Recently I saw this video
http://theconsciousresistance.com/2014/10/cody-wilson-defense-distributed-the-bitcoin-community-has-sold-out/
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yna23WBw68)

Some observations:

Well, yeah, the "bitcoin community" has (by and large) sold out
(assuming that most people ever 'bought in' to a truly independent
peer-to-peer economy as a possibility, and I'm not convinced most ever
did, as it true peer-to-peer uncensorable trade hasn't yet been made
easy enough to become accepted and overcome worldwide adoption
hurdles, such as people's technology limitations, lack of access to
electricity and internet). If all the "community" has going for it is
web wallets and AML/KYC/FATCA/TISA/NY/NorthKorea (etc.) compliance,
then what is the point?

The point, of course is larger than any that can be made by co-opted
members of the bitcoin "community." Is another world possible? Sure
it is. Just not in the old model which people are reverting to out of
convenience and comfort. It's important not to lose sight of the fact
that we have a choice in the direction we go.

As corporate shills give bitcoin the makeover they think it needs,
massaging it vigorously until they have warped it into the facebook of
money, with attendant digital IDs and Lawskyonians celebrating the
ability to sell all the data of anyone who uses their service direct
to a few hundred corporation-states (for profit of course ~ let's not
pretend this is just about 'compliance'), then there's simply no point
in using it, at least not until the tools we have to do so are in
order. DW, Electrum (stealth sends) are a good running start, but
more is obviously needed, along the lines of what Zerocash is
proposing: full anonymity, while treating bitcoin as a base coin.

Some more detailed remarks I have in response to some statements made
in the video:

1) Cody, on assassination markets (responding to a question about
whether Darkwallet could finance warfare and result in crowdfunding of
assassinations a-la Bell's concept): "Will they work? Yes, they'll
work against you."
(...) "good and evil rise together"

- - My response to this is that the assassination markets (and here I am
not speaking of Bell's concept as it is so often discussed, but rather
of the market(s) and demand for assassinations in the world today,
regardless of what form that takes) are ongoing regardless of what
system of exchange or currency comes into play. There will be no
meaningful change in such markets due to DW or even Zerocash, except
that people will have another option to consider in payment schemes ~
however, once lightweight anonymity is realized and available to a
large number of people as something they can use in a transactional
concept, it's very likely that large-scale, well-organized, genocidal
corporation-state actors will simply have less money to burn to carry
out their agenda, because they won't be able to extract as much from
the population via taxation. I see this outcome as providing us with
a choice for a better future - one in which we have the ability to
choose whether or not to fund global warfare conducted by large-scale
military organizations (or, if we'd rather, to send _voluntary_
donations to "fix the roads" and "build the schools"). But then what
would happen, in such a possible future? Well, it would be more
difficult for military organizations (that are largely dependent upon
taxation) to fund global warfare, but that wouldn't keep people from
dying (or being killed), albeit in some lesser numbers than before,
due to politics of the hour. People will be paid. People will
perish. People will live. People will retire, or "be retired." The
world will continue turning. While on this topic, I find it curious
that there is such an ardent focus sometimes on "assassinations,"
given that exactly that people are being killed constantly whether
"for reasons" or because they have become "collateral," and that is
happening all the time (it's probably happened repeatedly as you have
been reading this lengthy paragraph, to be blunt about it) via use of
drones, various traditional military organizations and
less-traditional paramilitary groups. and the anger of Putin and Obama
manifesting itself in the form of their attacks on the world. It is
almost ludicrous to discuss it in the context of DW ~ IMHO, to do so
certainly is at best an awfully limited view of what is really
happening with organized death and mayhem worldwide.

2) Cody: "as we are waiting on this large transfer of wealth which we
all say is coming"

- - I don't think that any large transfer of wealth is coming, and part
of the reason why is we haven't yet given people tools that couple
anonymity and decentralized giving (which together would be a massive
leap forward away from the default setting of the status quo system of
censorship of transactions and divulging of personal data for
corporation-state purposes). Right... well, such tools would likely
not result in people who have, making it rain for people who have not
all across the known world, but the possibiity of decentralizing a
social good is worthy of exploration ~ and requires new tools beyond
what we have established or designed already. Do such tools exist, at
least in an early and unrefined form? Sure they do. Have we put two
and two together and made them work in ways that would allow people to
redefine what they think a transaction could be ~ namely, have tools
been developed that would enable people in society today to make
giving a part of any transaction, or make it a core part of the notion
of a transaction itself, thus re-imagining and remembering our natural
capacity for sharing? No, this hasn't happened yet.

Of course, a whole other layer to this is a serious evaluation of
whether we have compassion enough in societ(ies) around the world to
make such things happen. It's a matter of the heart, not just what
tools are in the shed. If people (even just a few) are compassionate
enough to make it work, the effect grows, or rolls along as the wheels
are turned. If not, then the possibility of compassion spreading
throughout society (like a virus) is minimized, or the blossoming of
that possible outcome is slowed substantially, as though it were a
flower stopped cold from opening by the deathly chill of a frozen wind.

But that's not to say that the warming rays of the sun can't return
(or that the wheels haven't been put in motion) because they have:

~ DW, Electrum, bitcoinjs.org with stealth.js - these are examples of
projects which make stealth sends possible and thus enable strong privacy,
~ zerocash-project.org and bytecoin.org offer examples of user choice
and anonymity (though zerocash hasn't launched yet, it's anticipated
at the end of 2014, or possibly early 2015),
~ https://github.com/spesmilo/sx/tree/master/tools (in particular, the
donations section) and http://abis.io (includes the possibility down
the road of an abis.io plugin for OpenBazaar) present concepts for how
decentralized giving could occur.

It's a start.


(Cody: "There could be a transfer of wealth, but don't hold your breath")

- - It's up to us.

(Cody: "History needs a little help sometimes.")

- - Or a lot. :-)

Respect,

- -Odinn


- --
http://abis.io ~
"a protocol concept to enable decentralization
and expansion of a giving economy, and a new social good"
https://keybase.io/odinn