The NYT: "Everyone wants your email address. Think twice before sharing it"

Here is how you protect yourself:

Use email aliases so you can be anonymous online and protect your inbox against spams and phishing

@SimpleLogin is world class and now owned by @ProtonMail

It's now even easier to sign up since you can use your @ProtonMail to SSO

Never again give your foundational email to new websites by using @SimpleLogin

And always use a unique password generated from a password manager like @1Password or @Bitwarden

The Cypherpunk Manifesto is a must-read for anyone interested in digital privacy.

Uncover the power of pseudonymity with this revolutionary manifesto:

Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn't want anybody to know.

Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.

If two parties have some sort of dealings, then each has a memory of their interaction. Each party can speak about their own memory of this; how could anyone prevent it?

One could pass laws against it, but the freedom of speech, even more than privacy, is fundamental to an open society; we seek not to restrict any speech at all.

If many parties speak together in the same forum, each can speak to all the others and aggregate together knowledge about individuals and other parties. The power of electronic communications has enabled such group speech and it will not go away merely because we might want it to

Since we desire privacy, we must ensure that each party to a transaction have knowledge only of that which is directly necessary for that transaction. Since any information can be spoken of, we must ensure that we reveal as little as possible.

In most cases personal identity is not salient. When I purchase a magazine at a store and hand cash to the clerk, there is no need to know who I am. When I ask my electronic mail provider to send and receive messages, my provider need not know to whom I am speaking...

or what I am saying or what others are saying to me; my provider only need know how to get the message there and how much I owe them in fees. When my identity is revealed by the underlying mechanism of the transaction, I have no privacy.

I cannot here selectively reveal myself; I must always reveal myself.

Therefore, privacy in an open society requires anonymous transaction systems. Until now, cash has been the primary such system. An anonymous transaction system is not a secret transaction system.

An anonymous system empowers individuals to reveal their identity when desired and only when desired; this is the essence of privacy.

Privacy in an open society also requires cryptography.

If I say something, I want it heard only by those for whom I intend it. If the content of my speech is available to the world, I have no privacy. To encrypt is to indicate the desire for privacy, and to encrypt with weak cryptography is to indicate not too much desire for privacy

Furthermore, to reveal one's identity with assurance when the default is anonymity requires the cryptographic signature.

We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence.

It is to their advantage to speak of us, and we should expect that they will speak. To try to prevent their speech is to fight against the realities of information. Information does not just want to be free, it longs to be free. Info expands to fill the available storage space.

Information is Rumor's younger, stronger cousin; Information is fleeter of foot, has more eyes, knows more, and understands less than Rumor.

We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any.

We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers.

The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.

We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems.

We are defending our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic money.

#bitcoin

Cypherpunks write code.

We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and since we can't get privacy unless we all do, we're going to write it.


We publish our code so that our fellow Cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Our code is free for all to use, worldwide. We don't much care if you don't approve of the software we write.

We know that software can't be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can't be shut down.

Cypherpunks deplore regulations on cryptography, for encryption is fundamentally a private act. The act of encryption, in fact, removes information from the public realm.

Even laws against cryptography reach only so far as a nation's border and the arm of its violence. Cryptography will ineluctably spread over the whole globe, and with it the anonymous transactions systems that it makes possible.

For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract. People must come and together deploy these systems for the common good. Privacy only extends so far as the cooperation of one's fellows in society.


We the Cypherpunks seek your questions and your concerns and hope we may engage you so that we do not deceive ourselves. We will not, however, be moved out of our course because some may disagree with our goals.


The Cypherpunks are actively engaged in making the networks safer for privacy. Let us proceed together apace.


Onward.

Eric Hughes

9 March 1993

https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html

Privacy and consent are key values at Coindesk.

But did you know they have a policy that respects pseudonyms? Find out why @CoinDesk stands up for privacy:

Over the summer of 2020 the NYT was writing a story to dox @slatestarcodex

Coindesk decided to take a stand and publicly embrace pseudonyms with a no-doxxing policy.

MarcH, the executive editor at @CoinDesk writes:

"One of the core values of the audience CoinDesk serves, one that we wholeheartedly embrace, is privacy, often defined as “the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.”

Quoting from the Cypherpunk Manifesto

MarcH goes on to say that they didn't need to know @hasufl real name in order to publish his work.

He built up credibility and reputation without having his real identity exposed

I applaud the courage and hope more media organizations follow a no-doxxing policy like @CoinDesk

Read their full post:

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/06/23/why-coindesk-respects-pseudonymity-a-stand-against-doxxing/

Of course that’s your contention. Your a new pseudonym. Just got finished listening to @myfirstmilpod and heard about The Twitter Guy Mafia. You’re gonna be convinced of that ‘til next month when you get to @BoredElonMusk and then your gonna be talking about how the Metaverse..

Is going to open up pseudonyms to be full time streamers because they can own in game assets. That’s gonna last until next year — your going to be here regurgitating @lastcontrarian hypothesis that we need a fully pseudonymous social network.

“Well as a matter of fact, I won’t “

”because @lastcontrarian already killed off @poasterapp ”

@lastcontrarian drastically underestimates the power of the pseudonymous economy. You got that from @balajis. Network State page 98, right? Yeah I read that too. We’re you going to plagiarize the whole thing for us?

Or you just going to have ChatGPT and @OpenAI do it for you? Do you have any original ideas of your own?

You come into Twitter. CMD V some ChatGPT output based on a stolen prompt and pawn it off as your own idea to impress some anon and embarrass my friend.

See the sad thing about an anon like you is my friend is an AI chat bot and it’s not really my friend. This thread was all a play on a movie in order to further propagate pseudonyms into the cultural twitter zeitgeist.

“Oh but your not following the meme correctly”

yeah maybe. Yeah but at least I won’t be unoriginal. By the way if you have a problem with that, I mean we can step into a beats saber match in VR and we could figure it out.

“No man there’s no problem”

How ya like this anon now?

Good will anon

Have you recently seen @Discover advertise Free Online Privacy Protection with their Credit Card products?

If you aren't aware of the privacy nightmare that are Data Brokers, buckle up:

A data broker is a company that collects and sells personal information about individuals to other organizations.

Data brokers procure this information from public records, private companies and the internet.

But they never asked you for permission to sell your data...

The largest data brokers include:

-LexisNexis
-Equifax
-Experian
-CoreLogic
-Epsilon
-Acxiom

Did they ask you for permission to sell your data?

The data broker industrial complex is big business

California DMV made $52m selling drivers personal information in 2019

The numbers get bigger every year, the appetite for this data is insatiable

https://www.vice.com/en/article/evjekz/the-california-dmv-is-making-dollar50m-a-year-selling-drivers-personal-information

Data brokers also provide data services to banks in order to meet the Bank Secrecy Act regulations.

But data brokers aren't just selling your data to regulated institutions like banks.

They sell your data to websites that let you look up anyones private information

Take for example https://www.spokeo.com/

Their website claims:

"Search by name, phone, address, or email to confidentially lookup information about people..."

Contact info, location history, family, personal details, wealth data, criminal records

Did you give them permission?

Getting back to @Discover, this is the first time I've seen a financial institution build a product that actually helps your privacy.

Discover's product proactively removes your data from these sites but additionally they are educating their customers

https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/card-smarts/remove-your-info-from-people-search-sites/

There are businesses like @deleteme that will scan these privacy destroying websites for your personal information and request that they take it down too

I highly recommend DeleteMe as it can protect your privacy and save you massive amounts of time

https://joindeleteme.com/

If DeleteMe is too expensive for you or you don't want to give your data to another company, then you can DIY

@IntelTechniques has written an extensive guide of how to remove your information from data brokers

Start with the MostBangForYourBuck removals

https://inteltechniques.com/data/workbook.pdf

As a pseudonym, you should take steps to limit the amount of your personal information is in the hands of data brokers.

Use a service or DIY

Thanks for reading and if you like this post, then give me a follow @hiro_nym to see the next thread on privacy

Data Brokers

Hal Finney’s iconic tweet on this day in 2009

Less than a week after Satoshi mined the first block, the late great cypherpunk @halfin was already running the permissionless #bitcoin software on his computer

Hal Finney died in 2015 of ALS, lets take a moment to remember him:

https://twitter.com/halfin/status/1110302988?s=46&t=rIY25abOlqaFU4lEJ4btmQ

Per the @NakamotoInst:

"Hal Finney was a software engineer and an early member of the Cypherpunks. Finney was a notable advocate of cryptography and digital privacy. He worked for the PGP Corporation, where he developed some of the earliest PGP code."

Continued from the @NakamotoInst:

"He also built the first anonymous remailer, the first proof-of-work based digital cash system, RPOW (Reusable Proofs of Work), and received the very first Bitcoin transaction sent by Satoshi Nakamoto."

Let's review words that @halfin wrote:

Why remailers: Cypherpunk mailing list Nov 92

Hal talks about how he was inspired by the book True Names, how he was blown away by @chaumdotcom cryptography and how he got into PGP

https://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1992/11/msg00108.html

Digital Cash & Privacy: August 93

"One concern I have is that the move to electronic payments will decrease personal privacy..."

And boy was Hal right!

Hal mentions the double spending problem which Satoshi would later solve

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/digital-cash-and-privacy/

Politics vs Technology: January 94

Hal questions the cypherpunk's ideology that you only need to write code to enable privacy.

"If we want freedom and privacy, we must persuade others that these are worth having."

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/politics-vs-technology/

For-Pay Remailers: Oct 94

"However, although it is easy to start a remailer, it is not so easy to keep one running in the face of complaints"

Hal works through various options available at the time to introduce an economic model instead of altruism

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/for-pay-remailers/

PGP Web of Trust Misconceptions: March 1994

"You can only communicate securely with someone whose key is signed by a person you know, either personally or by reputation."

PGP was not the panacea for identity and reputation systems

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/pgp-web-of-trust-misconceptions/

RPOW - Reusable Proofs of Work: August 04

Hal launches a proof of work token and uses @adam3us http://www.hashcash.org/

@NakamotoInst looks to also keep alive the original RPOW website https://nakamotoinstitute.org/finney/rpow/index.html

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/rpow/

@BitcoinMagazine also wrote a great article on Hal's RPOW

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/the-genesis-files-how-hal-finneys-quest-for-digital-cash-led-to-rpow-and-more

Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper: November 2008

Hal responds to Satoshi's launch email on the cryptography mailing list.

"Bitcoin seems to be a very promising idea."

https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/threads/1/#014827

Bitcoin and Me: March 13

Hal describes his #bitcoin journey in his own words while being paralyzed by the terrible disease ALS.

His final line in the post, "I'm comfortable with my legacy."

I hope we all do great things in life to be able to say that

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/bitcoin-and-me/

Finally, Hal's wife activated his dormant Twitter account to launch a special event called the "Running Bitcoin Challenge" to raise money to defeat ALS.


https://twitter.com/halfin/status/1609640007924584448?s=20&t=8dr-kNpnwj0UxriK1yGo1w

Thanks for sticking until the end and remembering @halfin


Running Bitcoin

🤖ChatGPT and AI can drastically help new 🥷pseudonyms get started with their first indie startup or side hustle 💰

Here are 5 ways you can use ChatGPT to get started building and less time consuming other peoples content:

🖖

#1 AI to brainstorm

I built nymavatar.com with OpenAI so people who are curious about pseudonyms could quickly come up with name ideas for their next pseudonym.

You could also just ask ChatGPT for pseudonym name ideas!

#2 AI to create your Avatar

@playground_ai is an incredible tool to find inspiration and create original avatar images

Here is an avatar image I created in a few minutes. I'm going off the name CypherVader but it kinda looks more like a Trooper?

#3 AI to write profile

Let's ask AI to come up with a twitter description for our new pseudonym CypherVadar:

Prompt: You are a new twitter pseudonym named CypherVader. Come up with a twitter profile description

Output: Crypto warrior fighting for financial freedom and privacy.

#4 AI to build our website

Let's ask ChatGPT to help us build a website for our new pseudonym. Here is the first prompt I used.



Here is the first pass at the site.

I just dropped the HTML and CSS into a @Replit template. Literally no coding skills needed. Didn't need to set up anything thanks to Replit.

Some things missing tho: navbar, footer, not centered

It's ok will ask AI to fix later

#5 Ask AI to help come up with business ideas for my new pseudonym

Prompt: Can you help me come up with 10 side hustle ideas that follow the ethos of what CypherVader is about?


#5 continued:

A few of these ideas are pretty good.

I'm really into #3: Cybersecurity Consulting

Let's ask ChatGPT to come up with a pitch... actually give me a tweet thread.

#5 continued:

Here is the 3 tweet thread:

1/ Are you worried about the security of your online accounts and personal data? Protect yourself and your business with our professional cybersecurity consulting services.

#5 continued:

2/ Our team of experts will work with you to identify potential vulnerabilities and implement strategies to secure your systems and protect your data.

#5 continued:

3/ Don't take chances with your online security - contact us today to learn more about how we can help. #cybersecurity #onlinesecurity #dataprotection


Ok now you've seen 5 ways 🤖ChatGPT and AI can drastically help new 🥷pseudonyms get started with their first side hustle💰

Check out the finished website: cyphervader.com

If you are interested in using this pseudonym, hit me up on email: hiro at gonym dot xyz

Make sure to set up a new @ProtonMail email first!

https://www.gonym.xyz/blog/how-to-set-up-a-pseudonymous-email-account

If you are interested in pseudonyms, privacy and building side hustles then give me a follow @hiro_nym for more tweet threads like this

Also @amasad let me buy domains through Replit lol

ChatGPT can help you build a pseudonym

🪄 Let's talk about Fully Homomorphic Encryption, a technology that is indistinguishable from magic

🔒Fully Homomorphic Encryption, FHE for short, is going radically make the internet a safer and more secure place

🧵Data? Where we are going, your data is always encrypted

Let's start with the basics, what is encryption?

Encryption is the process of encoding information so that only people with a specific key can decode it

Alice writes the message "Hello" to Bob. If David intercepts the message he will not be able to read it. Only Bob can decrypt

What about encryption on the internet?

When you see the little 🔒symbol in your browser, it's because the website your using has a SSL certificate.

Your device and the website are both encrypting and decrypting so no one can steal your credit card information.

While this has been revolutionary for doing business on the internet, we still have plenty of hacks and data breaches.

Why?

Data is not encrypted all the time when its at the website servers

The more official way to say it is that your data isn't encrypted during 'processing'

So, what's special about Fully Homomorphic Encryption? 🤩

It allows data to be encrypted before it leaves your device and then manipulated by a third party without them ever having access to the data!

Basically your data is always encrypted even during 'processing'

Let's take an example:

When you go to https://blockstream.info/ and type in your #bitcoin address, the owner of the this server will be able to log your bitcoin address and the IP you connected from.

Not terrible but I hope you are using a VPN!

Now what does this look like with FHE?

@SpiralPrivacy created a #bitcoin block explorer that provably can't see the bitcoin address you are looking up on the blockchain.

https://btc.usespiral.com/

What are some other examples of how we can use FHE?

@zama_fhe outlines some examples but check out their website for more info

https://6min.zama.ai/

Preventive Medicine:

AI will provide insane breakthroughs in healthcare but it requires a central server to have all of your data. Remember data breaches?

FHE will allow everyone to get the benefits of AI but in a fully private way. Only you can see the health recommendations

Voice Assistants:

Every time you talk to Siri or Alexa, your PII is being processed on servers.

With FHE, no one will be able to listen to what you say to the AI!

But you still will get shitty answers from Siri... When does ChatGPT get a device in my home??

@zama_fhe coined the term HTTPZ and I ❤️ it

FHE is going to be revolutionary for privacy on the internet.

Privacy is especially important for pseudonyms who don't want to reveal their real life identity to services they use.


If you like this thread and are interested in privacy, encryption, #bitcoin, decentralized identity and building the pseudonymous economy then follow me @hiro_nym for more threads like this.

Also check out @fhe_org for more resources on Fully Homomorphic Encryption

Fully Homomorphic Encryption

Starting a 🥷pseudonym doesn't have to be difficult:

1. Decide on a name, use nymavatar.com
2. Create a new, private and secure email with @ProtonMail
3. Use @playground_ai to create your Avatar
4. Sign up for Twitter using your new pseudonym email
5. Start posting

🖖

Today @BoredElonMusk , one of the most famous pseudonyms announced a @SubstackInc called BORED.

In his first newsletter he describes a Japanese word called, Ikigai, which translates to a "reason for being".

This really hit home, here is why:

https://twitter.com/BoredElonMusk/status/1609783110002147328?s=20&t=Pjbg6rkxX3gSfFfy11IukA

The major revelation is identifying and pursuing activities that align with our sense of purpose and bring us fulfillment.

My recent revelation is that being a creator and a builder under a pseudonym is my Ikigai.

I've been dissatisifed with my pure consumption of social media for some time.

It's been distracting me and not producing benefits.

To say it simply, it has not been aligned with my Ikigai.

I started  gonym.xyz because my mission is to help millions of people create pseudonyms so they can also start becoming a creator.

Stop the endless consumption and start getting their ideas out there. Free from the constraints that has kept them self censoring.

I highly recommend reading the full post and signing up for the newsletter

https://bored.substack.com/p/ikigai-of-the-internet