It's not news, just lamestream media trying to make it such. I've been following this project since it's inception and believe this is exactly what Bitcoin should be & needs. It was bound to happen sooner or later anyway, better it be done by these guys who also believe in what Bitcoin can achieve, just have a read of their website:
https://darkwallet.unsystem.net/ as well as their old page:
https://darkwallet.unsystem.net/old_index.htmlTo quote:
"Yes, [we will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography,] but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years. Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own." - Satoshi Nakamoto
Many prominent Bitcoin developers are actively in collusion with members of law enforcement and seeking approval from government legislators. We believe this is not in Bitcoin user's self interest, and instead serves wealthy business interests that make up the self-titled Bitcoin Foundation.
Gavin will visit the CIA, a post by Gavin Andresen about presenting on Bitcoin to the CIA.
Google+ conversation where regulation of Bitcoin (a fundamental world-changing technology) is downplayed by comparing it to something trivial.
Mike Hearn on Silk Road shutdown - actively collusion with law enforcement against Silk Road.
Bitcoin, Tor and Gates Foundation join task force to prevent child exploitation - key quote: "The Task Force, which launched in August, is not solely focussed on child exploitation."
Who knows about other secret deals and arrangements designed to confer advantages on specific groups occupying powerful positions within Bitcoin.
We don't know the full extent of Bitcoin developer collusion with governments and legislators who seek to coopt this world changing technology that threatens established power hierarchies.
Here are some examples of pushing through rushed changes to Bitcoin when Bitcoin should remain pure, simple and focused as a protocol/standard.
Bloom filters which introduced state to the Bitcoin protocol has opened up a serious security risk.
Coercing every node to support bloom filters
BIP 16 did not have proper discussion or the time needed. 2 years later and still multisig is not widely used. There was no need to rush this feature into Bitcoin so fast.
Marginalising Bitcoiners due to political views and censorship of dissenting viewpoints: "bitcoin.org is owned by core developers, and the opinion of the community (everyone) is always taken into account. But someone needs to take decisions in order to have things done. And so far I have this role."
Removing independent implementation developers from secret security mailing lists denying them security information. Other dirty political games.
This kind of careless debasement of the Bitcoin standard goes against the principles of Satoshi, and risks turning Bitcoin into a huge bloated standard that is enormously complex and difficult for any one group or person to understand. If we don't retain the power to code our own versions of Bitcoin, then we will always be dependent on a select few developers.
Want more proof that governments and states are corrupt? Read the plethora of dumps from Manning and Snowden. Nothing good will come to Bitcoin from collaborating with US government and law enforcement. If our developers are allies of those groups, then they are not working for Bitcoin users.
During the initial stages of the Snowden leaks being made public, Obama claimed "We don't have a domestic spying program" and "There is no spying on Americans"
"Five eyes" strategic alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA aims to achieve Total Information Awareness. Such programmes were shut down due to fears of mass surveillance, but were continued through covert operations under different names.
Data is stored in multiple mega facilities such as the Utah Data Center, a $1.5 billion megaproject.
In a single month (30 days), the NSA spied on 70.3 million phone calls in France. This is a record for a single month in one country, so we can only speculate on the full scale of spying we don't yet know about.
Another document revealed the US spy agency intercepted 60.5m phone calls in Spain between 10 December 2012 and 8 January 2013.
Details emerge of surveillance and wire-tapping of German officials. Obama claims he would not have allowed such a programme if he knew of its existance.
More details emerge showing the programme was authorised by Obama personally 3 years ago, and that agents report directly to the president.
NSA presentation slides on iPhone location services, which call iPhone users as "zombies" drawing parallels to 1984. Brazenly mocks you, the customer for mindlessly sleepwalking into their trap.
Keep Bitcoin private and uncensored. Both properties go hand in hand. You need anonymity for personal freedom. A free society does not censor any one person's voice (or monetary vote), no matter how uncomfortable that makes us feel.
Too many Bitcoin developers are focused on Bitcoin as a cheaper payments mechanism to make their lives more convenient, but I feel this is like looking at the totality of the internet as simply a tool to make shopping easier. It's worth so much more!
We must preserve the principles of Satoshi Nakamoto.
To learn more about the complex systems that underlie society, see the BBC documentary titled "The Secret Life of Chaos".
The future is bright. The future is crypto.
We haven't even begun to explore the possibilities that the blockchain brings us. The purpose of this project as we develop our technological capabilities will be to explore blockchain hyperspace creating p2p, crypto and opensource software that delivers this new world to you, the user, the king, the pioneer.
Auto-anonymiser for your Bitcoins.
Broadcasters to avoid triangulation of your financial transactions.
Automatic fee discovery. Ability to set a tradeoff between confirmation time and fee size.
Decentralised market discovery mechanisms.
Distributed identity.
Distributed reputation.
Encrypted messaging.
Private asset issuance.
Decentralised trading.
Semi-persistant storage mechanisms. Such things could lead to an uncensored fast encrypted web. The holy grail of cipherspace.
Timestampped proof of ownership.
Encrypted shop-fronts.
Contracts, escrow, cooperatives, alternate ownership models, ...
Decentralised market places (ala Silk Road).
Uncensorable crowdfunding platforms, stock platforms and information blackmarkets.
Highly scalable blockchain infrastructure.
We want to start an exploration in turning these rough concepts into usable privacy products for the people. Working tools (not prototypes) that are useful and relevant. Bring on the future!
We don't need to cooperate with control freaks
This is a new moment in our history. We search for answers. We look to the past, to old dogmas and visions which seem to cloud our judgement further, leave us feeling conflicted and cause tension between allies.
We need to take a step back to simple premises, and examine what we're setting out to achieve. I want to see less powerful and wealthy interests coercing and dominating the world. I want to see more challenges to hegemony and corruption. We need to own our management, with decision making taking place on a local level where choices on contribution, allocation of resources, … are made.
Free software tools like Bitcoin gift us the possibility to self manage our resources, and the power to decide how to expend common funds for public goods.
The United States was originally organised by the founding fathers as a federation of states. Recently freed from English tyranny, they sought to construct a fair and equal system that did not subjugate free peoples.
By constructing our societies as a federation of communities, each providing different models and alternatives within them, we can transcend collectivised straitjacketing and decentralise the system. More free choice for the people. This isn't the same as free choice for the consumers as consumerism is a passive ideology, but instead requires active participation. You are involved in the creation, maintenance and participation. Responsibility no longer comes from states but resides within you, the individual.
Technology tools are already obsoleting the old democratic systems. In Berlin, the German PirateParty is creating a platform for self determination called LiquidFeedback. Elsewhere we are seeing the development of a variety of communication (such as BitMessage), markets and self governance systems.
If we are a bit more socially aware and smarter in our personal decisions (involving economic, life, relationships, …) then we can self organise together. We can outcompete the states by providing services like food, energy, housing, healthcare, education and transport. Services that are better and more aligned with the world we want to see. And by putting our ideals into practice everyday we can make our vision a reality.
Most importantly, people come first, not fixed ideologies. Strength through diversity. We are on one planet, and have to co-exist with different viewpoints. If we can't find a consensus then we'll need to fight, and there are better things to be doing with my time. It's about your community, your proposals, your actions against other groups and their progress.
The reality today is a fragmented market with increasing centralisation. Corporations influence government policy to confer advantage and erect walled gardens against their competitors. This is not a good use of resources. The consequence of our centrally managed economic system is states that want to centralise everything. Europe is trying now to create a unified economic zone with disastrous results, including a growing obsession with surveillance and control.
Opensource offers an alternative. A free market ideal of collaboration based around the UNIX principle of building a brick that does one thing well, creating open ecosystems that emphasise integration and creating fair competitive markets.
We don't need to cooperate with control freaks. Disobedience is the only way.
