and I didn't say that it was. I wasn't talking about Tor itself, I was talking about this small circle of Hawaiins that you refer to.

Is it really credible that Snowden was moving in high circles with all these types, and wasn't himself subject to close scrutiny? The kind of scrutiny that makes defecting to Russia a delicate manoeuvre?