Advertisement
| book cypherpunks: Cypherpunks Julian Assange, Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn, Jérémie Zimmermann, 2012 Visionary WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange brings together a small group of cutting-edge thinkers and activists to discuss whether electronic communications will emancipate or enslave. Among the topics addressed are: Do Facebook and Google constitute the greatest surveillance machine that ever existed,' perpetually tracking people's locations, contacts and lives? Far from being victims of that surveillance, are most people willing collaborators? Are there legitimate forms of surveillance? And does anyone have the ability to resist this tide?' |
| book cypherpunks: Cypherpunk Ethics Patrick D. Anderson, 2022-04-24 Cypherpunk Ethics explores the moral worldview of the cypherpunks, a movement that advocates the use of strong digital cryptography—or crypto, for short—to defend individual privacy and promote institutional transparency in the digital age. Focusing on the writings of Timothy May and Julian Assange, two of the most prolific and influential cypherpunks, the book examines two competing paradigms of cypherpunk philosophy—crypto anarchy and crypto justice—and examines the implications of cypherpunk ethics for a range of contemporary moral issues, including surveillance, privacy, whistleblowing, cryptocurrencies, journalism, democracy, censorship, intellectual property, and power. Rooted in theory but with very real applications, this volume will appeal not only to students and scholars of digital media, communication, journalism, philosophy, political science, critical data studies, sociology, and the history of technology but also to technologists and activists around the world. |
| book cypherpunks: The Cypherpunk Revolutionary Robert Manne, 2015-09-30 'There are few original ideas in politics. In the creation of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange was responsible for one.' This essay reveals the making of Julian Assange - both his ideas and his world-changing actions. Robert Manne explores Assange's unruly childhood and then his involvement with the revolutionary cypherpunk underground, all the way through to the creation of WikiLeaks. Pulling together the threads of his development, Manne shows how Assange became one of the most influential Australians of our time. |
| book cypherpunks: Cyberlibertarianism David Golumbia, 2024-11-12 An urgent reckoning with digital technology’s fundamentally right-wing legal and economic underpinnings In a timely challenge to the potent political role of digital technology, Cyberlibertarianism argues that right-wing ideology was built into both the technical and social construction of the digital world from the start. Leveraging more than a decade of research, David Golumbia traces how digital evangelism has driven the worldwide shift toward the political right, concealing inequality, xenophobia, dishonesty, and massive corporate concentrations of wealth and power beneath the utopian presumption of digital technology as an inherent social good. Providing an incisive critique of the push for open access and open-source software and the legal battles over online censorship and net neutrality, Cyberlibertarianism details how the purportedly democratic internet has been employed as an organizing tool for terror and hate groups and political disinformation campaigns. As he unpacks our naively utopian conception of the digital world, Golumbia highlights technology’s role in the advancement of hyperindividualist and antigovernment agendas, demonstrating how Silicon Valley corporations and right-wing economists; antiestablishment figures such as Julian Assange, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Edward Snowden, and Mark Zuckerberg; and seemingly positive voices such as John Perry Barlow, Cory Doctorow, the Electronic Freedom Foundation, and Wikipedia all have worked to hamper regulation and weaken legal safeguards against exploitation. Drawing from a wide range of thought in digital theory, economics, law, and political philosophy as well as detailed research and Golumbia’s own experience as a software developer, Cyberlibertarianism serves as a clarion call to reevaluate the fraught politics of the internet. In the hope of providing a way of working toward a more genuinely democratic and egalitarian future for digital technology, this magisterial work insists that we must first understand the veiled dogmas from which it has been constructed. Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly. |
| book cypherpunks: Mastering Ethereum Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Gavin Wood Ph.D., 2018-11-13 Ethereum represents the gateway to a worldwide, decentralized computing paradigm. This platform enables you to run decentralized applications (DApps) and smart contracts that have no central points of failure or control, integrate with a payment network, and operate on an open blockchain. With this practical guide, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood provide everything you need to know about building smart contracts and DApps on Ethereum and other virtual-machine blockchains. Discover why IBM, Microsoft, NASDAQ, and hundreds of other organizations are experimenting with Ethereum. This essential guide shows you how to develop the skills necessary to be an innovator in this growing and exciting new industry. Run an Ethereum client, create and transmit basic transactions, and program smart contracts Learn the essentials of public key cryptography, hashes, and digital signatures Understand how wallets hold digital keys that control funds and smart contracts Interact with Ethereum clients programmatically using JavaScript libraries and Remote Procedure Call interfaces Learn security best practices, design patterns, and anti-patterns with real-world examples Create tokens that represent assets, shares, votes, or access control rights Build decentralized applications using multiple peer-to-peer (P2P) components |
| book cypherpunks: When Google Met Wikileaks Julian Assange, 2016-10-11 In June 2011, Julian Assange received an unusual visitor: the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, arrived from America at Ellingham Hall, the country residence in Norfolk, England where Assange was living under house arrest. For several hours the besieged leader of the world's most famous insurgent publishing organization and the billionaire head of the world's largest information empire locked horns. The two men debated the political problems faced by society, and the technological solutions engendered by the global network--from the Arab Spring to Bitcoin. They outlined radically opposing perspectives: for Assange, the liberating power of the Internet is based on its freedom and statelessness.For Schmidt, emancipation is at one with US foreign policy objectives and is driven by connecting non-Western countries to American companies and markets. These differences embodied a tug-of-war over the Internet's future that has only gathered force subsequently. When Google Met WikiLeaks presents the story of Assange and Schmidt's encounter. Both fascinating and alarming, it contains an edited transcript of their conversation and extensive, new material, written by Assange specifically for this book, providing the best available summary of his vision for the future of the Internet. |
| book cypherpunks: Crypto Steven Levy, 2001-01-08 If you've ever made a secure purchase with your credit card over the Internet, then you have seen cryptography, or crypto, in action. From Stephen Levy—the author who made hackers a household word—comes this account of a revolution that is already affecting every citizen in the twenty-first century. Crypto tells the inside story of how a group of crypto rebels—nerds and visionaries turned freedom fighters—teamed up with corporate interests to beat Big Brother and ensure our privacy on the Internet. Levy's history of one of the most controversial and important topics of the digital age reads like the best futuristic fiction. |
| book cypherpunks: Digital Cash Finn Brunton, 2020-10-13 The fascinating untold story of digital cash and its creators—from experiments in the 1970s to the mania over Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies Bitcoin may appear to be a revolutionary form of digital cash without precedent or prehistory. In fact, it is only the best-known recent experiment in a long line of similar efforts going back to the 1970s. But the story behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and its blockchain technology has largely been untold—until now. In Digital Cash, Finn Brunton reveals how technological utopians and political radicals created experimental money to bring about their visions of the future: to protect privacy, bring down governments, prepare for apocalypse, or launch a civilization of innovation and abundance that would make its creators immortal. Filled with marvelous characters, stories, and ideas, Digital Cash is an engaging and accessible account of the strange origins and remarkable technologies behind today's cryptocurrency explosion. |
| book cypherpunks: Tracers in the Dark Andy Greenberg, 2022-11-15 From the award-winning author of Sandworm comes the propulsive story of a new breed of investigators who have cracked the Bitcoin blockchain, exposing once-anonymous realms of money, drugs, and violence. “I love the book… It reads like a thriller… These stories are amazing.” (Michael Lewis) Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money. But what if the centerpiece of this dark economy held a secret, fatal flaw? What if their currency wasn’t so cryptic after all? An investigator using the right mixture of technical wizardry, financial forensics, and old-fashioned persistence could uncover an entire world of wrongdoing. Tracers in the Dark is a story of crime and pursuit unlike any other. With unprecedented access to the major players in federal law enforcement and private industry, veteran cybersecurity reporter Andy Greenberg tells an astonishing saga of criminal empires built and destroyed. He introduces an IRS agent with a defiant streak, a Bitcoin-tracing Danish entrepreneur, and a colorful ensemble of hardboiled agents and prosecutors as they delve deep into the crypto-underworld. The result is a thrilling, globe-spanning story of dirty cops, drug bazaars, trafficking rings, and the biggest takedown of an online narcotics market in the history of the Internet. Utterly of our time, Tracers in the Dark is a cat-and-mouse story and a tale of a technological one-upmanship. Filled with canny maneuvering and shocking twists, it answers a provocative question: How would some of the world’s most brazen criminals behave if they were sure they could never get caught? |
| book cypherpunks: Crypto Wars Craig Jarvis, 2020-12-30 The crypto wars have raged for half a century. In the 1970s, digital privacy activists prophesied the emergence of an Orwellian State, made possible by computer-mediated mass surveillance. The antidote: digital encryption. The U.S. government warned encryption would not only prevent surveillance of law-abiding citizens, but of criminals, terrorists, and foreign spies, ushering in a rival dystopian future. Both parties fought to defend the citizenry from what they believed the most perilous threats. The government tried to control encryption to preserve its surveillance capabilities; privacy activists armed citizens with cryptographic tools and challenged encryption regulations in the courts. No clear victor has emerged from the crypto wars. Governments have failed to forge a framework to govern the, at times conflicting, civil liberties of privacy and security in the digital age—an age when such liberties have an outsized influence on the citizen–State power balance. Solving this problem is more urgent than ever. Digital privacy will be one of the most important factors in how we architect twenty-first century societies—its management is paramount to our stewardship of democracy for future generations. We must elevate the quality of debate on cryptography, on how we govern security and privacy in our technology-infused world. Failure to end the crypto wars will result in societies sleepwalking into a future where the citizen–State power balance is determined by a twentieth-century status quo unfit for this century, endangering both our privacy and security. This book provides a history of the crypto wars, with the hope its chronicling sets a foundation for peace. |
| book cypherpunks: Self-Sovereign Identity Alex Preukschat, Drummond Reed, 2021-06-08 In Self-Sovereign Identity: Decentralized digital identity and verifiable credentials, you’ll learn how SSI empowers us to receive digitally-signed credentials, store them in private wallets, and securely prove our online identities. Summary In a world of changing privacy regulations, identity theft, and online anonymity, identity is a precious and complex concept. Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is a set of technologies that move control of digital identity from third party “identity providers” directly to individuals, and it promises to be one of the most important trends for the coming decades. Now in Self-Sovereign Identity, privacy and personal data experts Drummond Reed and Alex Preukschat lay out a roadmap for a future of personal sovereignty powered by the Blockchain and cryptography. Cutting through the technical jargon with dozens of practical use cases from experts across all major industries, it presents a clear and compelling argument for why SSI is a paradigm shift, and shows how you can be ready to be prepared for it. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the technology Trust on the internet is at an all-time low. Large corporations and institutions control our personal data because we’ve never had a simple, safe, strong way to prove who we are online. Self-sovereign identity (SSI) changes all that. About the book In Self-Sovereign Identity: Decentralized digital identity and verifiable credentials, you’ll learn how SSI empowers us to receive digitally-signed credentials, store them in private wallets, and securely prove our online identities. It combines a clear, jargon-free introduction to this blockchain-inspired paradigm shift with interesting essays written by its leading practitioners. Whether for property transfer, ebanking, frictionless travel, or personalized services, the SSI model for digital trust will reshape our collective future. What's inside The architecture of SSI software and services The technical, legal, and governance concepts behind SSI How SSI affects global business industry-by-industry Emerging standards for SSI About the reader For technology and business readers. No prior SSI, cryptography, or blockchain experience required. About the authors Drummond Reed is the Chief Trust Officer at Evernym, a technology leader in SSI. Alex Preukschat is the co-founder of SSIMeetup.org and AlianzaBlockchain.org. Table of Contents PART 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO SSI 1 Why the internet is missing an identity layer—and why SSI can finally provide one 2 The basic building blocks of SSI 3 Example scenarios showing how SSI works 4 SSI Scorecard: Major features and benefits of SSI PART 2: SSI TECHNOLOGY 5 SSI architecture: The big picture 6 Basic cryptography techniques for SSI 7 Verifiable credentials 8 Decentralized identifiers 9 Digital wallets and digital agents 10 Decentralized key management 11 SSI governance frameworks PART 3: DECENTRALIZATION AS A MODEL FOR LIFE 12 How open source software helps you control your self-sovereign identity 13 Cypherpunks: The origin of decentralization 14 Decentralized identity for a peaceful society 15 Belief systems as drivers for technology choices in decentralization 16 The origins of the SSI community 17 Identity is money PART 4: HOW SSI WILL CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS 18 Explaining the value of SSI to business 19 The Internet of Things opportunity 20 Animal care and guardianship just became crystal clear 21 Open democracy, voting, and SSI 22 Healthcare supply chain powered by SSI 23 Canada: Enabling self-sovereign identity 24 From eIDAS to SSI in the European Union |
| book cypherpunks: Coding Democracy Maureen Webb, 2021-07-27 Hackers as vital disruptors, inspiring a new wave of activism in which ordinary citizens take back democracy. Hackers have a bad reputation, as shady deployers of bots and destroyers of infrastructure. In Coding Democracy, Maureen Webb offers another view. Hackers, she argues, can be vital disruptors. Hacking is becoming a practice, an ethos, and a metaphor for a new wave of activism in which ordinary citizens are inventing new forms of distributed, decentralized democracy for a digital era. Confronted with concentrations of power, mass surveillance, and authoritarianism enabled by new technology, the hacking movement is trying to build out democracy into cyberspace. |
| book cypherpunks: "2024" Joe Martin, 2023-11-08 It seems we have not internalized the lessons of George Orwell's dystopian vision in “1984.” Now, forty years later, that terrifying notion is becoming a reality. Win, the fictional son of Winston Smith, experiences firsthand the horrors of the totalitarian system – a system that takes control of every aspect of daily life with sophisticated and cruel efficiency. A system that clutches each of us with a cold claw right now. We all live in an illusion of freedom, but one that is increasingly curtailed. If we are not vigilant, we too could be enslaved for good, becoming functioning machines in a repressive and inhumane system of control. The year 2024 is not dystopian fiction, but an urgent warning: we must resist the plans of governments and powerful corporations that threaten our freedom. While digitization offers incredible opportunities for humanity, it also poses dangers. It is our duty to ensure that no one – intentionally or unintentionally – abuses digitization as a modern ankle bracelet. An ankle bracelet that forces us onto the benches of a punishment gallery, where we have no choice but to row until we drop dead while being monitored seamlessly at every moment. Under omnipresent surveillance and control, it is possible to instantly identify and punish any misconduct or political opinion, so the very thought of resisting the system becomes unthinkable. It is time to fight together for a just, free, and democratic future in which digitization does not subjugate us but serves us and supports us in our pursuit of happiness and self-realization. |
| book cypherpunks: Underground Julian Assange, Suelette Dreyfus, 2012-01-05 Suelette Dreyfus and her co-author, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, tell the extraordinary true story of the computer underground, and the bizarre lives and crimes of an elite ring of international hackers who took on the establishment. Spanning three continents and a decade of high level infiltration, they created chaos amongst some of the world's biggest and most powerful organisations, including NASA and the US military. Brilliant and obsessed, many of them found themselves addicted to hacking and phreaking. Some descended into drugs and madness, others ended up in jail. As riveting as the finest detective novel and meticulously researched, Underground follows the hackers through their crimes, their betrayals, the hunt, raids and investigations. It is a gripping tale of the digital underground. |
| book cypherpunks: The WikiLeaks Files WikiLeaks, 2015-09-15 What Cablegate tells us about the reach and ambitions of US Empire. Published in collaboration with WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks came to prominence in 2010 with the release of 251,287 top-secret State Department cables, which revealed to the world what the US government really thinks about national leaders, friendly dictators, and supposed allies. It brought to the surface the dark truths of crimes committed in our name: human rights violations, covert operations, and cover-ups. The WikiLeaks Files exposes the machinations of the United States as it imposes a new form of imperialism on the world, one founded on tactics from torture to military action, to trade deals and “soft power,” in the perpetual pursuit of expanding influence. The book also includes an introduction by Julian Assange examining the ongoing debates about freedom of information, international surveillance, and justice. An introduction by Julian Assange—writing on the subject for the first time—exposes the ongoing debates about freedom of information, international surveillance, and justice. With contributions by Dan Beeton, Phyllis Bennis, Michael Busch, Peter Certo, Conn Hallinan, Sarah Harrison, Richard Heydarian, Dahr Jamail, Jake Johnston, Alexander Main, Robert Naiman, Francis Njubi Nesbitt, Linda Pearson, Gareth Porter, Tim Shorrock, Russ Wellen, and Stephen Zunes. |
| book cypherpunks: Parameters , 2013 |
| book cypherpunks: Blockchain Hurricane Kate Baucherel, 2020-03-03 This book gives business decision makers and students a clear overview of the history, current applications, and future potential of distributed ledgers and cryptocurrency. The hype around blockchain technology is matched only by the innovation it inspires and the skepticism it provokes. This book gives business decision makers and students a clear overview of the history, current applications, and future potential of distributed ledgers and cryptocurrency. It explores strengths and weaknesses, emerging opportunities, and perceived threats. Technical frameworks are presented in a business context to help strategists understand the risks and rewards of different approaches to blockchain implementation, and the decision factors in determining whether this is a viable solution to the problem at hand. |
| book cypherpunks: This Machine Kills Secrets Perfection Learning Corporation, 2019 |
| book cypherpunks: In Defense of Julian Assange Tariq Ali, Margaret Ratner Kunstler, 2019-12-16 I think the prosecution of Assange would be a very, very bad precedent for publishers ... from everything I know, he's in a classic publisher's position and I think the law would have a very hard time drawing a distinction between The New York Times and WikiLeaks. --David McCraw, lead lawyer for The New York Times |
| book cypherpunks: Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History Thomas Rid, 2016-06-28 Dazzling.” —Financial Times As lives offline and online merge even more, it is easy to forget how we got here. Rise of the Machines reclaims the spectacular story of cybernetics, one of the twentieth century’s pivotal ideas. Springing from the mind of mathematician Norbert Wiener amid the devastation of World War II, the cybernetic vision underpinned a host of seductive myths about the future of machines. Cybernetics triggered blissful cults and military gizmos, the Whole Earth Catalog and the air force’s foray into virtual space, as well as crypto-anarchists fighting for internet freedom. In Rise of the Machines, Thomas Rid draws on unpublished sources—including interviews with hippies, anarchists, sleuths, and spies—to offer an unparalleled perspective into our anxious embrace of technology. |
| book cypherpunks: Sandworm Andy Greenberg, 2019-11-05 With the nuance of a reporter and the pace of a thriller writer, Andy Greenberg gives us a glimpse of the cyberwars of the future while at the same time placing his story in the long arc of Russian and Ukrainian history. —Anne Applebaum, bestselling author of Twilight of Democracy The true story of the most devastating act of cyberwarfare in history and the desperate hunt to identify and track the elite Russian agents behind it: [A] chilling account of a Kremlin-led cyberattack, a new front in global conflict (Financial Times). In 2014, the world witnessed the start of a mysterious series of cyberattacks. Targeting American utility companies, NATO, and electric grids in Eastern Europe, the strikes grew ever more brazen. They culminated in the summer of 2017, when the malware known as NotPetya was unleashed, penetrating, disrupting, and paralyzing some of the world's largest businesses—from drug manufacturers to software developers to shipping companies. At the attack's epicenter in Ukraine, ATMs froze. The railway and postal systems shut down. Hospitals went dark. NotPetya spread around the world, inflicting an unprecedented ten billion dollars in damage—the largest, most destructive cyberattack the world had ever seen. The hackers behind these attacks are quickly gaining a reputation as the most dangerous team of cyberwarriors in history: a group known as Sandworm. Working in the service of Russia's military intelligence agency, they represent a persistent, highly skilled force, one whose talents are matched by their willingness to launch broad, unrestrained attacks on the most critical infrastructure of their adversaries. They target government and private sector, military and civilians alike. A chilling, globe-spanning detective story, Sandworm considers the danger this force poses to our national security and stability. As the Kremlin's role in foreign government manipulation comes into greater focus, Sandworm exposes the realities not just of Russia's global digital offensive, but of an era where warfare ceases to be waged on the battlefield. It reveals how the lines between digital and physical conflict, between wartime and peacetime, have begun to blur—with world-shaking implications. |
| book cypherpunks: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies Arvind Narayanan, Joseph Bonneau, Edward Felten, Andrew Miller, Steven Goldfeder, 2016-07-19 An authoritative introduction to the exciting new technologies of digital money Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies provides a comprehensive introduction to the revolutionary yet often misunderstood new technologies of digital currency. Whether you are a student, software developer, tech entrepreneur, or researcher in computer science, this authoritative and self-contained book tells you everything you need to know about the new global money for the Internet age. How do Bitcoin and its block chain actually work? How secure are your bitcoins? How anonymous are their users? Can cryptocurrencies be regulated? These are some of the many questions this book answers. It begins by tracing the history and development of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, and then gives the conceptual and practical foundations you need to engineer secure software that interacts with the Bitcoin network as well as to integrate ideas from Bitcoin into your own projects. Topics include decentralization, mining, the politics of Bitcoin, altcoins and the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the future of Bitcoin, and more. An essential introduction to the new technologies of digital currency Covers the history and mechanics of Bitcoin and the block chain, security, decentralization, anonymity, politics and regulation, altcoins, and much more Features an accompanying website that includes instructional videos for each chapter, homework problems, programming assignments, and lecture slides Also suitable for use with the authors' Coursera online course Electronic solutions manual (available only to professors) |
| book cypherpunks: Julian Assange in His Own Words Julian Assange, 2021 |
| book cypherpunks: The Dark Net Jamie Bartlett, 2015-06-02 An NPR Best Book of the Year Included in The Washington Post's Notable Nonfiction of the Year An Independent and New Statesman Book of the Year Beyond the familiar online world that most of us inhabit—a world of Google, Facebook, and Twitter—lies a vast and often hidden network of sites, communities, and cultures where freedom is pushed to its limits, and where people can be anyone, or do anything, they want. This is the world of Bitcoin, 4chan, and Silk Road, of radicalism, crime, and pornography. This is the Dark Net. In this important and revealing book, Jamie Bartlett takes us deep into the digital underworld and presents an extraordinary look at the internet we don't know. Beginning with the rise of the internet and the conflicts and battles that defined its early years, Bartlett reports on trolls, pornographers, drug dealers, hackers, political extremists, Bitcoin programmers, and vigilantes—and puts a human face on those who have many reasons to stay anonymous. Rich with historical research and revelatory reporting, The Dark Net is an unprecedented, eye-opening look at a world that doesn't want to be known. |
| book cypherpunks: Resistance Money Andrew M. Bailey, Bradley Rettler, Craig Warmke, 2024-06-14 Bitcoin isn’t just for criminals, speculators, or wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneurs – despite what the headlines say. In an imperfect world of rampant inflation, creeping authoritarianism, surveillance, censorship, and financial exclusion, bitcoin empowers individuals to elude the expanding reach and tightening grip of institutions both public and private. So although bitcoin is money, it isn’t just money. Bitcoin is resistance money. Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin begins by explaining why bitcoin was invented, how it works, and where it fits among other kinds of money. The authors then offer a framework for evaluating bitcoin from a global perspective and use it to examine bitcoin’s monetary policy, censorship-resistance, privacy, inclusion, and energy use. The book develops a comprehensive and measured case that bitcoin is a net benefit to the world, despite its imperfections. Resistance Money is intended for all, from the clueless to the specialist, from the proponent to the die-hard skeptic, and everyone in between. Key Features: Provides a philosophical approach that makes use of multiple disciplines in its analysis Offers a clearly written, measured academic treatment of bitcoin, comprehensive in scope and free of ideological baggage Includes information on the financial, social, and environmental costs of bitcoin, how these costs are sometimes exaggerated, and how they might be mitigated Addresses the strongest arguments against bitcoin and shows how some succeed and most come up short. |
| book cypherpunks: WikiLeaks David Leigh, Luke Harding, 2011-02 It was the biggest leak in history. WikiLeaks infuriated the world's greatest superpower, embarrassed the British royal family and helped cause a revolution in Africa. The man behind it was Julian Assange, one of the strangest figures ever to become a worldwide celebrity. Was he an internet messiah or a cyber-terrorist? Information freedom fighter or sex criminal? The debate would echo around the globe as US politicians called for his assassination. Award-winning Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding have been at the centre of a unique publishing drama that involved the release of some 250,000 secret diplomatic cables and classified files from the Afghan and Iraq wars. At one point the platinum-haired hacker was hiding from the CIA in David Leigh's London house. Now, together with the paper's investigative reporting team, Leigh and Harding reveal the startling inside story of the man and the leak. |
| book cypherpunks: Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography Julian Assange, 2011-09-22 In December 2010, Julian Assange signed a contract with Canongate Books to write a book - part memoir, part manifesto - for publication the following year. At the time, Julian said: 'I hope this book will become one of the unifying documents of our generation. In this highly personal work, I explain our global struggle to force a new relationship between the people and their governments.' In the end, the work was to prove too personal. Despite sitting for more than fifty hours of taped interviews discussing his life and the work of WikiLeaks with the writer he had enlisted to help him, Julian became increasingly troubled by the thought of publishing an autobiography. After reading the first draft of the book at the end of March, Julian declared: 'All memoir is prostitution.' In June 2011, with thirty-eight publishing houses around the world committed to releasing the book, Julian told us he wanted to cancel his contract. We disagree with Julian's assessment of the book. We believe it explains both the man and his work, underlining his commitment to the truth. Julian always claimed the book was well written; we agree, and this also encouraged us to make the book available to readers. And the contract? By the time Julian wanted to cancel the deal he had already used the advance money to settle his legal bills. So the contract still stands. We have decided to honour it - and to publish. This book is the unauthorised first draft. It is passionate, provocative and opinionated - like its author. It fulfils the promise of the original proposal and we are proud to publish it. Canongate Books, September 2011 |
| book cypherpunks: Bitcoin Jose Pagliery, 2014-09-01 Bitcoin first appeared in 2009, and it's already challenging everything we've come to accept about money, financial institutions, and even government. The digital currency can be nearly anonymous. And it can be traded internationally—without the fees, government regulation, and bank oversight of paper money. But Bitcoin is still risky. Its value fluctuates wildly. More than $400 billion of it disappeared overnight with the fall of a single trading exchange. How is that possible? And why is it so popular? CNNMoney reporter Jose Pagliery explains it all. He details the digital currency's mysterious origins. He explores the dark side of Bitcoin: a world of drugs and assassins for hire. And he examines the economic impact of this revolutionary concept through interviews with pensive economists, wary bank regulators, and free market proponents such as Ron Paul. Bitcoin: And the Future of Money explains how it works and why it matters. The book is essential reading for anyone looking to understand a financial innovation that will forever change how we think about money. |
| book cypherpunks: Journalism in an Age of Terror John Lloyd, 2016-10-30 The threat of terrorism and the increasing power of terrorist groups has prompted a rapid growth of the security services and changes in legislation, permitting the collection of communications data. This provides journalism with acute dilemmas. The media claims responsibility for holding power to account, yet cannot know more than superficial details about the newly empowered secret services. This book is the first to analyze, in the aftermath of the Snowden/NSA revelations, relations between two key institutions in the modern state: the intelligence services and the news media. It provides the answers to crucial questions including: how can power be held to account if one of the greatest state powers is secret? How far have the Snowden/NSA revelations damaged the activities of the secret services? And have governments lost all trust from journalists and the public? |
| book cypherpunks: Cyber Wars Paul Neumann, 2024-04-22 The Internet has evolved as a free environment for information interaction under informal but strict technological, programmatic, and organizational control methods. This resulted in a paradoxical situation. The key areas of life of any state, have largely moved to the Internet. At the same time, the Internet, unlike the physical reality, does not recognize the post-Westphalian principles of international law. This book deals with the risks and challenges that ensued from this situation. |
| book cypherpunks: Rhetoric in Human Rights Advocacy Richard K. Ghere, 2015-04-22 This book examines the rhetoric of various “exemplars” who advocate for causes and actions pertaining to human rights in particular contexts. Although some of these exemplars champion human rights, others are human rights antagonists. Simply put, the argument here is that concern for how particular individuals advocate for human rights causes—as well as how antagonists obstruct such initiatives—adds significant value to understanding the successes and failures of human rights efforts in particular cultural and national contexts. On one hand, we can grasp how specific international organizations and actors function to develop norms (for example, the rights of the child) and how rights are subsequently articulated in universal declarations and formal codes. But on the other, it becomes apparent that the actualmeaning of those rights mutate when “accepted” within particular cultures. A complementary facet of this argument relates to the centrality of rhetoric in observing how rights advocates function in practice; specifically, rhetoric focuses upon the art of argumentation and the various strategies and techniques enlisted therein. In that much of the “reality” surrounding human rights (from the standpoints of advocates and antagonists alike) is fundamentally interpretive, rhetorical (or argumentative) skill is of vital importance for advocates as competent pragma-dialecticians in presenting the case that a rights ideal can enhance life in a culture predisposed to reject that ideal. This book includes case studies focusing on the rhetoric of the following individuals or groups as either human rights advocates or antagonists: Mary B. Anderson, Rwandan “hate radio” broadcasters, politicians and military officials connected with the Kent State University and Tiananmen Square student protest tragedies, Iqbal Masih, Pussy Riot, Lyndon Johnson, Julian Assange, Geert Wilders, Daniel Barenboim, Joe Arpaio, and Lucius Banda. |
| book cypherpunks: How to Mutate and Take Over the World R. U. Sirius, St. Jude, 1996 OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN EXPLODED POST-NOVEL This is not a novel. Don't think you can just hold your nose and jump into this. You might get boiled or vaporized. Anodized. THIS IS NOT A NOVEL Before you start reading an exploded post-novel, you should think strategy. While we do recommend reading this book from front to back--left to right--you can skip around as you please. It is disguised as a scrapbook. You can channelsurf it. Or graze through sections, munch munch munch. After you acquire the taste, you'll feel strong enough to start at the beginning and read through to the end, in precisely that order. Don't take too much at one sitting. Do not overdose. It's dense, fast. Things get technical. There's a relentless quality to the first-person narrative that may exhaust you secondhand. Read only until the vertigo overwhelms you. When you find yourself crying out, For god's sake, give it a break!!!. . . well, exactly. Put the book down. . . gently. Rest. Watch TV. Read Ben Is Dead. Go somewhere watery and lie in the hard radiation. Read a nonexploded novel. Take up crime. Then. . . Read a little at a time. Swallow it slowly like creme br-lee. Or hold it in your cheek like Copenhagen Smokeless. But do not rush. If you go slowly enough, by the time you're done, the made-for-TV movie will be out. Starring Steven Seagal as R. U. Sirius and Whoopi Goldberg as St. Jude. |
| book cypherpunks: Concept, Theories, and Management of Cryptocurrencies Tomé, Eduardo, 2025-05-21 Cryptocurrencies have emerged as a transformative force in the global financial landscape, challenging traditional economic and managerial frameworks. By uncovering the underlying dynamics of cryptocurrency markets, society gains insight into their implications for economic stability, regulatory challenges, and financial innovation. Understanding how these digital assets evolve and interact with existing systems is crucial for navigating their risks and opportunities. This exploration helps policymakers, businesses, and individuals make informed decisions, fostering a more sustainable and equitable approach to integrating cryptocurrencies into the global economy. Concept, Theories, and Management of Cryptocurrencies provides a comprehensive analysis of cryptocurrencies as both an economic and managerial phenomenon, exploring their underlying mechanics and market dynamics. It delves into the real-world consequences of cryptocurrency evolution, offering insights into their implications for financial systems, governance, and societal impact. Covering topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), dark web, and tokens, this book is an excellence resource for economists, financial analysts, business managers, policy makers, researchers, students, and more. |
| book cypherpunks: How I Lost By Hillary Clinton , 2017-07-06 Judging by the stance of the leadership of the Democratic Party and much of the media, Hillary Clinton’s devastating loss in the presidential election of November 2016 was all the fault of pernicious Russian leaks, unwarranted FBI investigations and a skewed electoral college. Rarely blamed was the party’s decision to run a deeply unpopular candidate on an uninspiring platform. At a time of widespread dissatisfaction with business-as-usual politics, the Democrats chose to field a quintessential insider. Her campaign dwelt little on policies, focusing overwhelmingly on the personality of her opponent. That this strategy was a failure is an understatement. Losing an election to someone with as little competence or support from his own party as Donald Trump marked an extraordinary fiasco. The refusal of the Democratic leadership to identify the real reasons for their defeat is not just a problem of history. If Democrats persevere with a politics that prioritizes well-off professionals rather than ordinary Americans, they will leave the field open to right wing populism for many years to come. Drawing on the WikiLeaks releases of Clinton’s talks at Goldman Sachs and the e mails of her campaign chief John Podesta, as well as key passages from her public speeches, How I Lost By Hillary Clinton also includes extensive commentary by award-winning journalist Joe Lauria, and a foreword by Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks. It provides, in the words of the Democratic candidate and her close associates, a riveting, unsparing picture of the disastrous campaign that delivered America to President Trump, and a stark warning of a mistake that must not be repeated. |
| book cypherpunks: Mindf*ck Christopher Wylie, 2020 From whistleblower Christopher Wylie, the definitive story of the Brexit coup, the making of Bannon's America, and an ongoing crime against democracy. |
| book cypherpunks: Blockchain Democracy William Magnuson, 2020-02-27 Exploring blockchain and bitcoin, Magnuson shows how the technology rife with crime and speculation also offers innovation and hope. |
| book cypherpunks: The Stack Benjamin H. Bratton, 2016-02-26 A comprehensive political and design theory of planetary-scale computation proposing that The Stack—an accidental megastructure—is both a technological apparatus and a model for a new geopolitical architecture. What has planetary-scale computation done to our geopolitical realities? It takes different forms at different scales—from energy and mineral sourcing and subterranean cloud infrastructure to urban software and massive universal addressing systems; from interfaces drawn by the augmentation of the hand and eye to users identified by self—quantification and the arrival of legions of sensors, algorithms, and robots. Together, how do these distort and deform modern political geographies and produce new territories in their own image? In The Stack, Benjamin Bratton proposes that these different genres of computation—smart grids, cloud platforms, mobile apps, smart cities, the Internet of Things, automation—can be seen not as so many species evolving on their own, but as forming a coherent whole: an accidental megastructure called The Stack that is both a computational apparatus and a new governing architecture. We are inside The Stack and it is inside of us. In an account that is both theoretical and technical, drawing on political philosophy, architectural theory, and software studies, Bratton explores six layers of The Stack: Earth, Cloud, City, Address, Interface, User. Each is mapped on its own terms and understood as a component within the larger whole built from hard and soft systems intermingling—not only computational forms but also social, human, and physical forces. This model, informed by the logic of the multilayered structure of protocol “stacks,” in which network technologies operate within a modular and vertical order, offers a comprehensive image of our emerging infrastructure and a platform for its ongoing reinvention. The Stack is an interdisciplinary design brief for a new geopolitics that works with and for planetary-scale computation. Interweaving the continental, urban, and perceptual scales, it shows how we can better build, dwell within, communicate with, and govern our worlds. thestack.org |
| book cypherpunks: Abolish Silicon Valley Wendy Liu, 2020-04-14 Former insider turned critic Wendy Liu busts the myths of the tech industry, and offers a galvanising argument for why and how we must reclaim technology's potential for the public good. Former insider turned critic Wendy Liu busts the myths of the tech industry, and offers a galvanising argument for why and how we must reclaim technology's potential for the public good. Lucid, probing and urgent. Wendy Liu manages to be both optimistic about the emancipatory potential of tech and scathing about the industry that has harnessed it for bleak and self-serving ends. -- Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal An inspiring memoir manifesto...Technologists all over the world are realizing that no amount of code can substitute for political engagement. Liu's memoir is a road map for that journey of realization. -- Cory Doctorow, author of Radicalized and Little Brother Innovation. Meritocracy. The possibility of overnight success. What's not to love about Silicon Valley? These days, it's hard to be unambiguously optimistic about the growth-at-all-costs ethos of the tech industry. Public opinion is souring in the wake of revelations about Cambridge Analytica, Theranos, and the workplace conditions of Amazon workers or Uber drivers. It's becoming clear that the tech industry's promised innovation is neither sustainable nor always desirable. Abolish Silicon Valley is both a heartfelt personal story about the wasteful inequality of Silicon Valley, and a rallying call to engage in the radical politics needed to upend the status quo. Going beyond the idiosyncrasies of the individual founders and companies that characterise the industry today, Wendy Liu delves into the structural factors of the economy that gave rise to Silicon Valley as we know it. Ultimately, she proposes a more radical way of developing technology, where innovation is conducted for the benefit of society at large, and not just to enrich a select few. |
| book cypherpunks: Cryptosocial Allen Taylor, 2022-03-10 Cryptocurrency & Social Media Have Married and This is What It Looks Like Social media is a multi-billion-dollar industry where the platforms profit from user-generated content. Cryptocurrencies have arrived to end the exploitation. Cryptosocial: How Cryptocurrencies Are Changing Social Media surveys the history of social media and cryptocurrencies to show how these two unrelated technologies had a chance meeting that is changing the world. If you’re one of the millions of people growing tired of legacy social media and how they take advantage of their own users, this book will open your eyes to the alternatives offering greater happiness, more freedom, and better personal and financial security. Read this book and you’ll learn: What cryptosocial is all about. Which platforms and protocols you should pay attention to. Why cryptosocial media is the best alternative for Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. How to start using cryptosocial media. What you need to participate in decentralized social media platforms. And how you can profit from your own content, gain more control over your identity, and maintain security over your online data and personal assets. |
| book cypherpunks: Close to the Machine Ellen Ullman, 2012-02-28 With a New Introduction by Jaron Lanier A Salon Best Book of the Year In 1997, the computer was still a relatively new tool---a sleek and unforgiving machine that was beyond the grasp of most users. With intimate and unflinching detail, software engineer Ellen Ullman examines the strange ecstasy of being at the forefront of the predominantly male technological revolution, and the difficulty of translating the inherent messiness of human life into artful and efficient code. Close to the Machine is an elegant and revelatory mediation on the dawn of the digital era. |
So many books, so little time - Reddit
This is a moderated subreddit. It is our intent and purpose to foster and encourage in-depth discussion about all things related to books, authors, genres, or publishing in a safe, supportive …
What's that book called? - Reddit
There is an older book 3 book series about a search for a throne/chair which will grant a single person a wish - can't remember the title but its about an old adventurer and two younger ones …
There's Treasure Inside - Reddit
r/treasureinside: Community dedicated to the There's Treasure Inside book and treasure hunt by Jon Collins-Black.
Book Suggestions - Reddit
Our first book has been Passion or Pancakes (my friend saw a drew gooden video on the author and this book and insisted we read it). However, I was wondering if there were any other badly …
Library Genesis - Reddit
Library Genesis (LibGen) is the largest free library in history: giving the world free access to 84 million scholarly journal articles, 6.6 million academic and general-interest books, 2.2 million …
Where do you people find ebooks there days? : r/Piracy - Reddit
As long as you have an account, you can use Z-Library without any restrictions (other than the 10-book daily download limit) Reply reply VedangArekar
A Humble Bundle of all kinds of goods! - Reddit
Game Genre Reviews (Metacritic) Reviews (Steam - All) *Steam Price 1 *Historical Low 2 *HLTB 3 *Platforms 1 Steam Deck Support
AudioBook Bay - Reddit
r/AudioBookBay: AudioBook Bay (ABB) - Download unabridged audiobook for free or share your audio books, safe, fast and high quality!
May I please have your FILTHIESt SMUTTIEST recs : …
Danielle Lori’s Made series, I also can’t recommend enough! But mainly book #2 and #3 (the Maddest Obsession is my favourite, and the Darkest Temptation is a good second). Sylvia Day’s …
r/Annas_Archive - Reddit
I've been trying to search for a book for uni for a couple of hours but whenever I search i can't seem to find anything. The links to actual files work, its just the search on the domain annas …
So many books, so little time - Reddit
This is a moderated subreddit. It is our intent and purpose to foster and encourage in-depth discussion about all things related to books, authors, genres, or publishing in a safe, supportive …
What's that book called? - Reddit
There is an older book 3 book series about a search for a throne/chair which will grant a single person a wish - can't remember the title but its about an old adventurer and two younger ones …
There's Treasure Inside - Reddit
r/treasureinside: Community dedicated to the There's Treasure Inside book and treasure hunt by Jon Collins-Black.
Book Suggestions - Reddit
Our first book has been Passion or Pancakes (my friend saw a drew gooden video on the author and this book and insisted we read it). However, I was wondering if there were any other badly …
Library Genesis - Reddit
Library Genesis (LibGen) is the largest free library in history: giving the world free access to 84 million scholarly journal articles, 6.6 million academic and general-interest books, 2.2 million …
Where do you people find ebooks there days? : r/Piracy - Reddit
As long as you have an account, you can use Z-Library without any restrictions (other than the 10-book daily download limit) Reply reply VedangArekar
A Humble Bundle of all kinds of goods! - Reddit
Game Genre Reviews (Metacritic) Reviews (Steam - All) *Steam Price 1 *Historical Low 2 *HLTB 3 *Platforms 1 Steam Deck Support
AudioBook Bay - Reddit
r/AudioBookBay: AudioBook Bay (ABB) - Download unabridged audiobook for free or share your audio books, safe, fast and high quality!
May I please have your FILTHIESt SMUTTIEST recs : …
Danielle Lori’s Made series, I also can’t recommend enough! But mainly book #2 and #3 (the Maddest Obsession is my favourite, and the Darkest Temptation is a good second). Sylvia Day’s …
r/Annas_Archive - Reddit
I've been trying to search for a book for uni for a couple of hours but whenever I search i can't seem to find anything. The links to actual files work, its just the search on the domain annas …
