devcon 7 / the history and philosophy of cypherpunk
Duration: 00:25:55
Speaker: Harry Halpin, Iness Ben Guirat, Max Hampshire
Type: Talk
Expertise: Beginner
Event: Devcon
Date: Nov 2024
From Packets to Privacy: Understanding and Evolving Network Security
This talk will provide a comprehensive journey through the fundamentals of network communication, explore the workings and risks of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and dive into the world of Mixnets. We’ll discuss how decentralized Mixnets can offer privacy by default, potentially eliminating the need for traditional VPNs.
Why VPNs are scams and what to do about it
Existing VPNs are essentially scams. Free VPNs and most centralized VPNs (such as ExpressVPN, owned by Kape) are effectively data harvesting companies. Decentralized VPNs usually have a few large servers and offer barely any more privacy than centralized VPNs. What is missing is 1) onion-routing packets like Tor 2) adding noise (fake traffic) 3) censorship-resistance and 4) mixing packets from different users together. We'll explore how technologies work to defeat even AI adversaries.
Keynote: Make Ethereum Cypherpunk Again: Why we need privacy
The Web3 revolution seeks to address the sins of Web2. However, in doing so, it’s created an even worse outcome for users - users’ data is publicly available and makes them vulnerable to state-level censorship and adverse actions. This talk will address the philosophical as well as practical considerations of privacy in Web3. Privacy is an industry-wide issue and sits at the heart of all that is Web3. Understanding why privacy matters involves recognizing that it is not an isolated concept bu
Lunarpunk Endgame
Global surveillance is a static world where change is surpressed and society cannot evolve. In contrast, an anonymity-enhanced world resembles a forest. New civilizational experiments blossom like flowers, radiating outward from the freedom-fighters of the future. The lunarpunk end game is to enable a new ecology of social orders. This talk will describe the grand vision of lunarpunk: multipolar space-faring civilization, human speciation, and the reproduction life throughout the cosmos.
Keynote: Lessons learned from Tor
I will share lessons learned during Tor's twenty years as free software fighting for privacy and human rights. We'll talk about distributed trust and privacy by design, how to help people understand the good uses of your tech, getting allies in both cypherpunks and government, why transparency and community-building are so essential to trust, and successes from other spaces. It may seem like the crypto wars never really end, but we all have a part to play in saving the world.
I read every single 1990s Cypherpunk email. Here's what you should know.
What would Hal Finney, Tim May, David Chaum, and other cypherpunks think about the current state of Ethereum, cryptography, privacy, and trusted hardware? I read every single 1990s cypherpunk email (thousands) to learn more the original movement. I gathered the most interesting and relevant cypherpunk emails, and put them together to make this best-of-the-best cypherpunk presentation.
Tending the Infinite Garden: Organizational Culture in the Ethereum Ecosystem
This presentation will discuss the findings of the academic paper "Tending the Infinite Garden: Organisational Culture in the Ethereum Ecosystem" by Dr. Paul-Dylan-Ennis and Ann Brody. Our study examines the decision-making processes fundamental to Ethereum's protocol governance, drawing on interviews with Ethereum's core developers. We identify a central worldview in Ethereum known as the "Infinite Garden" and discuss how Ethereum's social layer is crucial for upholding cypherpunk values.
Keynote: Glass Houses and Tornados
The Tornado Cash sanctions and criminal prosecutions have challenged longstanding assumptions within crypto about the limits of money transmission licensing, money laundering statutes, and sanctions laws. They've also revealed a longstanding assumption from some in policy and law enforcement circles: that blockchains have always been and must remain transparent. Neither assumption has served us well and the time has come for legal certainty. This talk is about how we get there.
Keynote: How to Properly Open Source Software: Lessons Learned from the Linux Foundation
It can be challenging to properly open source software: there are licenses, IP, security reporting, and many other issues that need to be addressed. In this talk, we will discuss the best practices for open source software development learned from almost 25 years of experience at the Linux Foundation. Attendees will learn about how to set up their projects for a variety of potential goals, including things like maximizing security and community building.
Corruption, KYC and the Cost of Compliance
Trillions of dollars in illicit financial flows slosh around our financial system today, facilitated by the most powerful centralised instiutitons. Current efforts to address IFFs are ineffective and result in harmful side effects for some of the most vulnernable in society. In this article, we investigate the causes and impact of IFFs. Despite what certain bankers and politicians might have told you, the transparency and programmability of cryptocurrencies are a solution to, not a cause of, the