The Second Realm

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Cypherpunkd episodes

Cypherpunkd is an Internet radio series on AgoristRadio.com consisting of 46 interviews hosted by Hiro White between April 4^th and June 17^th 2011 with an additional episode a few months later on September 22^nd. The interviews cover a wide range of Agorism oriented topics including liberty, freedom, law, Bitcoin, privacy and much more.

At Organic Design, we consider this series to be an absolute prerequisite for understanding what's involved in forming a new liberty-oriented society free from state oppression. Most of the interviews are completely riveting stuff, but some of them may be too technical for some listeners, and others may be covering topics that are not quite your area of interest, but we strongly suggest persevering through all of them regardless, because they all contain important gems of knowledge.

After listening to them you'll have gained important shared context with other members of the new society, The Second Realm, and will be aware of the many other projects working towards this and the passion and intensity they all have for bringing this about.

Following is an introduction of all the episodes with Hiro's notes and also a few notes of our own. The original list can be found at agoristradio.com and we also have a local copy of the files as Hiro's site is sometimes unavailable.

Episode 1: Loom for Geeks part 1 - Introduction - Patrick Chkoreff

Patrick Chkoreff creator and programmer of Loom, the amazing value transfer system. Topics covered include the loom Grid, encrypted account information, passphrases vs passwords. Usage tokens and more...

The simplest possible web-based mechanism for creating and transferring types of assets and amounts of them.

To own an asset means to be the only one who knows where it is (the information required to access it)

Loom involved a two-dimensional array of numbers like a spreadsheet where the rows are asset types and the columns are like "accounts" or "vaults", the content of the cells being the number of units of the asset type stored in the vaults.

The columns are hash keys (with assigned friendly names) some being personal accounts that people have created for themselves, others are assigned as shared context between issuers and recipients for payments. (the analogy is of picking a random drop zone for the asset so someone can give it to another person without meeting or coinciding in time).

All kind of content can be stored like this - the only protection is that the hash names are not know - this of course is no less secure than having a password to login, in fact passwords are far shorter than hash keys.

Note that Patrick is the developer and creator of the software, but does not own the loom.cc site

Episode 2: Liberty Villages - Non-State Communities

Interview with Clay Douglass the founder of Liberty Villages. The Liberty Villages Project. A proposal for distributed Voluntary Self Sustaining Non-State Communities. Covering Group Homesteading with armed security, communities, barter, schooling, medical care, community legal dispute resolution, affordable housing systems and solar power. They talk about many concepts to do with independence including memory-stick based transport layer (sneakernet) and connecting villages together into larger networks.

Episode 3: What is Hawala? - Jonathan Logan

Jonathan Logan a respected cryptoanarchist, working in BlackIT and author of the underground smash hit book: “The Second Realm – A Book on Strategy” answers our question: What is Hawala?

Covering: Introduction to the Hawala money transfer systems and networks, Hawala History, Culture, Trust, Community, Worldwide usage past and present and Alternate Honest Value Transfer Systems.

Counter-economics is the crossover between The Second Realm and Agorism.

Hawala as a means of transferring money is at least a thousand years old.

Episode 4: Loom for Dummies - Patrick Chkoreff

A very basic introduction to Loom. Simple, easy to understand and very informative. Topics covered include: The difference between Loom and Paypal/e-gold/GoldMoney/Pecunix type systems we are all familiar with. Very easy to understand explanations on how loom making and receiving of payments work. What are usage tokens and invitations. Loom locations, contacts accounts and assets.

“Loom for Dummies” will be followed up with Part 2 on How to get a loom account, transfer money in, or get loom assets”. Part 3 will cover a very basic intro on how to issue your own assets.

Episode 5: Bitcoin mania part 1 - mids

This episode special guest is mids, cypherpunk, digital currency fanboy, software engineer, privacy & anonymity software creator and project contributor, eurotrash turned turned AnCap by hanging out in the wrong online chat channels. Yes, its ‘mids’, lowercase ‘M’, cause this guy is L33t.

mids gives us the lowdown on this Bitcoin Mania that is exciting and confusing everyone. mids tells us the Cypherpunk Cryptocurrency invasion has begun.

Issues discussed include: What is Bitcoin? Why is Bitcoin Money? Can a tyrant in government seize the worlds Bitcoins? P2P Software/Network that makes up Bitcoin. Open Source Software. Bitcoin Mining. Past and Current USD value of Bitcoin. OTC Exchangers. Business opportunities in parts of the world for on the ground Over the Counter exchangers. The massive amount of developers creating systems for Bitcoin. The fast growing number of merchants accepting it. And... lots more. Enjoy and look forward to more episodes on Bitcoin and other topics with mids.

Episode 6 - Regional Looms - PorcLoom - Alex Wied

Loom.cc is not the only Loom system out there in the wild. PorcLoom.net is alive and kicking its way into the New Hampshire Free State Project stomping grounds.

Alex tells us why he recoded the Loom system in Ruby, setup his own Loom server, how it is geared toward a regional market, his plans for it, and many of the business models and market usage that can be operated on top of this Economic Dialtone System in the Loomiverse.

Porc is short for porcupine - the mascot of the Free State Project (it's cute, but don't tread on it!)
Bitcoin is a type of currency, [Porc]Loom is a piece of accounting software
Alex found he had a lot of trouble with Rails and changed to Sinatra and Phusion Passenger
PorcLoom.net Website
PorcLoom.net Ruby Open Source Code - completely rewritten code-base from loom.cc with some differences such as 256bit hashes
Anonymous Asset Exchange - Agora.io Presentation on YouTube
Liberty Radio Network Stream
FreeTalkLive
The Free State Project

Episode 7 - Agoria.io - Pirate Radio - Ian Freeman

Cypherpunked gives an intro to the podcast, about the importance of knowing how to do pirate radio and the information presented. Followed with an excellent presentation by liberty activist Ian Freeman, Free Talk Live Radio Host and experienced broadcaster, given at the first Agora.io conference on “Pirate Radio”.

Everything you ever wanted to know about operating an Agorist Pirate Radio Station but were afraid to ask…

Topics covered: How Ian got involved with Pirate Radio. Cost of Pirate Radio station equipment. The FCC Limited Staff and Resources, how to deal with them. Examples of known cases of broadcasters encountering problems with the FCC. Who is doing Pirate Radio? Wattage to cover your Property, Neigborhood, City. AM or FM which is cheaper, Part 15, Linking Part 15 for larger areas. LRN.FM programming content for your station. (Hey, don’t pass up broadcasting AgoristRadio.com!) Cheap throw-away equipment vs. quality. Ku band FTA (Free To Air) satellite relay, coverage, and popularity in the US vs Europe. Standalone net streaming boxes to feed transmitters. Types of transmitters. Types of antennas. Where to put an antenna and loads more.

LRN.FM - tech info page referenced in the podcast on setting up your own station.
See also Liberty

Episode 8 - JustLive.us - A Self Sufficient Revolution - Ben Godwin

Ben Godwin from the awesome website: JustLive.us joins us for a chat. Ben talks about the sites origin, design and goals. We discuss agorism, mutual aid, self-sufficiency, Direct Action, diverse groups moving into agoric activity, the building of alternate systems to replace the Failed States and the Snake Oil they have been peddling, people looking for and building systems to solve their real world problems – now.

JustLive.us - and check it out for regularly updated contributions.
Ben Godwin Graphic Design
Meet The Natives
The Lost Boys of Sudan
Agorism Poster

Episode 9 - Agora.io - The Agorist Unconference - George Donnelly

George Donnelly creator/organizer of the http://Agora.io/ “Unconference” joins us to discuss his Agora.io project. George tells us a little of his path from statism to where he is now. We discuss some of the presenters and topics, how it came about, how it went, plans for the next conference. Agorism on the ground in Latin America, the weakness of the state, the atomization of individuals in the US and cultural support systems in many “third world” countries actually being very agoric, and along with many other topics along the way.

Episode 10 - The Black and Yellow Pages - Brock Lorber

The “Black and Yellow Pages” project is geared toward hooking up people for agorist trade. Brock Lorber is an aviation consultant and trainer from Las Vegas, a columnist for Freedom’s Phoenix (freedomsphoenix.com), and a coder. We talk about this directory system, its features for reputation and referrals. How current “Certification Authorities” and EBay like ratings systems are full of Fail. What this system does to address these issues. We cover some basis on PGP Web of Trust models. Trust metrics and reputation ratings. The project goals, its codebase, current state and plans and other good stuff.

Episode 11 - Introduction to Open-Transactions Financial Crypto System and Integration with Bitcoin - Part 1 - Fellow Traveler

Part 1 of our first Interview with Cypherpunk Fellow Traveler on the “Open-Transactions Financial Crypto System and Bitcoin Integration”. Traveler gives an intro to where this system came from from, motivations behind it, history. How to look at this system and what it does. Accounts transfers, Vouchers, Checks, Digital Cash, Basket Currencies, the Integrated Stock Exchange type Market features. …And drum roll… Integration with Bitcoin… to fulfill the other need for Bitcoin: Anonymous and Instant transaction settlement.

Episode 12 - Introduction to Open-Transactions Financial Crypto System and Integration with Bitcoin - Part 2 - Fellow Traveler

Part 2 of our first Interview with Cypherpunk Fellow Traveler on the “Open-Transactions Financial Crypto System and Bitcoin Integration”. Cypherpunkd Episode 012: “Introduction to Open-Transactions Financial Crypto System and Integration with Bitcoin – Part 2″ – Fellow Traveler

Episode 13 - Loom for Geeks Part 2 - The Loom Grid API - Patrick Chkoreff

Patrick joins us again to give us the low down on the Loom Grid API. We go over how one would use the API to create a shopping cart. To create a sweep system to clear out temporary locations used in the public facing cart. SSL/TLS connection checking with the backend. Test code in perl to see how the API works. How to do atomic transactions with many moves/api calls. Any programmer listening to this will have a very clear way to integrate loom into any payment gateway, shopping cart, market system, anything that would need to accept Loom payments Into, Out from, or Inside of the Loom system.

Episode 14 - The Certificate Authority is Dead. Long Live the Certificate Authority - Hiro White

Plenty of food for thought on The Certificate Authority infrastructure Scam, Fraud and Back Door into your browser. Leading with 2 excellent articles on the net current to the state of affairs. Followed up with thoughts on how we can start creating our own alternate system of trust authenticity and verifications in applications we use every day.

The Monkeysphere project’s goal is to extend OpenPGP’s web of trust to new areas of the Internet to help us securely identify servers we connect to.

Episode 15 - Bitcoin Mania Part 2 - The Bitcoin API - mids

Cypherpunk mids is back in black to show us how to fill up our piggy-banks using the Bitcoin API. We discussed how to access the API using XMLRPC-JSON and via the command line. What a best practice would be for programming a “shopping cart” or in/out exchange system to a hypothetical Poker Gambling website accepting Bitcoin. mids also gave some bitcoin factoids and rumors at the end of the show.

Episode 16 - PorcFest - Stephanie Murphy

PorcFest 2011 – “The Largest Liberty Gathering in the World”. Stephanie Murphy gives us an intro to PorcFest, tells us about many of the activities and events, the market in “Agora Valley”, the PorcFest Agorist Coop, where to find out info on registering to attend, registering to have a booth as a vendor, make reservations for lodging and more.

Episode 17 - Individual Sovereign University - Jim Davidson

Jim Davidson of “Individual Sovereign University” joins us. We find out the reasons the institution was founded, its short and long term goals. How it works as a student, how anyone can be a teacher. Some courses offered, how to pay. Payment methods that are in development to encourage more Professors/Teachers in Second Realm to earn via anonymous digital cash, crypto currencies or other asset transfer systems. We discuss some agorism ideas in general, decentralization, a little bit about Open Source Cars, decentralization and Jim coins the term: Mountainsteading while giving some critiques on the Seasteading project. Other items, Bradley Manning, Porcfest, the breakdown of the nation state, and paths he is pursuing toward liberty.

Episode 18 - In Praise of Hawala - J. Orlin Grabbe

Nearly 10 years ago J. Orlin Grabbe wrote this excellent piece on Hawala. Now more than ever is this relevant. He pulls back the curtain on the propaganda put out by the U.S. Treasury Department and Western Union demonizing this agorist like competitive system of value transfer between voluntary associating individuals. His closing remark, classic as any famous movie quote, will strike a chord you will never forget.

Episode 19 - Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange and Bitdrop - Nefario

The Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange, Bitcoin, Open-Transactions, Loom, GSF, CoatCheck… Buckle your seat-belt Dorothy, cause Kansas is about to go bye-bye. This episode is not for the faint of heart. Nefario starts off telling us some of his background motivation for creating this project. How it started off as a reputation system, but then the GLBSE seemed like a need to be fulfilled first. Discussion on the recent spike in Bitcoin adoption and market activity. We cover features of the GBSE, things working now, things being coded now. How they started with Open-Transactions, but moved to their own backend, and future plans for their replacing most of the backend with future Open-Transactions releases. We go over the Tutorial showing basic features of the system, Register, Deposit, Withdraw, Transfer, Place Order, Show Orders, Issue Assets. Ricardian contracts example of issuing your own Bond, pgp key signing of contracts. Integrating Loom and GSF Globals as an additional settlement/payment currency in GLBSE. Integrating Open-Transactions and other systems. Possibilities of P2P comms with future clients, encryption transports, encrypted messages over OTR. Issues of criminal organizations attacking this system, the need to take it deep in the darknets.

Nefario also lets us know about his other future project “Bitdrop” a distributed package delivery system with couriers getting paid with bitcoin. Programmers wanted! Doing onion routing and geocache, f2f networks. We discuss massively distributed p2p hawala systems with anyone and everyone an exchanger for in/out of second realm currencies. GLBSE METATRADING and his article on anonymous exchange networks.

Episode 20 - Digital Cash and the Future of Money - J. Orlin Grabbe

	Yet a third introduction to digital cash, this one from the point of view of monetary economics, is found in Digital Cash and the Future of Money. In this article I give a formal definition to digital cash (no one seems to have done this before), and show how the move to Internet banking is being driven by banking transactions costs.
	— J Orlin Grabbe

Excellent piece by Orlin dating from 1998. That is around 14 years ago from the time of this reading. The article originally appeared as “Introduction to Digital Cash” in Liberty (July 1998) and in the SIRS Renaissance data base (1999).

Original piece: Digital Cash and the Future of Money, by J. Orlin Grabbe
A Brief Guide to Digital Cash Articles on Orlin’s Webpage
Orlin’s Webpage - still maintained after his passing away.

Episode 21 - The Curious Deaths of American Private Space Programs - Jim Davidson

Jim Davidson discusses how his commercial space company and project were crushed by the state and NASA. Origins of his project, goals, and big names involved. We discuss the NASA / Military Industrial Complex link and the US Government sham of “privatization” which is just more corporatism and NASA monopoly. Jim has words about the Soviet space system vs US programs, historically and now. The viability of getting into space, starting on mars, living in an asteroid belt. Jim makes it clear, getting into space has been solved, moving on from there we can do. Jim mocks those that would liken space-fanboys to other forms of “Digital-Escapism”. We get excellent economic and physics based reasoning why Deep Ocean-steading is impractical and undesirable when compared to space alternatives.

We start to talk about what is needed to be done to move into space, Jim emphasizes: There are no technical limitations for going into space now. Jim recommends a book the interested can read with a very useful scenario, by science fiction, fantasy writer and agorist Victor Koman called Kings of the High Frontier.

The only problem we have now are Government force crushing entrepreneurs ready to move on this.

We get into the reasons why its important to have a frontier as an option, to use, and to force competitive jurisdictions to treat their residents more like customers rather than pigs in the pen. Passports, borders, travel/work restrictions as part of tyrannical global system of slavery. Jim makes the point that one reason we are building the Second Realm is because it works as a frontier, where many forms of communication, trade, business can take place in this new electronic frontier that is impossible or deathly dangerous to do in current meatspace. It is a fascinating show, sobering, a little disturbing, yet encouraging and very thought provoking.

Episode 22 - The Second Realm: TAZ - Temporary Autonomous Zones - Jonathan Logan

Jonathan Logan a respected cryptoanarchist, working in BlackIT and author of the underground smash hit book: “The Second Realm – A Book on Strategy” is back to discuss TAZ – Temporary Autonomous Zones.

We cover some historical examples, current examples in many countries. How they work, where they spring up. How we can create our own TAZ’s. The importance of TAZ in cyberspace and meatspace. Operating a TAZ using some strategy such as Conceal, Know, Delay, Defend, Destroy, Recover. Preparing for, dealing with and avoiding Terrorcrats and Pigs. Jonathan also tipped us off on some TAZ operations in cyberspace, and meatspace that people can look into now. Including the Darknets i2p/onionland and agora.anarplex IRC network in cyberspace and a new TAZ building operation in a major European city that is well underway. We were teased about a project of transportable living containers that are capable of integrating into spontaneous and mobile TAZ’s, but we have to wait until the next show with Jonathan to get the scoop on that… Lots of good discussion and info, this episode will go into a complete Second Realm Series covering many specific topics from the book: The Second Realm – A Book on Strategy.

Episode 23 - Voucher-Safe - Secure P2P Digital Cash and Infrastructure - Justin

Justin tells us that Voucher-Safe has entered the building. Listen in and get a great overview of what Voucher-Safe brings to the Second-Realm and mucho info on the infrastructure. Operating in a P2P via Jabber/XMPP protocol from clients to servers to an entire infrastructure all the way to the actual Issuers of the assets. It has operational incentives built in at every level of the system. We hear how this system was conceived after the jackboots confiscated all the gold of the people using e-gold and prosecuted the operators, while they turn a complete blind eye to prosecuting Citibank for what its users do with their cash outside the bank. Cash is the way to go. Voucher-safe has no accounts… you have wallets, and exchange over a p2p network protocol xmpp these bearer certificates. We hear how close the system is to full production and the initial issuers. Justin talks about some of the protocol, how to integrate your own software in with the API. We get a little technical at times, but far from where we would have gone had time permitted, save that for the next episode. Check out the software, view the screencasts, join the forums and get some funny-money assets to test out the system.

Episode 24 - The Coming War on Money - P2P Digital Currency: The Long Road Ahead for FinCEN - Mark Herpel

A reading of a piece by Mark Herpel. Don’t confuse this with hysterics on the part of the author. Mark wrote this piece without commentary, only matter of fact, and only addressing FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) “concerns”. The issues raised are ones of Mega-Political, paradigm changing scope, clearly to be the single most Disruptive Technology seen to date. The issues are though, starting to cause hysterics, especially with those involved with wealth redistribution, asset confiscation, taxation theft, financial spy networks, and other financial/money monopolists i.e. Government thugs and their Big Bank/Corporate spouses. Brief commentary and comments by Hiro at the end of the reading.

Episode 25 - Intro to Community Currencies: Mutal Credit, LETS, Timebanks, Software, Solutions, Legal Issues and the Future - Mathew Slater

Community Currency Engineer Mathew Slater joins us to tell us about his Mutual Credit system. Some history and how Mutual Credit differs from LETS and Timebanks. His Drupal Module for Mutual Credit and the Community Forge project to provide a complete “Community-in-a-Box” system for users, messaging, forums, and an integrated community currency system. We cover some of the legal issues some of these systems are facing due to competition with traditional bankster/government monopolies. We talk a little of the international barter systems, internetworked community currency exchange systems, what is money and the difference between an IOU on a paper and other so-called “Stored Value” plastic cards, and the crushing regulation that is looming over these systems because of this. Matthew tells us his motivations and visions for these systems in Transition towns, Lifeboat solutions and the future of money. Very thought provoking episode for any aspiring Agorist and alternate money system creator and user.

Episode 26 - HOWTO: A Tyrants Guide to Taking Over Bitcoin and Licensing Miners + Bitcoin Over Freenet Project - da2ce7

Cypherpunk da2ce7 lays out the HOWTO for a Complete Government Takeover of Bitcoin, how they can lock out miners that are not registered with the Government and 0wn it. We get into the Bitcoin over Freenet Project which creates a parallel communication and Bitcoin network, adds an ANTI-DDOS layer, and Anonymity layer to Blockchain exchange, distribution, and updates and p2p Payments. He then tells us how Bitcoin could survive a complete internet shutdown, albeit with 2 day payment settlement times using a Freenet based data p2p distribution/sync system.

This episode is Pure Fun.

Episode 27 - PostPolitical.us Launch - Forget the State and Politicians - Take Direct Action Toward Your Interests - Ben Godwin and Harold Gray

Ben Godwin is back with Harold Gray from JustLive.us telling us about their new project: PostPolitical.us

In a very agorist style approach of ignoring the Politicians and putting your Money and Action where your personal interests are for your own interests. We discuss the aims of the site, its niche with the new wave of Political donations going on even for people such as Ron Paul. They suggest you take a look at all the other kickstarter type projects out there and find something that can change YOUR WORLD. We get into many of the business models, project models being used for this crowdfunding eco system that is exploding on the net. What it means for project upstarts, now and in the future, and when alternate money systems even allow for the money to flow even faster allowing for the Individual to do his own proper Resource Allocation, as the state is Fail on that task.

Episode 28 - Truledger: An Anonymous Digitally Signed General Ledger and Trading System - Intro and Walkthrough - Bill St. Clair

Bill St. Claire of the great billstclair.com blog and author of the Truledger Anonymous Digitally Signed General Ledger and Trading System joins us for an Intro to the System and a walkthrough where we cover many aspect of the system. We discuss the client software, the servers. Digital Signatures, Coupons, destruction of account history. Lisp, multiplatform binaries, the future for iphone and android. How to run a Client, a Multi-user client and more. Very informative and interesting.

Episode 29 - Inflation and The Fall of the Roman Empire - Money, Gold, Silver, Taxes, Inflation, Debasement and Tyranny - Lecture by Professor Joseph Peden

This is a lecture by Prof. Joseph Peden called “Inflation and the Fall of the Roman Empire” given at the Seminar on Money and Government in Houston, Texas on October 27, 1984. The original audio recording is available courtesy of the Mises Institute. I have commissioned this transcript in the hope that you may find it as interesting and educational as I did. Kudos to Joshua Griffith for bringing this talk to my attention.

Episode 30 - Out of Africa: Jim Davidson’s Adventures in Somalia - Tales of Business, Culture, Law, War and Clans - Jim Davidson

Jim Davidson of indsovu.com is back for another ACE episode. The title of the episode says it all. Listen, ponder, enjoy.

Jim Recommends a great book by his late friend Michael van Notten:

The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa, was published by the Red Sea Press, Inc. in 2005.

Many related mentions in this book via search.

Great list of Related Info, Links, Resources

Episode 31 - The Internet and the End of Monetary Sovereignty - Bill Frezza

Bill Frezza: “Perhaps, for the first time, sovereign individuals will have the tools to construct a practical realization of laissez-faire capitalism without having to resort to a problematic social contract with an all-powerful state to create the conditions necessary to sustain a stable political economy. At the root of this system will be new monetary institutions that must inherently rest on the consent of the participants.

Cyberspace, which promises to shield individuals from the ravages of coercive force and allow them to conduct their affairs in secure anonymity, will bring forth a burst of creative human genius not seen since the last time a new world was discovered.”

The Future of Money in the Information Age: Chapter 4: The Internet and the End of Monetary Sovereignty

Episode 32 - The World Financial Police Attack Anonymity - J. Orlin Grabbe

Orlin: “The world financial police are determined to eliminate all opportunity for individual financial privacy and anonymity. Their coordinated efforts to make possible the tracking of every financial transaction represent a direct fascistic attack on human freedom. And there is nothing secret about what they are doing. Their campaign is as overt as the war on drugs, and as well-funded as next year’s intelligence budget. New legislative proposals to make their political efforts “the law,” to expand their intrusive powers, and to criminalize their critics, pour off the assembly line daily.

Call their goal the Global Financial Jackboot. The jackboot’s construction proceeds according to a fairly detailed blueprint. Maybe you should take a look.”

Original Essay: The World Financial Police Attack Anonymity
Orlin’s Homepage

Episode 33 - Why You Should Never Talk to Police - James Duane

Submitting whistle-blowing documents to a Wiki/OpenLeaks site? Running an Agorist business selling raw milk against the wishes of a Terrorcrat 3K km away? Providing weed to a medical marijuana patient with cancer? It’s doubtfull you have not broken some law within the past few days, or week. As the world heads faster into Totalitarianism be prepared to deal with some of the Jackboots. Keep your mouth shut. “Nobody Talks, Everybody Walks”:

“Mr. James Duane, a professor at Regent Law School and a former defense attorney, tells you why you should never agree to be interviewed by the police. Followed up by an experienced police officer tells you why you should never agree to be interviewed by the police.”

Episode 34 - Untraceable Digital Cash, Information Markets and Blacknet - Timothy C. May

Another Cypherpunk classic by Tim May. One of the most important points: “No Middle Ground”. “Digital Cash IS Speech”

“Untraceable Digital Cash, Information Markets and Blacknet” Timothy C. May

Sections:

Introduction
Anonymous Digital Cash
Is Digital Cash Really Coming?
The Technology is Here
“Anyone a Mint”
Implications of Anyone Becoming a Mint
Applications at the “Margins”
Information Markets as an Example
The BlackNet Experiment
Espionage as an Information Market
Can Digital Cash be Banned?
No Middle Ground
Effects on Taxation
Crypto Armageddon: The Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse
The Price of Digital Cash

Original: Untraceable Digital Cash, Information Markets, and BlackNet

Episode 35 - Bitcoin Mania: Part 3 - The Bitcoin Laundry and “Remailer” Systems and the Basics of Pooled Mining - Mike Gogulski

A great show with Mike Gogulski a stateless ex-American, living in Bratislava, Slovakia. We cover his websites, and projects. Then get into Bitcoin. The network, what is going on, his Laundry systems, the basic one, then the new app.bitlaundry.com that can blast coins out to multiple recipients with time delays, leaning toward a “Remailer” like system. We cover his new mining work, mining Pools and how you actually have a chance at mining in a Pool rather than going cowboy. Fascinating show, highly recommended.

Episode 36 - MondoNet - A Global Decentralized, Ad-Hoc, Wireless, P2P Mesh Network - Aram Sinnreich

Aram Sinnreich from the MondoNet Project joins us to remind us of the words of John Lennon: “Imagine no Centralized ISP’s and Government Controlled Internet, Imagine All the People living in P2P Communications Liberty”. Well those are not Arams words, but if you are not aware of projects such as this, you are in for a treat. This is not your average Darknet that sits on top of the existing internet. This is an Alternate Internet, P2P, Device to Device. Agorist Style… Enjoy the Show.

Background:

Although the Internet is highly decentralized in its communication and social patterns, its technical and regulatory foundations are extremely hierarchical, due to centralized control by organizations like ICANN and the oligopolistic ownership of the access business by a handful of broadband ISPs and wireless carriers (Wu, 2010). As a result of this centralization, digital communications are compromised by a degree of surveillance and censorship that would be unthinkable in traditional social arenas, threatening our cyberliberties and “e-speech” rights (Sinnreich & Zager, 2008). Seemingly disparate issues like network neutrality, intellectual property treaties and national security measures, taken in combination, threaten to produce a communications environment in which innovation is stifled and normative cultural behaviors are criminalized and punished by censorship, fines and/or imprisonment. One potential solution to this problem would be to create a new communications platform based on existing Internet protocols, but with a decentralized infrastructure free of the bottlenecks and chokepoints that plague the current system. Specifically, this new infrastructure would use mesh networking technologies to produce a stable, ad hoc global wireless network in which each peer is a router, server and client combined, and in which no single state or organization can effectively censor or surveil the population on a massive scale.

Other:

AmbientTalk is an experimental object-oriented distributed programming language developed at the Programming Technology Laboratory at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. The language is primarily targeted at writing programs deployed in mobile ad hoc networks. http://code.google.com/p/ambienttalk/wiki/WeScribble

Aram Sinnreich, Ph.D.

Episode 37 - Digital Cash and the Regulators - J. Orlin Grabbe

Another piece from J. Orlin Grabbe on Digital Cash and the Regulators. Seigniorage, or Digital Cash issued by banks are actually Interest Free Loans to the Bank Issuers from the Cash holders? Interesting topics covered, and most issues still relevant today. One thing for sure, you don’t want to do this stuff in the USA.

Original Essay: “Digital Cash and the Regulators” by J. Orlin Grabbe

Episode 38 - Voucher-Safe P2P Digital Cash - Problems it Solves, Problems it does Not - Justin of Voucher-Safe

Justin from Voucher-Safe is back to discuss some Problems that Voucher-Safe is out to Solve, and some things that it has no interest in solving, namely the “better money” problem. Listen in to hear what Justin has to say about this. Also discussed are some early history of pre-internet days when the feds cracked down on an early barter network that exchanged warehouse receipts… Interesting stories…

Some more details on how Voucher-Safe has many layers with Zero-Knowledge like interactions. You can’t give up, what you don’t know. You don’t need to know, what is not necessary to know.

Justin also discusses his positive feelings about what a system like Voucher-Safe can do for Bitcoin, referencing the recent show with Mike Gogulski on Bitcoin laundry systems, and all remailer type mixing of transactions. How Voucher-Safe can fit right in with bringing many things to the Digital Cash/Value Transfer System talbles that Bitcoin by itself does not solve.

We then get into the XMPP infrastructure that Voucher-Safe uses for inter system communications and client comms with users. Interesting setup, we discuss how some elements of Voucher-Safe can be run on Low Trust Servers with an economic incentive for those that run them. We also talk about some “best practices” for RPC/Request-Response calls over XMPP, he talks about existing solutions and things like timeouts, queues, and callback ids can be used. First half non-tech, second half heavy tech. As a whole Good Stuff.

Episode 39 - History of the Cypherpunks - Computers, Freedom, and Privacy in a Networked Society 2010 - Tim May, Philip Zimmerman, Lucky Green, Lance Cottrel

Some of the key early figures on the Cypherpunks mailing list will discuss the history of this struggle, why it happened, how that relates to the situation today, and where they think we should go from here.

The Cypherpunks formed as the use of the Internet was starting to explode and there were real and profound questions about how it would evolve and what kinds of security and privacy (or lack thereof) would exist on it. The Cypherpunks worked to make it as secure and private as possible using technology rather than regulation.

From the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy in a Networked Society — the 20th annual CFP conference.

Original Video

Episode 40 - The Second Realm - Book on Strategy - Crypto-Anarchy, Tradecraft, TAZ and Counterculture: Part 1/3 – Smuggler and XYZ

Part 1/3: “The Second Realm – Book on Strategy” The Audio Book.

“We are building a society – today and here – to implement our vision of a peaceful, non-intervening and progressing life-style that respects the autonomy of each individual as the highest value.

To reach our goal we combine Cypherpunk and Counter-Economics to create Digital Autonomous Zones and semi-Temporary Physical Autonomous Zones to provide resilient space for life, trade, meeting and enjoyment – nurtured by a culture grown by ourselves and accessible to everyone of good spirit.

Episode 41 - What is Money? - Working on or Using new Digital Cash and Value Transfer Systems? A Must Listen - Frederick Bastiat

A stunning treaty on “What is Money” by Frederick Bastiat. From wikipedia: “Bastiat was the author of many works on economics and political economy, generally characterized by their clear organization, forceful argumentation, and acerbic wit. Economist Murray Rothbard wrote that “Bastiat was indeed a lucid and superb writer, whose brilliant and witty essays and fables to this day are remarkable and devastating demolitions of protectionism and of all forms of government subsidy and control. He was a truly scintillating advocate of an untrammeled free market.” Among his better known works is Economic Sophisms, which contains many strongly worded attacks on statist policies. Bastiat wrote it while living in England to advise the shapers of the French Republic on pitfalls to avoid.

Episode 42 - Bitcoin Mania 4 - The Social, Economic and Political Disruptive Technology of Bitcoin with Austrian School Economist Jon Matonis

Jon Matonis, an Austrian School Economist and author of The Monetary Future Blog joins us for a chat with Hiro on the topics of “The Social, Economic and Political Disruptive Technology of Bitcoin”. Jon gives us some of his background and history relating to digital currencies and issues surrounding the New Monetary Future. We spin off on many topics related to the Bitcoin ecosystem, news items, the concept of money and the reactions to Bitcoin by the State, Gold-Bugs, old-man-bitter-Cypherpunks and more. This is our first episode with Jon and we hope to have him back on a regular basis as there are very few in this world with the background and understanding of what is going on right now and who Really GET IT.

Episode 43 - Bitcoin Mania 5 - Nefario Blows Minds with more GLBSE, Bitdrop, Nomicoin, Cryptocloud and Bitcoin Buzz - part 1/2 - Nefario

Nefario is back with updates on all his *Epic* Projects. The new Browser based Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange Client with key crypto IN the browser! 4 New Companies Listed on the GLBSE, many paying dividends already! We cover in some detail what these companies are doing and their business models. Bitdrop development is well underway bringing us closer to a economically incentivised trust based Package delivery system, more details on its blind addressing and delivery system. Nomicoin… the Anonymous P2P Regional Hawala type system for moving money IN and OUT and THROUGH the Second Realm and Bitcoin financial network. Cryptocloud! Secure Darknet cloudhosting in Tor/I2P paid for with bitcoin! Also discussed are Silk Road, politics, humor, the recent 25K Bitcoin/$500K Theft, new bitcoin wallet snatching malware… ideas on the current projects and future directions. Make sure to catch Part 1 and 2 for the whole fascinating ride in the land of Nefario and team…

Episode 44 - Bitcoin Mania 6 - Nefario Blows Minds with more GLBSE, Bitdrop, Nomicoin, Cryptocloud and Bitcoin Buzz - part 2 - Nefario

Nefario is back with updates on all his *Epic* Projects. The new Browser based Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange Client with key crypto IN the browser! 4 New Companies Listed on the GLBSE, many paying dividends already! We cover in some detail what these companies are doing and their business models. Bitdrop development is well underway bringing us closer to a economically incentivised trust based Package delivery system, more details on its blind addressing and delivery system. Nomicoin… the Anonymous P2P Regional Hawala type system for moving money IN and OUT and THROUGH the Second Realm and Bitcoin financial network. Cryptocloud! Secure Darknet cloudhosting in Tor/I2P paid for with bitcoin! Also discussed are Silk Road, politics, humor, the recent 25K Bitcoin/$500K Theft, new bitcoin wallet snatching malware… ideas on the current projects and future directions. Make sure to catch Part 1 and 2 for the whole fascinating ride in the land of Nefario and team…

Episode 45 - The Second Realm - Book on Strategy - Crypto-Anarchy, Tradecraft, TAZ and Counterculture: Part 2/3 - Smuggler and XYZ

Part 2/3: “The Second Realm – Book on Strategy” The Audio Book.

“We are building a society – today and here – to implement our vision of a peaceful, non-intervening and progressing life-style that respects the autonomy of each individual as the highest value.

To reach our goal we combine Cypherpunk and Counter-Economics to create Digital Autonomous Zones and semi-Temporary Physical Autonomous Zones to provide resilient space for life, trade, meeting and enjoyment – nurtured by a culture grown by ourselves and accessible to everyone of good spirit.

Episode 46 - The Second Realm - Book on Strategy - Crypto-Anarchy, Tradecraft, TAZ and Counterculture: Part 3/3 - Smuggler and XYZ

Part 3/3: “The Second Realm – Book on Strategy” The Audio Book.

“We are building a society – today and here – to implement our vision of a peaceful, non-intervening and progressing life-style that respects the autonomy of each individual as the highest value.

To reach our goal we combine Cypherpunk and Counter-Economics to create Digital Autonomous Zones and semi-Temporary Physical Autonomous Zones to provide resilient space for life, trade, meeting and enjoyment – nurtured by a culture grown by ourselves and accessible to everyone of good spirit.

Episode 47 - Bitcoin vs. The State - Gold and Economic Freedom

Bitcoin and Gold are not just about sound money. They are about Liberty vs. Tyranny. An excellent essay by an unexpected freedom fighter before he crossed over to the Darkside.

Connecting to #agora on IRC through I2P

The preferred way of connecting to the #agora channel is over I2P and with OTR installed for strong encryption on private chats. The procedure for connecting over I2P is rather complicated.

After you have successfully installed I2P, you'll first need to import the agora.anarplex.i2p address into the i2p router. One way to do this is to import an address book that already has the agora address in it, but in this case a link to the local address importing application with the hostname and 516 character destination is included in the MOTD of the channel (or try this link). I added http://inr.i2p/export/alive-hosts.txt to the subscriptions which you can edit at http://127.0.0.1:7657/susidns/subscriptions then save and reload, but if you imported from the direct link you should see the entry in your private address book which you can view from this link and it should show the entry like this:

Next you'll then need to go to the local configuration page for tunnels at http://127.0.0.1:7657/i2ptunnel and then either edit the existing IRC tunnel if there is one, or create a new one. Put it on the local 127.0.0.1 IP address with port 6668 and use the agora.anarplex.i2p which now resolves to the correct I2P encrypted address. Save the new settings and start the tunnel.

Once you're tunnel is showing as active (a green light next to it), you can then configure the account in your chat client which is simply a standard IRC client connecting to 127.0.0.1 on port 6668 as you specified in the tunnel configuration previously. Once the account is connected, you can then create a persistent channel connection to #agora as usual. If your tunnel is not working or there are other problems, check the logs for troubleshooting information.

Soon after connecting you'll be notified that you need to register your nick with the server, which is done with /msg nickserv register PASSWORD EMAIL. You'll be asked to enter this commend every time you connect, so I'd recommend you set up an automatic channel registration or a auto-replaced term so you can do it easily each time. NOTE: this is not obligatory.

Note: if it's not working, make sure you don't have two tunnels on the same port as in this screenshot. This can happen if you created a new tunnel on port 6668 without deleting the default one first. Alternatively you can just edit the default one to have the correct settings instead of creating a new one.

Note: If you are using Adium, a native Mac port of Pidgin, be aware that when creating a new account to connect to 127.0.0.1, the server account has an 'alias' field, which appears to be a short name for the server but ends up being used as your nick. When you edit personal data, you choose a nick and real name, but Adium ignores the personal nick and connects to the irc server using the "alias" as your nick. Therefore, put your nick as the server alias.

The Second Realm

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Connecting to #agora on IRC through I2P

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