Posts tagged "cryptocurrency"
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Atalanta: Monero's Reservist Army
Here’s the follow-up to a recent post about Qubic’s attack on Monero’s blockchain. There, I argued that Behavioral Economics was the answer. Otherwise, people can just play the ‘loose/aggressive’ tactic until it works. It would be wrong, however, to think that technical strategies don’t play a part. This post is an add-on. It will get pretty nerdy. I think Monero needs something like a wasp’s sting. It needs a way of causing harm to them who would cause it harm.
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CFPCs
The label 'CBDC' is deceptive and should be discarded. I suggest a replacement: CFPC. Centralized Fiat Programmable Currency. This is important because the existing term throws us off the scent.
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Crypto Apathy In 2025
I sense scant interest in crypto out there. What a difference a year makes! Take your mind back to New Year’s Eve, 2024-5. Cryptopians were not sparing the champagne. Trump had won; crypto had dodged a Democrat bullet. Ross Ulbricht was to be pardoned. On December 13th, bitcoin (BTC) had hit six figures in price. Bitcoin Maxis brashly weened1 whether $150,000 or $250,000 was a more likely target for the end of 2025.2 Everything was going to plan. I want to give my top reasons why things did not go to plan.
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Crypto For Lefties, Part One
Crypto came out of an Anarchist community, and that at once put it offside with Lefties. Doesn’t Anarchism allow the rich to plunder to their heart’s content? Bitcoin as ‘Freedom Money’ sounds a lot like ‘Rich-Wanker-Avoid-Taxes Money’. The problem is that this is way too simplistic. Would Lefties eschew e-mail? These things are tools. Overlook at your own peril. I’m not a Leftie myself, but I find myself on their side of many issues, and I was thinking recently that it is a shame so few Lefties make use of crypto.
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Crypto For Lefties, Part Three
I have been trying to convince Lefties that crypto is a good option for them too. In Part One, I argued that it makes no sense to cling to the banksters’ form of money, e.g. dollars, in a reactionary way, unless you really are a Reactionary.1 In Part Two, I gave the reader my recommendation of the three best ‘Left-aligned’ cryptocurrencies to use. I know that most Lefties will have nagging doubts still. Doubts over crypto are reasonable. I will try to deal with some of them.
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Crypto For Lefties, Part Two: Top 3 Cryptos
Cryptocurrency is a tool and an ethos. The ethos has as its polestar the right of the individual to send money to whomever he or she wants. I outlined the ethos here. The ethos is broad enough to allow tweaking. Lefties often feel like crypto is just for Libertarians, but many nerds are Lefties, and have tweaked both the tech and the ethos. It’s just like in music; the way whereby Grunge tweaked Rock to get rid of the leather pants and lecherous fantasies. Let's separate the Pearl Jams from the Def Leppards.
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How To Set Up OpenAlias DNS
Have you used my OpenAlias Record Maker, and copied your valid OpenAlias record? Skip ahead to Step 3. Otherwise, there's one crucial step first. You need a domain.
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Monero Under Attack
At time of writing, the Monero Blockchain is under attack, and not by some secretive group of hackers, as is usually the case, but by the leaders of a rival coin, qubic (QUBIC). Qubic didn't do anything clever. Qubic said to Monero's miners: "Keep mining XMR, but do it under our control, and we'll triple your profit." Admittedly, it doesn't take much to lure a miner. I think Monero's miners are more loyal than others.1 I suspect that Qubic lured away far fewer miners of monero (XMR) than implied. The whole organization smells fishy to me, but I won't go down that rabbit-hole here. There's a lot of cap-and-gown disquisition at the moment. Proof-of-Work in general is under scrutiny. Well-meaning nerds reach for technical solutions by default, but I think Satoshi's system was successful due to behavioural economics.
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Q&A: Atalanta- Monero's Reservist Army
(This won’t make much sense unless you’ve read two prior posts. First, a summary and analysis of the attack on Monero (XMR) that uncovered its weaknesses; and second, my proposal for a reservist army playing a video game, Atalanta, to respond to future attacks.)
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The Coming Crypto Crisis Opportunity
I want to get ahead of this one. I suspect a plan is being rolled out. A recent article in the Financial Times alerted me to it. The plan is to coordinate media to blame crypto for the next big crash. I also think a big crash is closer than we think.
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The Luds Are Alright
The Luddites… being called one nowadays has an inescapable insinuation: “Give up.” I’ve been called a ‘Luddite’, despite me knowing my TCP from my IP. I don’t mind. I’d rather be a Luddite than a Tech-Bro. Nowadays, there’s a Neo-Luddite movement cropping up. It might not be long before the yahoos are smashing server racks. I’m not sure whether that’s ever appropriate.1 Should they just give up before they start? I will argue ‘no’.
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Two Kinds of Centralization
Recently, I wrote that, by calling it a 'Central Bank Digital Currency', it's too narrow, our scope of wariness. The ‘Central Bank’ part is not to be sneezed at. Just don't end up watching for wolves and getting mauled by a bear. It’s the centralized aspect itself which demands vigilance. If our form of money is centralized, then expect it to be conquered. This might come as a dramatic takeover, but more likely would happen with bribery and blackmail behind the scenes. I want to flesh this idea out with examples. Specifically, I want to look at the two main kinds of centralization with a cryptocurrency: centralized ‘mining’ (i.e. the minting of digital currency) and centralized development.
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What is P2P V4V?
P2P V4V stands for 'Peer-to-Peer, Value-for-Value'. 'Peer-to-Peer' is a way of doing commerce. 'Value-for-Value' is a way of doing commerce. Both have been around for a while now. As far as I know, joining them together is new. The result is a basic framework for commerce that is fairer and freeer and leverages existing 21st century technology.
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