Quote from: pooya87 on Today at 05:25:43 AM

Also keep in mind that even though many disagree with this definition, Anarchy is always associated with chaos and lack of order which are not true about Bitcoin.

Sadly, many disagree with that definition because they do not correctly understand what anarchism stands / aims for. I will not reiterate the earlier discussion about chaos and order. However, anarchism vouches for a stateless society, without violence. It does not vouch for criminality, not for violence.

Quote from: pooya87 on Today at 05:25:43 AM

Barlow's group EFF can talk about privacy acts all they want and fly their protest blimp over NSA's data center but it won't change a thing since they are not attempting to change the system Wink

Actually, they did change some things. If not Barlow itself, then we can talk about John Gilmore, a co-founder of EFF and also a co-founder of Cypherpunks group. I will not enter into details here about what Cypherpunks for this world, as this is a part of another subject. To say the leasr, they dedicated their life for writing software for offering people privacy and anonimity. And they did it for free.

But we can debate about John Gilmore, as he was a colleague of Barlow -- just to let you know that he (Gilmore) and through him EFF as well actually changed something.

Quote from: GazetaBitcoin on January 21, 2020, 10:25:04 AM

Getting back to modern era, but still old times. The times of cypherpunks. John Gilmore, one of them, had a personal vendetta against NSA. Or maybe I should have written that NSA had a personal vendetta with him. One of the most remarkable victory of the information against oppression was led in 1989 by Gilmore who made public a secret document. The author of the document was working for Xerox and NSA specifically requested Xerox to destroy the document. John Gilmore disagreed with this censorship and posted the document on the internet. Of course it was quickly downloaded thousands of times, and the war between Gilmore and NSA was started.

In 1992 took place another great battle between John Gilmore and NSA. For obvious reasons (related to censorship of free information), the manuscripts of William Friedman - considered to be the grandfather of cryptography in USA - were classified, although they were written in the times of WWII. Gilmore disagreed again, considering that Friedman's work should be available no anyone interested. So he called NSA in a Court of Law and he based his requests of declassifying the books on a Freedom of Information Act. Of course, NSA avoided to respond to his request, thus everything had to be settled during a trial. Afterwards, he managed to find Friedman's books in a public library. During the trial he was informed that unless he will give the books to the govern, he will be accused of espionage which could lead to 10 years in jail, as he was in the possession of classified materials. NSA didn't stop here. The agency tried to find any other "sensible" materials in various public spaces. Gilmore informed the judge that what he found was already public, since the books were in a public library and at the same time he decided to speak to the press about the entire case. Soon after, the books were printed by Aegean Park Press.

Gilmore's case became public and from that moment the govern backed-off. The charges were dropped and the manuscripts were declassified. John Gilmore won. People won as well, as the public information remained in public's hands, as it should have always been.

So excepting the fact that he ridiculed the entire NSA, he also made them step back and, most important, he managed to offer to people the precious manuscripts of William Friedman.

Should I also mention that soon after launch Steve Wozniak became also a part of EFF?

And, among other remarkable achievements, EFF also changed history after the process of Bernstein v. United States. Bernstein, a young coder back then, was not allowed to publish his code of an ecryption system as cryptography, back then, was forbidden by the law for weapons and munitions. If people would tattoo such code on their skin or if they would wear t-shirts with such code lines printed on their shirts, the shirts (respectively, their bodies) were considered munitions and they were not allowed to fly over US borders. Bernstein sued the State and, being represented by EFF, managed to win the trial.

Of course, there are many other victories achieved by EFF during time, especially when we talk about the collaboration with Cypherpunks, but I think that even only those two examples suffice for proving that they actually did something! And, in part, they did change the system! To say the least, without this trial, maybe even nowadays the export of cryptographic materials would be banned in US.

Quote from: 1miau on Today at 03:11:22 AM

It's quite common that his far earlier coin DigiCash, failed. Quite a few electronic cash systems were launched back then and all of them failed, until Satoshi launched Bitcoin. Wink

Actually (at least, as far as I know), only two electronic private coins were launched before Bitcoin. One was Chaum's Cyberbuck (attention: his company was DigiCash, while the coin was named Cyberbuck) and the other one was e-Gold. All the other proposal which circulated back then (Bit Gold, b-money) were never implemented. They remained just at the stage of proposals...

Quote from: 1miau on Today at 03:11:22 AM

It's like try and error. He made valuable contributions despite failing.

This is so true! No matter that his coins did not succeed, his visions, his code, his remarkable writings helped so many coders. This is why he was also named as the father of Cypherpunks.

Quote from: 1miau on Today at 03:11:22 AM

I have thought a lot about it why Chaum's coin failed and a few explanations I got are:

- He didn't made the decision. Maybe he hired some stupid marketing guys and they don't have any clue about a good crypto currecy. And his marketing guys advised Chaum very badly (probably).
- It's a trap! Maybe he's just testing waters to see how to make a perfect launch (unlikely because he collected VC funds).
- He's just clueless himself how to compete against several 10k shitcoins and after Bitcoin was launched over 15 years ago, crypto industry has changed a lot. And he messed it up... [...]

Quote from: GazetaBitcoin on January 06, 2023, 08:35:55 PM

I think what best describes these situations and also Chaum's fate is life's irony.

Most likely it is, dear GazetaBitcoin.

It is what it is, I guess... He could have been surrounded by incompetents too, which blurred his vision... who knows... It could have been also a complex of all the reasons you stated... However, it's important that he did not give up. He is still active, even at his age and we can only wait to see what magic he will reveal in the future

Quote from: 1miau on Today at 03:11:22 AM

If there hasn't been a free and democratic vote (like North Korea)

I remember how "democratic voting" took course also in Ceausescu era... it was so similar...

Quote from: 1miau on Today at 03:11:22 AM

For example in North Korea, there are no checks and balances at all. It's a failed Communist state led by Kim Jong Un. Kim Jong Un can't be voted out, he's a maniac. People are piss poor. I would not want to live there. Checks and balances are very important and Bitcoin can be part of this and should be part of this in my opinion.

I lived, in part, what you wrote above. Although I was very young when Ceausescu was taken down I still remember many things which occurred during his regime. It is difficult to explain in words. Just a small example, all food was rationalized. And, depending of the number of the family members, you were allowed to buy only a (small) quantity of milk, flour, corn flour, oil, sugar or meat each month. Now excepting the fact that what you were allowed to was a very small amount, you also had to do extreme efforts for obtaining the aliments. For example, if a grocery store was opening at 7am, you had to go there since 1-2am to make sure you get a good spot in the queue, thus at 7am when the store would open you would have the chance to obtain your milk or oil or what you needed. If you joined the queue at 6am you had no chance to buy anything as until your place would come to enter the store everything was finished already. During the nights people used to make huge queues at each such store, sometimes even more than 100 people forming a queue...

Meat was even scarcer than anything. And I am not talking about fish, beef or some delicacy. People mostly had the right to buy chicken and pork meat and the chickens from the stores were always so small that they looked like they starved a month before being brought to the stores.

Annually, each citizen was entitled to 60-70 kg of meat and meat derivatives, 8-10 kg of fish and fish derivatives, 210-230 liters of milk or milk derivatives, 260-280 eggs, 16 kg of fats (oil, butter etc.), 170-180 kg of vegetables, 70-90 kg of potatoes, 65-95 kg of fruits, 22-26 kg of sugar. All products were stamped on a paper card or on a sort of register book, for making sure the citizen would not buy more than he was entitled to. The shopping could be made only once per month and only at the grocery shop from the neighborhood. In 1984 the portions were reduced even more: 39 kg of meat, 78 liters of milk, 166 kg of vegetables. The oil and the sugar could be bought also just once per month and only 1 kg of each of them.

Those caught with shenanigans regarding food (buying more, buying from illegal sources etc.) could face 6month - 5 years of jail.

Register for buying bread in Ceausescu era

Register for buying sugar in Ceausescu era

Register for buying cloths (yes, even cloths were rationalized) in Ceausescu era

The huge monthly queues at grocery shop in Ceausescu era (PIINE means BREAD and ALIMENTARA means GROCERY SHOP)