[ANN] Decentralization,privacy prjct. Seeking philanthropists excitd abt freedom

[a.s.t.e.r.i.s.k]

(* Moderator please also note the bottom of this message)


11 April 2020, Easter

Dear Community,

Please find here attached the public call for philanthropic funding for the world's most groundbreaking and decisive work for decentralization and privacy:

Letter (2 A4 pages): http://www.asterisk.fyi/2020-04-11_-_Public_Call_For_Philanthropic_Funding.pdf

Appendix (3 A4 pages): http://www.asterisk.fyi/2020-04-11_-_Public_Call_For_Philanthropic_Funding_-_Appendix.pdf


During this time of pandemic global lockdown crisis, when the need for both truth and trust could never be more obvious, I am humbled to bring you this humanitarian project for your consideration. We are confident it will have a lasting global impact and we hope you will find it worthy.

We're a small team committed to advancing humanity's rights and needs for privacy. I view the need for this non-profit major project as urgent and important for all of humanity. I am asking your help to please forward this work to capable philanthropists committed to making a meaningful and lasting difference in our world.

After devoting over 9,000 hours of work towards this humanitarian goal, we have reached the stage that philanthropic support will bring us over the tipping point we need to bring stability and scale. We are hopeful this quest for support will find its way to capable people who want to make a difference. Our main focus is for the work to have a lasting global impact, stretching decades into the future. We hope you will share our vision. Your support will make a historical difference that will serve future generations.

(Pseudonym)
contact@asterisk.fyi

For donation address please contact us, also http://www.asterisk.fyi/transfer.html

PS: Send us an email or PM if you would like to receive future updates.


FAQ

1. Why should I care?
Because you and your children and grandchildren are owned by Facebook, Google Mail, Instagram, TikTok, etc., forever. This is a work to offset and dismantle your digital slavery.

2. Is this an ICO?
No. In contrast with several blockchain genre organizations such as Ethereum and EOS, Asterisk does not issue a private, proprietary token or coin. I want to emphasize, again, that Asterisk is a non-profit team with a humanitarian mission. We have installed no trojan horses and there is no present or future proprietary 'gas' or 'token' that users will ever be required to own to enrich the creators. Please refer to the letter and appendix for further discussion.

3. Why are you making this call at this time and why are there not more details?
Asterisk is a work that is existential to not only us but our children and grandchildren. We like details of the work to remain inhouse for now since the work is pre-release. Asterisk is a public standard and the release process is expected to start about 16 months after this round of philanthropic contributions.

4. Who is this message for?
Someone who likes to make a positive difference through philanthropy by monetary contributions. Participation of other kinds will be greatly appreciated and if you like to help we ask you to please message us, and include your skills/CV/works. We will collect all of these and follow up in due course. Right now we have more than ten thousand man hours of formalization and software work inhouse ahead. Public outreach and community building is coming. We who are running this project are making the best of time available at this stage and various social relations will land more the next years.

5. What is the expected outcome?
Currently, that some seasoned philanthropists get in touch and contribute.

6. How can it be that the vision sounds so grandiose?
Because we are more genuine and have more expertise than blockchain projects have. We proceed with ethics to serve humanity, and this is why we do not make a greed-driven ICO but instead ask respectfully for philanthropist contributions to do this right and so really contribute altruistically and lastingly.

7. How does this work relate to Bitcoin?
It uses Bitcoin payments. There is a lot of detail to cover later.



* Moderator: Please note that this is a Bitcoin genre project that uses Bitcoin for payments. This is not an altcoin. Alas "Bitcoin Discussion: General discussion about the Bitcoin ecosystem that doesn't fit better elsewhere. News, the Bitcoin community, innovations, the general environment, etc." is the correct classification of this thread.

This thread is a philanthropy call more than a project announcement, that may be reason for it to be in "Bitcoin Discussion" rather than in "Bitcoin Projects".

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[amishmanish]

With that non-https address and a domain sounding like straight out of some psycho-thriller (Zodiac??), I doubt many people would be inspired enough to click those links and download the whole thing. Maybe take screenshots and put up an image link. Someone can re-post it for you.

Also, Is it just me or you are intentionally making this sound like parody??

EDIT: Our conversation started because i told him that people may not want to click on a non-https link to download those documents. In reply, he shared screenshots of the letter which i am reproducing below. This is for the willing philanthropist. If any of you are out there, then maybe the post will reach you and of course, you can think for yourself.

Letter p1:


Letter p2:


Appendix p1:


Appendix p2:


Appendix p3:



IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I, amishmanish, am not involved with the organization asterisk in anyway. I have no way to verify if they are legit or not. I just picked a thread in their conversation and received a PM from them resulting in a bit of conversation. In my defence, I can only say that I am a sucker for world-changing ideas and anonymous founders..After all, this is still Satoshi's forum, right?

Peace!

[a.s.t.e.r.i.s.k]

Hi amishmanish,

Thanks for picking up the conversation.

Your comment does not express appreciation. With more insight you would realize that your response is way below standard, however this forum is a coarse social surface with very limited trust, necessarily shared values and such, so as such I don't blame you for coming from a very low expectation in approaching posts.

I find there to be unending amounts of junk in the wider Bitcoin and blockchain communities so indeed these are very polluted waters, e.g. EOS and the list goes on and on and on.

Non-https is fine for a codenamed project's publication of one document. Please feel free to post the img tags, that's fine.

Asterisk

[a.s.t.e.r.i.s.k]

(This thread was mistakenly moved to the incorrect section "Altcoin Discussion" [1] (subsection Announcements) by the moderator. Asterisk is not an altcoin. Now moved back to the correct section "Bitcoin Discussion" [2].

[1] Described as "Discussion of cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. Note that discussion of how these currencies *relate to* Bitcoin may fit in other categories."
[2] Described as "General discussion about the Bitcoin ecosystem that doesn't fit better elsewhere. News, the Bitcoin community, innovations, the general environment, etc.".)

[amishmanish]

I have been engaging with asterisk via PM. It seems quite obvious that people do not want to believe any "initiative" in the crypto-world anymore, least of all something coming off anonymously and promising the world. According to them, they are not asking for donations right now. They are looking to be personally contacted by someone who is into "philanthropic investing". I am not sure these kind of people exist on the forum anymore, yet in the hope that they do, an anonymous founder can try this, right?

In their words via PM:

We are not at all in the meaty greed game of EOS, Tron, Cosmos and couple-thousand friends, also including Ethereum.

I'll need to trust that the right person discerns Asterisk and initiates personal contact to do his own conclusions and partner, if not it was "not intended to happen".

emphasis mine

On my skepticism about sharing "vision" with the community in today's time when our altcoin section is filled with a new vision all the time, the thoughts expressed are the following:

If words have lost their meaning, then indeed the letter and announcement we published is in vain.


I do suggest that an intuitive person can access what is actually going on, both through accessing the intention and truth in text, and also by a kind of general gutfeeling.

-snip--

This post is not for an average, random geek or coiner - I have no expectation that they have any sense of how to help take humanity forward - but instead this is for a seasoned philanthropist.

The reason I publish this on BitcoinTalk, apart from the deep Bitcoin connection, is because BitcoinTalk is very public and established so it should have a wide reach.

emphasis mine; snipped some part of convo regarding personal opinions.

The above is just to let you guys know what people behind this anonymous project are trying to portray. You are welcome to share your judgement based on snippets of my conversation above. When Theymos wanted to put up an idea regarding Seastead, he specifically mentioned that "We gentlemen are in fact the new wealthy elite". So of course, there may yet be some early bitcoiners here who are interested in hearing ideas and taking them forward. If you are one of them (I am NOT one of THEM, just the random geek..lol) then maybe it wouldn't be so bad to hear them out.

I know ideas are a dime a dozen but everyone should have the chance to gain eyeballs in the forum, if they want to do something pro-bitcoin.

[Adriane14]

1. Why should I care?
Because you and your children and grandchildren are owned by Facebook, Google Mail, Instagram, TikTok, etc., forever. This is a work to offset and dismantle your digital slavery.

That one is the same vision with my Hexagon idea. I really want to change this using Quantum communication technologies perhaps something decentralized and not controlled by greed. I hope I can help but I need to establish Hexagon first then maybe add your vision into the grand idea of a Hexagon System.

[Vod]

Asterisk is a non-profit team with a humanitarian mission.

a.s.t.e.r.i.s.k - can you post your non-profit license?

The days of this community believing something is a charity just because a scammer says so, are over.  :/

(If you delete this request, I'll repost it in your trust)

[NotATether]

1. Why should I care?
Because you and your children and grandchildren are owned by Facebook, Google Mail, Instagram, TikTok, etc., forever. This is a work to offset and dismantle your digital slavery.

That one is the same vision with my Hexagon idea. I really want to change this using Quantum communication technologies perhaps something decentralized and not controlled by greed. I hope I can help but I need to establish Hexagon first then maybe add your vision into the grand idea of a Hexagon System.

Decentralization of social media services does not alone make it pure, look at the recent Justin Sun/Steemit debacle for an example of how even in decentralized platforms there can exist a power struggle.

[a.s.t.e.r.i.s.k]

Asterisk is a non-profit team with a humanitarian mission.

a.s.t.e.r.i.s.k - can you post your non-profit license?

The days of this community believing something is a charity just because a scammer says so, are over.  :/

(If you delete this request, I'll repost it in your trust)

Hi Vod,

Thank you for your kind message.

Please specify which part of the Asterisk work your license question regards. If you have followup questions within this question please let me know.

Regarding the "the days of (word of your choice here) within crypto are over": I agree that the majority of post-2009 projects have been broken, and that organizations like EOS have committed large crimes by running away with billions of USD, mostly the broken projects have been ICO:s, tokens. Again please note that Asterisk is not an issuer, an issuer of 'gas' or some token.

It's great to do something that is actually positive for humanity and unlocks doors. For me personally I have a kind of higher gratitude about it.

If you have any questions or thoughts please share.

Best regards,
Asterisk

[a.s.t.e.r.i.s.k]

Decentralization .. does not alone make it pure, look at the recent ... debacle for an example of how even in decentralized platforms there can exist a power struggle.

NotATether, this is an excellent point by you and it deserves to be discussed another day. Asterisk

[amishmanish]

Asterisk is a non-profit team with a humanitarian mission.

a.s.t.e.r.i.s.k - can you post your non-profit license?

The days of this community believing something is a charity just because a scammer says so, are over.  :/

(If you delete this request, I'll repost it in your trust)

Thanks to Vod for chiming in.

You mentioned that you are a non-profit team. If you are a registered organization or are planning to setup an office, you should have some form of registration. Non-profit entities like NGO's are registered accordingly while business entities are registered in a different way. That is how I guess anybody can make a distinction between the kind of organization one is dealing with. I hope this is close to what he means.

[a.s.t.e.r.i.s.k]

Dear community, Vod and amishmanish, thank you for taking the time to engage. Also amishmanish thank you for your excellent representation in your previous post. Here I will respond to your license and organization questions, then discuss Asterisk vs digital slavery under the oligarch vs self-interest, and finally that your help makes all the difference.


This post is scoped to philanthropists in this pre-release phase. If Asterisk is Bitcoin, then the year now is 2007. This letter and thread discusses mostly vision and values, and a wide range of topics are discussed currently only in private correspondence and personal meetings.

For other readers, please hold during this funding round and another 16 months. Hugely useful decentralized protocols, tools and apps speak louder than words. Our team's thousands and thousands of man hours of effort should currently be very much primarily focused on the release goal.


Open source license
For open source license, this will become an actionable question many months into the future however the original or extended AGPL with linking exception (a la LibBitcoin) or Apache (similar to Bitcoin Core's choice of the MIT license) should be fine.

The objective is that the Asterisk parts that you want to embed in your programs, should be perfectly embeddable in a way that is compatible with your purposes, whether you're making free or commercial software. (In comparison, Linux' GNU GPL v3 would be anathema in this role as tools licensed under it cannot be used in non-free programs and apps.)

Remember that beyond open source license choice are equally or even more impactful factors, which relate to ethics. For example, Oracle after acquiring MySQL, pulled the unit tests from open view. This meant that on paper, MySQL was open source because the code was GPLv2, but you couldn't do anything with it due to Oracle's greed.


Organization
Organizational matters are discussed on page 4+ in "g) Organizational Structure" and "f) Financial prospects". The appendix is still recent and up to date and as you see we _will_ incorporate a foundation.


Asterisk vs your digital slavery as hostage to the oligarch vs self-interest
Under both your questions seems to lie a question about how Asterisk relates to self-interest.

Asterisk's object is to offer an alternative path to the current daily hostage situation you yourself experience online, where your activity is claimed and owned by a middleman.

The middleman is some app service run by a corporation which in turn is owned by shareholders. The shareholders are giving you access to their service that they own, as a favour that they don't charge you for, and they do this exclusively to push the most severe agenda of _their_ interest over _your_ interest. Just like feudalism, where they're the oligarch and you're the peasant or slave.


Of course many of us normal people are vigorously uneasy by this and many simply stay away from a lot of these services because it feels ethically unsettling and also there are real unknowns about their conduct that can mean risk with respect to money and otherwise.

One issue is moral corruption as in the risk that a rapacious oligarch who should not be trusted with anything would be in charge of the service. Here Zuckerberg offers a quintessential example, as he calls Facebook users "dumb fucks", laughs about that he is over the law and decrees that you "have no right to privacy".

Another issue is immoral and or undignifying conduct such as a realization that all your and your family's personal information including vacation photos, medical records, lawyer correspondence, your contact lists and social graph, comprehensive behavioral information as well as your business information most likely has ended up with foreign corporations and governments for value extraction, resale, storage and processing forever.


With respect to self-interest, Asterisk sticks out from the typical maximized-self-interest-by-value-extraction-through-shareholding-in-a-corporation model.

Firstly Asterisk is a decentralized protocol, which in any situation it is not possible for anyone to value-extract much on. For comparison, how much money can the ISO/ANSI organization charge you tops for a copy of the C++ programming language standard.

Second the object of Asterisk is to continue to be a cure for a long time, and it would not be harmonious with this ethical objective to in some form engage shareholders who then could and likely enough would pressure for compromising the ethics later through the control and ownership that belongs to their title as shareholder. There is some space for nonobliged funding model discussion however better keep it simple.


In essence Asterisk is about important aspects of keeping and advancing Earth as a place where you actually want to live.

Thank you again for bringing up these questions. I look forward to discussing this further with you, please raise any thoughts or questions you have.


Responsibility, karma
This is written in a way to wake people up but not so much for entertainment.

This thread has bestowed you with real responsibility over your and others' future. The normal principle is that you get what you wish for, independent of whether the vision you buy into is Zuckerberg-Orwell style slavery where you will need authorization to speak, eat, work or date and where your human rights vanish, or a vision of a dignified, respectful civil order.

The usual principle is, with all good causes weighed together: do what you can for a good cause. Sometimes you can talk, sometimes you can help, sometimes you can excercise choice, and sometimes you can fund.

This may sound grave and it is, however also like all things Asterisk should be fun and easy.


Please note again that Asterisk is pre-release. Wikipedia or Red Cross grade crowdfunding campaigning is another day. Aside from competence which we have, additional funding is instrumental in moving forward, which we need as we're not breatharians.

Time is running fast and Asterisk would better be available to the public now or better yet, yesterday.

If you can donate 0.1, 1, 10 or 100 Bitcoins then please by all means do so:


If you are a philanthropist who loves freedom, we're looking forward to make a decisive difference together with you.

If you know a philanthropist, send him or her this thread and the letter.

Looking forward to get in touch.



A host of disclaimers apply to this text: this text is not advice of any sort including financial and no responsibility is taken for this text. Only to be quoted in part or whole with the written permission of the author.