Gavin will visit the CIA

[FreeMoney]

I vote lamb. Lamb tastes better. I've never had Satan, but I imagine the meat would be a bit overcooked...

Seitan is rather flavorless unless you marinate it well.

[citation needed]

[mewantsbitcoins]

If CIA hooks up their mainframe to mine bitcoins. We are all fucked, big time.

So you think CIA has something that is faster than the top 500 supercomputers on earth combined?

[ElectricMonk]

Gavin - Make sure you read your copy of 'The Art of War' before you go.

[becoin]

I want to get this out in the open because it is the kind of thing that will generate conspiracy theories:  I'm going to give a presentation about Bitcoin at CIA headquarters in June at an emerging technologies conference for the US intelligence community.

Gavin, can you please ask for a permission to record your presentation and show this video to the bitcoin community? If it's open, let it stay open!

[jashan]

I want to get this out in the open because it is the kind of thing that will generate conspiracy theories:  I'm going to give a presentation about Bitcoin at CIA headquarters in June at an emerging technologies conference for the US intelligence community.

Gavin, can you please ask for a permission to record your presentation and show this video to the bitcoin community?

That would be awesome!!! It's probably unlikely they'll give that permission - but at least ask ;-)

[becoin]

They are serious about security; there will be no recording, and I will not be allowed to bring any electronic devices with me.  I am planning on posting my talk, and if I get my act together in time I'll try to post it before I give it so y'all can give me feedback.

I'm sorry, I've just seen that. If they don't allow recording then you should not accept this invitation. Simple as that.

[becoin]

It's like saying a developer at Blizzard giving a speech about his work with MMORPGs is representing the wow player base oO.
...
Correct me if I'm wrong...

Yep, I'll correct you...
It's like saying a lead developer at Blizzard giving a speech about his work with MMORPGs is representing the wow player base oO.

Now, do you see the difference?

[The Script]

It's like saying a developer at Blizzard giving a speech about his work with MMORPGs is representing the wow player base oO.
...
Correct me if I'm wrong...

Yep, I'll correct you...
It's like saying a lead developer at Blizzard giving a speech about his work with MMORPGs is representing the wow player base oO.

Now, do you see the difference?

No. Nerds talking to nerds?

[FatherMcGruder]

[citation needed]

I haven't tried it yet, but people's descriptions of its texture and constitution seem relatively consistent, while their descriptions of its flavor seem to vary. These descriptions come from people on Internet forums as well as folks I know who have tried it in meatspace, pun half-intended.

http://caloriecount.about.com/seitan-tastes-like-ft122540
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071209123400AAkO00s
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070222193930AAjV82L

[Coma]

I want to get this out in the open because it is the kind of thing that will generate conspiracy theories:  I'm going to give a presentation about Bitcoin at CIA headquarters in June at an emerging technologies conference for the US intelligence community.

Gavin, can you please ask for a permission to record your presentation and show this video to the bitcoin community? If it's open, let it stay open!

This would be interesting.

[jashan]

They are serious about security; there will be no recording, and I will not be allowed to bring any electronic devices with me.  I am planning on posting my talk, and if I get my act together in time I'll try to post it before I give it so y'all can give me feedback.

I'm sorry, I've just seen that. If they don't allow recording then you should not accept this invitation. Simple as that.

Ah, I kind of remembered having read that but hoped I was wrong. Thanks for quoting this as a reminder!

@Gavin: Do think you'll get your act together? It certainly would be cool to have that talk available even thought it would certainly be even more interesting to know the Q&A-part ;-) ... but I guess they'll probably have you sign some sort of NDA, won't they?

[dserrano5]

Just found this thread and wanted to drop a one-liner to thank Gavin for his open approach to this matter .

[uniman]

so where's Satoshi in all this?

He's hunkered down at Crystal Peak

[becoin]

Just found this thread and wanted to drop a one-liner to thank Gavin for his open approach to this matter .

Yes. Respect for sharing this. Although, it would be more like an interrogation than a conference. Certainly, they'd be interested in the history of the project rather than in technicalities. I don't expect anything good to come out of this meeting but anyway, wish you success, Gavin.

[Sukrim]

I'm not defending the CIA or its actions; I'm just pointing out that the CIA attracts a lot of quality crypto talent so why wouldn't they be interested in the technical aspects of Bitcoin?

The technical aspects behind Bitcoin are well known for years already, and (although cleverly put together) nothing really fancy or revolutionary. Some crypto guy I talked to was rather like "Why the hell use such inefficient hashing algorithms, when they could use something that could much easier be done in hardware like AES?" (Yes, he's an FPGA guy ) I explained then that it was rather meant to make it more accessible + that creating transactions doesn't require much calculation power, only mining does - but it was not even necessary for me to explain ANYTHING behind the concept of hashed block chains etc.

I really would be more curious about what the CIA guys ask in the end. It heavily depends on the audience as well I guess though - there won't be any need to explain a lot about the technology behind BTC, as it is already well known to experts. If there are more general risk analysts and the like in the room however, they might be interested in technical aspects more (while the IT guys will most likely be bored/annoyed ). Hopefully Gavin is allowed to give a general overview over this (something along the lines of "They were worried about netsplits, asking about already known attacks, like the 51% attack, wanted to confirm that each Bitcoin can be traced after it's creation and what my view is about centralized aggregators (like MtGox + mybitcoin) where many people share one wallet").

[andrew_jacksun]

if gavin reminds the cia to tell congress to take back the power to coin currency, i support his trip. fuck the federal reserve being a private company. i want that shit run by congress members.

also, legalize drug dispensaries, brothels, and use the DEA airplanes to search for heat signatures of people locked in basements instead of plant growing equipment.

[2_Thumbs_Up]

if gavin reminds the cia to tell congress to take back the power to coin currency, i support his trip. fuck the federal reserve being a private company. i want that shit run by congress members.

Yeah. Fuck the FED's moneyprinting out of thin air. If only we could let those trustworthy politicians do it instead. 

[AnonymousBat]

if gavin reminds the cia to tell congress to take back the power to coin currency, i support his trip. fuck the federal reserve being a private company. i want that shit run by congress members.

Yeah. Fuck the FED's moneyprinting out of thin air. If only we could let those trustworthy politicians do it instead. 

Outside of bitcoin it's the only choice we got.

Un-electable bankers.
Or politicians we can fire.

Pick one.

Both bad choices but one is clearly worse.

[bittersweet]

Then fire the politicians who support private FED as elect those who want that shit run by congress members.
What's the problem, you can fire and elect politicians, right?

Democracy is a superstition that people have power, because they are allowed to vote on their masters from time to time.

[clickbangdone]

Does this conference even exist?
Look around the net.