Snowden Says Bitcoin is Flawed

[shorena]

I would have expected him to use some of his copious spare time to actually research the topic if he was giving an ietf interview.
'Course the interviewer may have played loose with the quotes. I couldn't find audio or video anywhere....

Use the source:

transcript: https://gist.github.com/mnot/382aca0b23b6bf082116#bitcoin
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NvsUXBCeVA

Snowden is basically avoiding an answer on the question, which was

...but the metadata and the correlation...but the big thing might be for money.

So what about Bitcoin or things like Bitcoin that says at least the market transactions get anonymized when...
Edward Snowden: So, the Bitcoin thing is – I mean this is – nobody really likes to talk about Bitcoin anymore.

If you read the whole transcript or watch the whole video up to this point you will see that Snowdens main points are not money, but larger in scale. If you have an Internet where the is no connection to your person you dont have to worry about a specific service like bitcoin beeing anonymous.

If you take the specific point that you can pay for things without allowing a correlation to your person "bitcoin or things like bitcoin" already allow that, regardless of the correlation that your IP address might allow.

[MF Doom]

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

These days you never know, but you know what they say, "Once CIA, always CIA".
Some don't know this but he worked for the cia as a computer systems admin.
 

BUT, I don't think the us gvt would willingly let these classified documents out just so he could get access to russia.  His leaks have greatly hurt the rapidly growing spy grid that they are building.  It brought to light too many of the programs they have going on.    I think there are MUCH more discreet ways they can operate.

[Carlton Banks]

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

These days you never know, but you know what they say, "Once CIA, always CIA".
Some don't know this but he worked for the cia as a computer systems admin. 

Straight out of high school, apparently.

[Stargazer]

That guy is just an idiot, plain and simple

No, he just needs to learn a bit more about Bitcoin. He's a smart guy, but every smart guy needs to read for a bit before he takes this or that side in a conversation.
We have yet to see how this fork works out and then the halving. If Bitcoin keeps standing strong 12 months from now he'll change his opinion.

[AGD]

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

These days you never know, but you know what they say, "Once CIA, always CIA".
Some don't know this but he worked for the cia as a computer systems admin.
 

BUT, I don't think the us gvt would willingly let these classified documents out just so he could get access to russia.  His leaks have greatly hurt the rapidly growing spy grid that they are building.  It brought to light too many of the programs they have going on.    I think there are MUCH more discreet ways they can operate.

You are possibly right. I still think it's a good tactic, though.

[MF Doom]

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

well, that guy is spot on.  I guess "predictive programming" is what I was getting at, and it's been around a LOT longer than just the last 15-20 years.

Amazing that hollywood references to the NSA go back to before the agency was even publically know about! And apparently that is the same for the CIA/MI6, they appeared in novels and movies before being publically acknowledged...

Kind of makes you wonder what really happened to tom clancy, apparently his books were too spot on, and someone didn't like it...

[Carlton Banks]

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

well, that guy is spot on.  I guess "predictive programming" is what I was getting at, and it's been around a LOT longer than just the last 15-20 years.

Tom Secker has emotional/ego problems. That affects people's perception of him (well, mine at least), but it doesn't appear to affect his analytical abilities; he's frequently very astute. Check out his other work if that series interests you, the guy he co-presents CIA and Hollywood with (Pearse Redmond) is also one of the best spycraft journalists (and doesn't make a public display of his character flaws).

Amazing that hollywood references to the NSA go back to before the agency was even publically know about! And apparently that is the same for the CIA/MI6, they appeared in novels and movies before being publically acknowledged...

"No Such Agency" is one of their little in-jokes.

[Slunt]

So what about Bitcoin or things like Bitcoin that says at least the market transactions get anonymized when...
Edward Snowden: So, the Bitcoin thing is – I mean this is – nobody really likes to talk about Bitcoin anymore.

[/quote]

Nobody's talking about it? Who does he mean by nobody? I think plenty of people are still talking about it but sure its still pretty underground right now.

[Carlton Banks]

So what about Bitcoin or things like Bitcoin that says at least the market transactions get anonymized when...
Edward Snowden: So, the Bitcoin thing is – I mean this is – nobody really likes to talk about Bitcoin anymore.

Nobody's talking about it? Who does he mean by nobody? I think plenty of people are still talking about it but sure its still pretty underground right now.

Indeed, no-ones talking, although he's happy to give it some air-time. Surely a genuine non-event requires zero discussion at all, eh Ed?  

[MF Doom]

Tom Secker has emotional/ego problems. That affects people's perception of him (well, mine at least), but it doesn't appear to affect his analytical abilities; he's frequently very astute. Check out his other work if that series interests you, the guy he co-presents CIA and Hollywood with (Pearse Redmond) is also one of the best spycraft journalists (and doesn't make a public display of his character flaws).

he does seem to be pretty astute with his analysis, nothing over the top like some "alternative" analysts can be.

Once you are awoken to this kind of stuff it's hard NOT to notice it in a lot of movies.  One example is Iron Man 3.  I saw it a while back and then of course isis starts coming out with their highly edited and almost hollywood style HD video releases.  I immediately thought back to the "Mandarin" in iron man 3, who really was nothign more than a boogey-man actor who was used to put out videos to scare the public into submission.  It just lined up too perfecly with whats currently going on

[countryfree]

I'm surprised there's still someone scaring people with the risk of a 51% attack.
I wish someone could calculate the probability of such an event. What's the likeliness of a 51% to occur tomorrow? What's the likeliness of this attack to be successful? I don't deny the risk. It is real, but it's a very small risk.

[Velkro]

He is obv. no Bitcoin expert.

Yeah, many people working on this "bitcoin flaws" to adress them in best way

[Carlton Banks]

BUT, I don't think the us gvt would willingly let these classified documents out just so he could get access to russia.  His leaks have greatly hurt the rapidly growing spy grid that they are building.  It brought to light too many of the programs they have going on.    I think there are MUCH more discreet ways they can operate.

Here's my take.

You're the government. You've been recording as much telephone data as you can since the 1980's (when analogue telephone exchanges were phased out). You've been running analysis on the telephone data for years: auto-dictation, behavioural patterns, social connections, voice recognition etc. You can't make use of all of it. Because that would involve admitting to what you've been up to. But you want to use it. So, how do you announce it to the citizenry?

[MF Doom]

BUT, I don't think the us gvt would willingly let these classified documents out just so he could get access to russia.  His leaks have greatly hurt the rapidly growing spy grid that they are building.  It brought to light too many of the programs they have going on.    I think there are MUCH more discreet ways they can operate.

Here's my take.

You're the government. You've been recording as much telephone data as you can since the 1980's (when analogue telephone exchanges were phased out). You've been running analysis on the telephone data for years: auto-dictation, behavioural patterns, social connections, voice recognition etc. You can't make use of all of it. Because that would involve admitting to what you've been up to. But you want to use it. So, how do you announce it to the citizenry?

To be honest, it seems like their way of doing business is flat out deny deny deny anything and everything (just like when Clapper lied directly to congress about the NSA spying)
http://www.hasjamesclapperbeenindictedyet.com/

Then after many years (even 50 years in the case of the mk ultra/lsd human experiments) you declassify the documents in the least noticible way, and say well here it is!

I think it is possible hes still CIA/intelligence, but it just seems like these people are too egotistical to go this far in terms of hurting their public image as "leaders".

[AGD]

This off topic is becoming more interesting than the original one...

[MF Doom]

This off topic is becoming more interesting than the original one...

yup, the more you dig into this intelligence stuff, the more you realize how strange (but real) it is.  Amazingly, this story just coming out is about AT&T's "extreme willingness" to help out the NSA:

https://www.rt.com/news/312567-nsa-spy-un-internet/

The line from enemy of the state says it all "the gvt has been in bed with the telecommunications industry for the last 40 years".  That was from 1998, so this isn't exactly new info, its just being 100% confirmed and widely reported now.

[AGD]

This off topic is becoming more interesting than the original one...

yup, the more you dig into this intelligence stuff, the more you realize how strange (but real) it is.  Amazingly, this story just coming out is about AT&T's "extreme willingness" to help out the NSA:

https://www.rt.com/news/312567-nsa-spy-un-internet/

The line from enemy of the state says it all "the gvt has been in bed with the telecommunications industry for the last 40 years".  That was from 1998, so this isn't exactly new info, its just being 100% confirmed and widely reported now.

Well, I brought up this idea of Snowden beeing a covert op for a reason. I mean, look how happy the Russians were to get their hands on this load of "secret" information. The US could sit back, relax and watch the Russians take the bait.

[MF Doom]

This off topic is becoming more interesting than the original one...

yup, the more you dig into this intelligence stuff, the more you realize how strange (but real) it is.  Amazingly, this story just coming out is about AT&T's "extreme willingness" to help out the NSA:

https://www.rt.com/news/312567-nsa-spy-un-internet/

The line from enemy of the state says it all "the gvt has been in bed with the telecommunications industry for the last 40 years".  That was from 1998, so this isn't exactly new info, its just being 100% confirmed and widely reported now.

Well, I brought up this idea of Snowden beeing a covert op for a reason. I mean, look how happy the Russians were to get their hands on this load of "secret" information. The US could sit back, relax and watch the Russians take the bait.

yeah, I guess stranger things have happened.  Recognize anyone from this picture?

This is Vladimir Putin in his days with the KGB, posing as a photographer...

[AGD]

Yeah, and this is the other guy: