[XMR] Monero Speculation

[Hueristic]

I'm not gonna lie guys; ever since I got loudly and publicly involved in cryptocurrency a year ago, there's been no end to the digital fuckery I have experienced and suspected on my personal machines.  
  
I have a Windows laptop for internet browsing and games (no cryptocurrency activity on this machine), and even after a fresh install, within weeks it will inexplicably begin to stutter and pause before saving any file.  I run pretty solid Malware Bytes scans, MSE instances and a Firefox browser with ad-block and Noscript; I'm not a wizard, but I'm not a dummy.  There is no reason why a top-of-the-line computer that was reformatted a month ago should be stuttering randomly and lagging when doing things as simple as saving a picture off the internet.  
  
As well, my cell phone began about November of last year to pause randomly to lose (possibly hijack) the internet connection.  It shows pinging or 'upload' status in the network icon during these moments.  Attempts to use downloaded apps to figure out what IP addresses it's connecting to during these times have only resulted in gibberish or proxies.  This behavior persists no matter how many times I 'reformat' my phone.  
  
This is kind of shit is increasingly pissing me off - I have come to accept that if I become prominent in crypto I will likely end up getting monitored pretty hard despite being open and honest about my actions, but whatever backdoor nonsense is happening is actually affecting the performance of my computer which is ridiculous.  Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but also perhaps not.  
  
If you are reading this, your shit is weak and gives off tell tale signs of a system being compromised - get it together.
  
 

Remove flash.

[ArticMine]

...

Remove flash.

Remove flash and Windows.

[americanpegasus]

...

Remove flash.

Remove flash and Windows.

 
 
I have extrapolated this statement to its logical conclusion.  I will now be supporting Monero exclusively through pencil-and-paper manual mining and physical snail mail from now on. 
 
Thanks for all of your suggestions and concern; I will look into possible memory problems and flash. 

[aerbax]

...
I have extrapolated this statement to its logical conclusion.  I will now be supporting Monero exclusively through pencil-and-paper manual mining and physical snail mail from now on.  
  
Thanks for all of your suggestions and concern; I will look into possible memory problems and flash.  

Just make sure you know where that pencil came from...I've heard some of them are covered in viruses.

Given the fear mongering around here, I speculate this as the logical conclusion:

[ArticMine]

...

Remove flash.

Remove flash and Windows.

 
  
I have extrapolated this statement to its logical conclusion.  I will now be supporting Monero exclusively through pencil-and-paper manual mining and physical snail mail from now on.  
  
Thanks for all of your suggestions and concern; I will look into possible memory problems and flash.  

Who said pencil-and-paper manual mining and physical snail mail as an alternative to Windows. There is GNU/Linux.

[owm123]

A VPN service is essentially an ISP. By default they will be far more sophisticated than their end users. "There is no GUI" = "We don't believe a significant number of our end users will use it and it's not worth an investment in time and support to integrate it until that changes."

Unfortunatly, sometimes this is not the case about VPN being more sophisticated than end users. Many VPN claim to have privacy of their users as the main goal.  Unforunatly, for some it seems as only pr buzz words:

https://medium.com/@yegor/hypocrisy-plaguing-major-vpn-providers-b4613b82f795
http://txti.es/2015-vpn-providers-and-paying-using-bitcoin

Obviosly, wich such VPN providers you need to be careful. They may simply dont care about privacy of their users. And there is no spohistication in that.

[papa_lazzarou]

Today, Monero Mountain is a big green island oasis floating in a sea of angry red numbers!

Pro tip: you can short the hell out of DASH using the increased leverage provided by higher XMR prices!  

lulz

[boolberry]

A VPN service is essentially an ISP. By default they will be far more sophisticated than their end users. "There is no GUI" = "We don't believe a significant number of our end users will use it and it's not worth an investment in time and support to integrate it until that changes."

Unfortunatly, sometimes this is not the case about VPN being more sophisticated than end users. Many VPN claim to have privacy of their users as the main goal.  Unforunatly, for some it seems as only pr buzz words:

https://medium.com/@yegor/hypocrisy-plaguing-major-vpn-providers-b4613b82f795
http://txti.es/2015-vpn-providers-and-paying-using-bitcoin

Obviosly, wich such VPN providers you need to be careful. They may simply dont care about privacy of their users. And there is no spohistication in that.

Those are both interesting articles. It was disappointing to read about so many well known VPNs with those privacy problems.

[medusa13]

looks like someone ran out of coins, liquidity collapsed. the ask wall at 110 is now a bid wall, maybe he wants them back
seems there is no liquidity to close those massive shorts of the secret black ops investment circle, or werent they so massive after all ?  

over all bids still very low, only 107 btc. are great times ahead? there is a lot of movement in the markets, combined with a new monero release this can very easily explode. we need to take care of liquidity, this is more important than price.
asks are very weak now, throw 200 btc at it and it will trigger a rally i say.

btw love the screenshot, monero the real alternative coin!!

[smoothie]

hmmm 1 bitcoin or 854 XMR....

 

[Melbustus]

XMR has been almost the only alt I've found to have any theoretical value over the years. But I'm gonna push on this Zerocoin thing:

Possibly relevant to XMR speculation. Zerocoin seems to be moving forward - they at least have an angel page with investors from a previous round.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362468.msg12884424#msg12884424

List of possible pitfalls wrt ZeroCash/ZeroCoin:

-If ZeroCash/ZeroCoin is launched on behalf of a company, which seems the case here, the company can be given a gag order (e.g. to add a line of malicious code).

My understanding is that it's fully open-source. So...?

-If I recall correctly, the creator of the genesis block holds some kind of masterkey. As a result, you have to trust this person. Even if this key was held by a group, you still have to trust that particular group. In addition, you have to trust the program they run to create the Genesis block (the masterkey could be in there).

As I recall, this is being addressed by an alg which proves that if only ONE person in the group destroyed their key, the seed is secure... If done right (big enough group, including entities like EFF, etc) I'm guessing the market will find this sufficient.

-It's too opaque in my opinion. If a bug existed that would create additional coins, there is no way you would see it.

This is the criticism I think is most valid. I haven't heard a decent counter-argument yet. Anyone have one? Zerocoin *did* say the system will basically support a viewkey-type concept, so maybe there's some way using that capability to prove total supply? Dunno....taking shots in the dark here. If there's no solution to this, I think it's a critical issue with Zerocoin.
 

-The math and cryptography backing it isn't peer reviewed yet and in an infancy stage.

Fair, but I doubt that's going to matter all that much to people, assuming it gets even just a few months of successful operation under its belt.

[smoothie]

...

-The math and cryptography backing it isn't peer reviewed yet and in an infancy stage.

Fair, but I doubt that's going to matter all that much to people, assuming it gets even just a few months of successful operation under its belt.

I think it will matter at some point if indeed there is any bugs or exploits in its protocol. Why risk using technology that has not had years of review and testing done than something completely brand new?

I see more risk using something new that has just been developed and released and is not based on old cryptography.

[newb4now]

Raise your hand if you are excited for 0.9!

I speculate it will be released this month. Just a guess.

[Melbustus]

...

-The math and cryptography backing it isn't peer reviewed yet and in an infancy stage.

Fair, but I doubt that's going to matter all that much to people, assuming it gets even just a few months of successful operation under its belt.

I think it will matter at some point if indeed there is any bugs or exploits in its protocol. Why risk using technology that has not had years of review and testing done than something completely brand new?

I see more risk using something new that has just been developed and released and is not based on old cryptography.

If a DNM starts using Zerocoin, and it works fine for a few months, you really think people are gonna care all that much? It can gain a good deal of adoption without demonstrating rigorous academic robustness or decades of unbroken use.

I mean, yeah, people are not gonna dump their life savings into it, but a crypto-break, even for something with newish crypto, is probably a few notches down on the list of reasons why it'd be unwise to drop tons of wealth into the coin.

[smoothie]

...

-The math and cryptography backing it isn't peer reviewed yet and in an infancy stage.

Fair, but I doubt that's going to matter all that much to people, assuming it gets even just a few months of successful operation under its belt.

I think it will matter at some point if indeed there is any bugs or exploits in its protocol. Why risk using technology that has not had years of review and testing done than something completely brand new?

I see more risk using something new that has just been developed and released and is not based on old cryptography.

If a DNM starts using Zerocoin, and it works fine for a few months, you really think people are gonna care all that much? It can gain a good deal of adoption without demonstrating rigorous academic robustness or decades of unbroken use.

I mean, yeah, people are not gonna dump their life savings into it, but a crypto-break, even for something with newish crypto, is probably a few notches down on the list of reasons why it'd be unwise to drop tons of wealth into the coin.

Yes I think people investing into such a system that had a flaw/exploit would care.

Your presumption is that after a few months that ZC will be considered "safe". It wouldn't be the first time we heard of a new technology (usage) that people thought was "safe" then found out to be very exploitable. (example brain wallets).

Yes anything new can have massive adoption, I mean look at adoption of windows 10. Looks like it is doing pretty good even though it is full of privacy issues. http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/11/02/microsoft-confirms-unstoppable-windows-10-tracking/

Not so sure everyone who uses windows 10 wants all of their key strokes logged or actions logged and sent back to Microsoft and then to the government agencies. But of course they would need to know this is going on in order for it to be an issue. Some people may not care but I bet you it isn't 100% of them that dont care.

Dr. Adam Back also discusses the draw backs of such a zerocash/ zerocoin implementation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dAdI3Gzodo&feature=youtu.be&t=33m10s

[rpietila]

I believe cryptography is pretty secondary as long as every device is institutionally keylogged.

Which actually leads me to believe that non-cryptographic, unattackable solutions such as CK would have some merit.

[MoneroMooo]

Which actually leads me to believe that non-cryptographic, unattackable solutions such as CK would have some merit.

Either you are terribly naive about it, or worse. It is not even close to unattackable, and I am at a loss why you would think it might be. Either explain this in a non handwavy fashion (ie, the "if it gets corrupted, people can recreate it from memory" leap of faith), or stop claiming it is unattackable.

[americanpegasus]

Either you are terribly naive about it, or worse. It is not even close to unattackable, and I am at a loss why you would think it might be. Either explain this in a non handwavy fashion (ie, the "if it gets corrupted, people can recreate it from memory" leap of faith), or stop claiming it is unattackable.

 
  
In this universe 0 and 1 don't exist.  
  
The concept of "0" existed a long time ago, but it quickly broke down into the complex and irrational universe you see around you.  Occasionally a region of our reality gets so close to the value of "1" that we don't understand what happens close to it, but it is debatable whether or not it is truly equivalent to "1" or not.  
  
But in order for this flawed premise to be true: for something to be unattackable, it would have to be perfect and pure....a one or zero, and this will never happen.  Quantum cryptography will make major dents in everything we know so far, while also seeming invincible.... but perhaps not to any mathematics and technology from the year 2200.  
  
In fact, all Cryptonote networks are still quite young and vulnerable.  We need to take care that they grow in a way that provides them value and defense, and certainly don't want to write any checks with our mouths that our muscles can't cash.  

[Melbustus]

...

-The math and cryptography backing it isn't peer reviewed yet and in an infancy stage.

Fair, but I doubt that's going to matter all that much to people, assuming it gets even just a few months of successful operation under its belt.

I think it will matter at some point if indeed there is any bugs or exploits in its protocol. Why risk using technology that has not had years of review and testing done than something completely brand new?

I see more risk using something new that has just been developed and released and is not based on old cryptography.

If a DNM starts using Zerocoin, and it works fine for a few months, you really think people are gonna care all that much? It can gain a good deal of adoption without demonstrating rigorous academic robustness or decades of unbroken use.

I mean, yeah, people are not gonna dump their life savings into it, but a crypto-break, even for something with newish crypto, is probably a few notches down on the list of reasons why it'd be unwise to drop tons of wealth into the coin.

Yes I think people investing into such a system that had a flaw/exploit would care.

Yeah, but my point is that people are kinda lazy and if the thing works for a while, they'll assume (consciously or not) that it's probably fine. I'm not talking about known exploits.

Your presumption is that after a few months that ZC will be considered "safe".

First of all, I never said "safe". Just that after working for a while, people would tend to not worry about it.


Anyway, if the best argument against Zerocoin adoption vs Monero adoption in the privacy-coin niche is that ZC uses new crypto, then I'll have to rethink my opinions on how the alt-space will play out.

[smooth]

First of all, I never said "safe". Just that after working for a while, people would tend to not worry about it.

That's kind of true for a highly leveraged debt based system too. It took several years post-2008, but most now ignore systemic risks, or deny they even exist at all.

So I agree with you that many will behave that way in practice, but I also believe there is a role to play for systems built on a stronger foundation.

if the best argument against Zerocoin adoption vs Monero adoption in the privacy-coin niche is that ZC uses new crypto

That is a massive issue though (even if many people may ignore it). In cryptography the only thing that makes most real systems secure is that they have been around for a long time and vulnerabilities have been either identified and fixed or unable to be found. It is essentially impossible for new crypto to be usefully secure. 10 years is a widely recognized rule-of-thumb aging period. The key components of zerocash are far newer than that.

This is not just an issue of privacy either. If the system breaks there could be huge or total monetary losses.