RT @La__Cuen: I spent $1,000 on computer science tutoring when I realized I wasn’t competent to custody my own bitcoin. More $ than all my…
Blockchain Commons has released two translations of our popular Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line course, into Portuguese and Spanish. All free! [1/9] https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/Learning-Bitcoin-from-the-Command-Line#translations
Our intent with Learning Bitcoin has always been to invite interested peoples to join the pool of Bitcoin developers. We’re thrilled to now open the door to hundreds of millions of native speakers of Portuguese and Spanish [3/9].
Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line is a free self-paced course with over 2K+ stars & 500+ forks on GitHub. Many developers got their start with Learning Bitcoin and ultimately got jobs in our ecosystem from it. [2/9]
Our interns this year, and thus the Learning Bitcoin translations, were sponsored in part by @HRF. Thank you! Access to financial systems is a human right! [6/9]
Thanks to interns and volunteers who made this possible! Ian Culp, Maxi Goyheneche, Said Rahal, César A. Vallero, and Javier Vargas for our Spanish translation; Namcios, Korea, Luke Pavsky, and hgrams for the Portuguese translation. [5/9]
The recent decision by El Salvador to make Bitcoin into legal tender shows why this is so important [4/9]. https://www.npr.org/2021/09/07/1034838909/bitcoin-el-salvador-legal-tender-official-currency-cryptocurrency
Meanwhile, our next big project is going to be a major update to Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line, our v3.0, to add new content about Taproot, Schnorr, miniscript, and more. [8/9] https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/Learning-Bitcoin-from-the-Command-Line/blob/master/TODO-30.md
We would love to do more translations. We feel that Italian may be the next big opportunity for expansion, but if you’ve got some Bitcoin knowledge, are a native speaker of a non-English language, and could get support to help with translations and review, let us know! [7/9]
Learning Bitcoin is challenging to fund, because our students aren’t in a position to become patrons, and the people hiring Bitcoin developers are too distant to see the advantages. Consider supporting us by becoming a monthly patron. [9/9] https://github.com/sponsors/BlockchainCommons
“What makes datafication wrong is not (only) that it erodes the capacity for subject self-formation, but instead that it materializes unjust social relations: data relations that enact or amplify social inequality.”—@salome_viljoen_ https://twitter.com/benzevgreen/status/1465692830815432706
“There is an arbitrary limit of 10000 bytes placed on fuzzed input.” Lesson learned — sometimes cryptographic objects are big! https://twitter.com/ProjectZeroBugs/status/1466115866471256067
RT @csuwildcat: I am deeply saddened to learn my friend and mentor @Kim_Cameron has passed away. Kim was a pioneer in digital identity, kno…
RT @hackylawyER: “[A]fter decades of neoliberal and anti-regulatory hegemony, performative legal compliance is what passes for public gover…
@fernandezdiego https://twitter.com/ChristopherA/status/1466101784590442496?s=20
RT @kimdhamilton: thank you to the person who canceled my 1pm meeting, allowing me to finish and kick off my restarted blogging attempt wit…
Congratulations to the team at @evernym including @drummondreed on their acquisition by @Avast, a privacy & security company based in Prague. I look forward to seeing what together they can add to the self-sovereign identity ecosystem. https://twitter.com/evernym/status/1468846041633943556
RT @drummondreed: @evernym @ChristopherA @Avast Thanks very much Christopher. You’ve helped put SSI on the map and this is major confirmati…
Replying to @BitcoinWanda
Your approach only adds unnecessary complexity and “process fatigue” without taking advantage of what makes multisig powerful. For what you are seeking to reduce physical risk, Shamir shares like our SSKR or Trexor’s SLIp-39 might be a better solution with similar security.
Replying to @BitcoinWanda
See SSKR for users for more on our spec for shamir sharing of cryptographic seeds: https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/crypto-commons#sskr
Replying to @BitcoinWanda
We have an iOS & Mac app available that implements SSKR at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gordian-seed-tool/id1545088229
Replying to @BitcoinWanda
We plan on a major update to our free #SmartCustody book in ‘22 to include SSKR & multisig, but you should find the old one useful in understanding scenarios and risk modeling, and some of our more recent notes since publication at https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/SmartCustody
http://LifeHash.info is a new Blockchain Commons website that demonstrates how LifeHashes work, and also offers a public API for developers to generate them. [1/13] http://lifehash.info/
What’s a LifeHash? It’s a beautiful graphical representation of data: a visual hash rather than a text hash. It’s a lot easier for the human eye to recognize. [2/13]
Blockchain Commons developed the spec to help with airgapped wallet architectures. If you have a LifeHash-enabled wallet on either side of an airgap, you can easily verify that you transferred the appropriate seed (or other data). [3/13]
And if you don’t have a LifeHash-enabled wallet? That’s where http://LifeHash.info comes in! You can input the digital hash of your seed or key and see what it looks like, and then you can repeat that after a transfer. [4/13]
But really, the main purpose of http://LifeHash.info is to show you how LifeHashes work and what they can add to the cryptographic applications you use. [5/13]
You can even fork your own local copy of the http://lifehash.info site! [7/13] https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/lifehash-web
To further support developers to add this feature to their wallets, Blockchain Commons makes LifeHash reference libraries available for your use, currently in C/C++, Swift & WebAssembly. [6/13] https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/bc-lifehash
For more on LifeHashes, take a look at our explainer video. [8/13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu0K__KLxKo
For more work bridging data across gaps, also see our recent QRCodeGenerator, which offers a more efficient QR generator for Swift. [10/13] https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/QRCodeGenerator
Or, read our recent Blockchain Commons article about the launch of our new LifeHash page: https://www.blockchaincommons.com/specifications/Lifehash-info/ [9/13]
This is one of many specifications that Blockchain Commons has produced to create a digital infrastructure that is open, interoperable, secure, and compassionate. [11/13] https://www.blockchaincommons.com/projects.html
This project might be more compassionate for your eyes! But generally, we want to improve the human experience and maximize human independence when interacting with the digital world. [12/13]
Please support our continued development of interoperability specifications for Bitcoin & other blockchain wallets by becoming a monthly Sponsor of Blockchain Commons @BlockchainComns on GitHub. [13/13] ៚ https://github.com/sponsors/BlockchainCommons
Replying to @lopp
The latest version of LifeHash v2 was specifically designed to have higher contrast, in particular, to support B&W & grayscale devices. Our reference implementation of #LetheKit has a 200x200 B&W display & it is quite recognizable. You also don’t want to rely on LifeHash alone.
Replying to @lopp
Take a close look at v2 images in https://twitter.com/ChristopherA/status/1470843888734666752?s=20
I’m spreading the word about this important position opening at the @EFF to be a senior fellow focused on decentralization. In addition to decades of great advocacy, you’d be working with OGs like @JonCallas on the future of a safer & more compassionate internet. https://twitter.com/RaineyReitman/status/1470853536346869761
A blast from the past (~2006), found when looking for some of my old work on distributed collaboration replication systems — called Syncroedit with @KalleAlm. In it, I talk about providing open source tools as open infrastructure. At least I’m consistent! http://cirne.com/vlog/media/Enric-Web21ABrainJamChristopherAllenQA793.mov
RT @JasonCoombsCEO: @ChristopherA @Kallealm October 7, 2005
“Web 2.1”
#Web3
In the commitment & consistency department, I promised first investors in 1988(!) basically what we’d call a DAO today. Though my twist on DAOs wasn’t multi-million $ groups issuing tokens, but small ones supporting collaborative work. A video from 2015 https://youtu.be/y6OqJTJm-qE
That video is an excerpt from an Intro to Bitcoin that I offered in 2015. Other than the price of Bitcoin (~$30?), I’m surprised at how well it has stood the test of time. It expresses effectively some topics that others still have difficulty with today: https://youtu.be/ZUoXUW9zVMs
Replying to @vgr
Deleted & correctly updated. Should not tweet at midnight :-)
Replying to @veikkoeeva
I’m part of the Wyoming DAO LLC subcommittee. We passed enabling law last year & have amendments proposed for early ‘22 session. IANAL thus my major contribution is to keep it from being too ETH architecture specific. For instance I know how to build one with Bitcoin Taproot.
Scary the resources that a state actor can put into attacking a dissident. NSO zero-click installs a basic CPU microarchitecture inside of a fake GIF rendered by a FOSS decoder, which can run programs to corrupt your device when that image is displayed. https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html
The NSO zero-click creates a Turing complete CPU with AND/OR/XOR/XNOR that executes arbitrary logic: https://twitter.com/securityblvd/status/1472562888766332928?s=20
An excellent tweetstorm explaining at a layman’s level this how this scary NSO zero-click hack works: https://twitter.com/skwp/status/1471474168814256136?s=20
RT @ChristopherA: The NSO zero-click creates a Turing complete CPU with AND/OR/XOR/XNOR that executes arbitrary logic: https://t.co/nYqwUQd…
RT @ChristopherA: An excellent tweetstorm explaining at a layman’s level this how this scary NSO zero-click hack works: https://t.co/72LRp6…
This hack was discovered when an anonymous Saudi activist turned in their phone for analysis. But it also was used against journalists, including @nytimes Beirut bureau chief Ben Hubbard, and likely quite a few more people. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/insider/hacking-nso-surveillance.html
RT @ChristopherA: This hack was discovered when an anonymous Saudi activist turned in their phone for analysis. But it also was used agains…
It isn’t just that state actors were involved (the Saudi’s), and shady for-profit companies (NSO). It is also that this hack demonstrates how vulnerable our devices & code are to sophisticated exploits, in particular, technical debt (security debt?) in our code infrastructure.
RT @ChristopherA: It isn’t just that state actors were involved (the Saudi’s), and shady for-profit companies (NSO). It is also that this h…
Seasons Greetings and have a very happy LifeHash tree from the whole Blockchain Commons team: Christopher, Wolf, Shannon, Peter, and our many volunteers, interns, and sustaining sponsors. [1/4]
We’ve also got reference libraries in C, C++, and Swift, so that you too can make it easy for users to recognize seeds, keys, and other digital objects. [4/4] https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/lifehash.info#implementations
If you’d like to play around with generating your own LifeHashes, take a look at our new http://lifehash.info site. Christmas ornaments not included. [3/4] https://lifehash.info/
All of these Blockchain Commons ornaments were generated with LifeHash, our method for creating beautiful, visual hashes to allow the quick identification of complex data — and also to decorate a Christmas tree! [2/4] https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/lifehash.info
I’ve been working to ensure that DAO-based LLCs can be be registered under Wyoming law, with a particular focus on ensuring we are not locked into ETH-style only architectures. @JeremyRubin offers an interesting article about how to do a DAO using Bitcoin: https://rubin.io/bitcoin/2021/12/22/advent-25/
The Wyoming law that passed last year enabling DAO-based LLCs is 2021 SF-0038: https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2021/SF0038
I’ve been working with this years DAO subcommittee led by Blockchain Select Committee’s co-chair Chris @Rothfuss to amend & clarify last years bill and ensure that we can do Bitcoin DAOs & future proof the law. Draft at https://wyoleg.gov/InterimCommittee/2021/S19-2021120922LSO-0063v0.5.pdf
Replying to @johnrobb
Be extremely careful of using property-rights laws for identity. Principle Authority under agency law is what we are using in Wyoming and what I advocate others beginning to use. See my article: https://www.blockchaincommons.com/articles/Principal-Authority/
RT @ChristopherA: @johnrobb Be extremely careful of using property-rights laws for identity. Principle Authority under agency law is what w…
Replying to @Jad_AE and @skominers
At @BlockchainCmns we are leading a variety of open infrastructure projects around not only cryptocurrency wallets but also identity & claims wallets. In particular:
Replying to @Jad_AE, @skominers and @BlockchainCmns
Amira: a Sovereign Web of Trust Engagement Model: https://w3c-ccg.github.io/amira/
Replying to @Jad_AE, @skominers and @BlockchainCmns
What’s in Your Wallet: https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rwot9-prague/blob/master/topics-and-advance-readings/whats-wallet.md
Replying to @Jad_AE, @skominers and @BlockchainCmns
#SmartCustody book & projects: https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/SmartCustody
Replying to @Jad_AE, @skominers and @BlockchainCmns
Airgapped Wallet Community https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/Airgapped-Wallet-Community
Replying to @Jad_AE, @skominers and @BlockchainCmns
Our reference code and iOS app wallet app that demonstrates best practices: https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/GordianSeedTool-iOS
Replying to @Jad_AE, @skominers and @BlockchainCmns
Lots of other projects in this last year: https://www.blockchaincommons.com/projects.html
Replying to @Jad_AE, @skominers and @BlockchainCmns
…in support of our vision “Blockchain Commons advocates for human dignity online by enabling people to control their own digital destiny” & mission “Creating Open & Interoperable, Secure & Compassionate Digital Infrastructure” https://www.blockchaincommons.com/vision.html
Replying to @Jad_AE, @skominers and @BlockchainCmns
We are a not-for-profit benefit organization, and are seeking more support for our efforts. Become a monthly sponsor at https://GitHub.com/sponsor/BlockchainCommons
In 2019 my long-time writing partner @Appelcline and I released our book on the design of cooperative board games “Meeples Together”. With the pandemic both of us have played them less, but here is an end-of-year update on the best & most popular. https://twitter.com/MeeplesTogether/status/1476751849969516549