technology

Bees Brothers keep thriving and already mined their first Bitcoin

"Being homeschooled, the Huntzinger brothers had a lot of freedom to experiment within their new passion (creating their own recipes, for instance), until they discovered Bitcoin and the business got even more interesting. 'One of the reasons we chose to homeschool was to have the freedom to learn what the kids want and have fun doing it. Neither of us knows anything about cryptography, so we are having to learn it too, but hopefully soon they can teach themselves without us. This journey of learning about bees, starting a business, and now the world of cryptocurrency has been a great learning adventure for the whole family', explained the parents." Continue reading →

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Bitmessage: Choice Of A Rightly Paranoid Generation

"Bitmessage is an open-source communications protocol for keeping your email private. Unlike PGP and similar programs that hide just the content of messages, Bitmessage also hides metadata like the sender and receiver of messages. And unlike PGP, Bitmessage doesn't require that users manage public or private keys to use the system; Bitmessage uses strong authentication so that the sender of a message cannot be spoofed. Bitmessage is also decentralized and trustless, which means that you don't need to trust root certificate authorities or any third parties who, under legal duress from a government, might give up your data." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin: Tax haven of the future

"Tomorrow’s tax havens could be fueled by new technology like Bitcoin and Litecoin — online currencies that can be used to purchase everything from coffee to illegal drugs. The problem for government coffers: There’s no mechanism to ensure that people who make money through such digital currency report the income to the IRS. In its fight against tax evasion, the U.S. is largely focused on shining a light into bank accounts held by Americans in other countries. But experts say the rise of Bitcoin, which doesn’t require a bank account, could force the U.S. to rethink its approach." Continue reading →

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Android Security Vulnerability Threatens Existing Bitcoin Wallets

"We recently learned that a component of Android responsible for generating secure random numbers contains critical weaknesses, that render all Android wallets generated to date vulnerable to theft. Because the problem lies with Android itself, this problem will affect you if you have a wallet generated by any Android app. An incomplete list would be Bitcoin Wallet, blockchain.info wallet, BitcoinSpinner and Mycelium Wallet. Apps where you don't control the private keys at all are not affected. For example, exchange frontends like the Coinbase or Mt Gox apps are not impacted by this issue because the private keys are not generated on your Android phone." Continue reading →

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How should you protect yourself from cyber surveillance?

"What are your risks in this era of surveillance, hacking and sloppy software coding? It depends. So what precautions should you be taking? Same answer: it depends. That’s a pretty unsatisfying bit of advice, isn’t it? Yet it’s a core truth of digital security. You should be concerned, very concerned, but in order to make decisions about your own security measures you should first figure out which threats you’re likely to face. Understanding what’s at risk – and that not all threats are equally daunting – is a key to how you should respond." Continue reading →

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Lavabit chief predicts ‘long fight’ with feds (Q&A)

"Ladar Levison can't talk for legal reasons about the specifics of why he shut down Lavabit, his encrypted Web e-mail company, but he was hardly tight-lipped about the subject. Levison, a San Francisco native and an enthusiastic beach-and-sand volleyball player who moved to Texas to go to college, currently resides in Dallas. In an phone interview about the decision to shutter Lavabit, Levison spoke about the connection between Lavabit and the Patriot Act, how he thinks the laws regarding privacy ought to change, and how the American government is failing to uphold the U.S. Constitution." Continue reading →

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U.S. E-Mail Services Close and Destroy Data Rather Than Reveal Files

"The shutdown of two small e-mail providers on Thursday illustrates why it is so hard for Internet companies to challenge secret government surveillance: to protect their customers’ data from federal authorities, the two companies essentially committed suicide. In effect, both businesses destroyed their assets — in part or in full — to avoid turning over their customers’ data. Such public displays are far more difficult for large companies to make, and help explain why the most public efforts to challenge secret government orders have come from small companies and nonprofits." Continue reading →

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Jeffrey Tucker: Is Bitcoin Real or Not?

"Certainly government can regulate exchange between government currencies and Bitcoin. It can also regulate income in Bitcoin the same as with other currency. This is not some tax-free nirvana in the making. The government can also oversee contractual regulations and securities activities in Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin itself is a peer-to-peer system of cryptographically guarded exchange, and it lives on a distributed server model. It is not a company. It is not a stock. It is not a product. It is a ledger that no one in particular runs or owns. It is not possible for Bitcoin as such to be destroyed any more than government can destroy algebra." Continue reading →

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The Security State’s Reaction to Snowden Shows Why It’s Doomed

"Networks, when attacked, become even more decentralized and resilient. A good example is Napster and its successors, each of which has more closely approached an ideal peer-to-peer model, and further freed itself from reliance on infrastructure that can be shut down by central authority, than its predecessors. Hierarchies, on the other hand, respond to attack by becoming even more ossified, brittle and closed. Hierarchies respond to leaks by becoming internally opaque and closed even to themselves, so that their information is compartmentalized and they are less able to make effective use of the knowledge dispersed among their members." Continue reading →

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20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get

"I started Docstoc in my 20’s, made the cover of one of those cliché '20 Under 20' lists, and today I employ an amazing group of 20-somethings. Call me a curmudgeon, but at 34, how I came up seems so different from what this millennial generation expects. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and I see this generation making their own. In response, here are my 20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get." Continue reading →

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