The Revolution Will Not Be Centralized

As presented at SpringOne/2GX 2014 in Dallas, TX. Video available at http://www.infoq.com/presentations/spring-data-gemfire-7-5

Transcript

1. The Revolution Will Not Be Centralized
3. ! bitcoin
4. magic internet money
5. ! bitcoin
9. 1AwsMQhSoWxziP3XEnRtNurWuktBDK4GkC LyY7aKc290...
10. 1BzZ2shEZmJUZyPScNTkfVFnSovkJsXeYZ
11. 15Y1QuDTdVmn8HCjMn14VX7CvsLUC3t6oE
12. 1FdJiTCUwWedQvt7TaWouAD3mMPmNLMu4s
13. 1JFda26Z3s5eFHF7QWiVy5FFgoA8Lq8qPR
14. 14XngApwvbbR2zige17mmwRG2GrpPAeDY1
15. 1winnert72Hkk9tqg4xKQJZTEH9vLsAQfS
16. ... Address: 1winnert72Hkk9tqg4xKQJZTEH9vLsAQfS Privkey: <keep this safe!> 1 2 3 4 profit!
25. decentralized protocol trustless open neutral
27. DECENTRALIZE ALL THE THINGS!
28. like what? • Email (GMail -> Bitmessage) • Storage (Dropbox -> Storj) • Money (USD, EUR -> Bitcoin) • Social media (Twitter -> Twister) • Even companies themselves (status quo -> DAOs, DACs)
29. why bother? • Freedom (of choice; from censorship) • Privacy (deciding what to share, with whom) • Prosperity (fewer middlemen, fewer fees) • Resiliency (fewer single points of failure) • Competition (leading to better choices for users)
30. big challenges • Coordination • Discovery • Adoption • Infrastructure • Funding
31. but many are now rising to those challenges
37. MUSCULAR TEMPORA BOUNDLESS INFORMANT Mastering the Internet Global Telecoms Exploitation MYSTIC
39. SURVEIL ALL THE CITIZENS!
40. Q: what do we do about it?
41. A1: absolutely nothing!
44. Privacy isn't about having something to hide. It's about control. Either you have it, or someone else does.
45. "The debate isn't security versus privacy. It's liberty versus control." ! ~ Bruce Schneier
46. ! "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks." ! ~Article 12, UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
47. ! "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." ! ~Benjamin Franklin
48. A2: protest!
50. maybe
51. maybe not.
52. "Don't blame the NSA for being the first to buy a hammer off a store shelf." ~ Jeff Garzik
53. A3: decentralize.
54. it shouldn't be this easy :(
55. A4: encrypt.
56. 1999 2005 ... and today?
60. 1. give up 2. protest 3. decentralize 4. encrypt
61. problem: no incentive
62. cause: advertising
64. "It’s time to start paying for privacy, to support services we love, and to abandon those that are free, but sell us—the users and our attention—as the product."
65. we're addicted to free services
66. free services survive on advertising
67. free services survive on surveillance
68. free is a lie.
69. government surveillance corporate surveillance enables
70. if only there were another way...
82. Alice Charlie Dave 50% 25% 25% 5% 95%
84. SIGHASH_ANYONECANPAY
85. Alice Charlie Dave 50% 25% 25% 0% 100%
89. `
91. oops.
92. crowdfunding
93. equity crowdfunding
94. crypto-equity crowdfunding
95. Counterparty Mastercoin Swarm
96. MaidSafe (which builds on) Mastercoin protocol uses to launch and
104. The Four Freedoms 1. The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose. 2. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this. 3. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor. 4. The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
105. OH MY GOD... WHAT IF STALLMAN WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG
106. free software! + bitcoin! + decentralized crowdfunding! -----------------------------! new ways to directly(!) fund FOSS
107. putting it all together
110. metered resource consumption and QoS
111. bitcoin micropayment channels
112. zero trust
113. the network is the computer :)
115. problems and threats
116. Legal
118. Silk Road
119. OpenBazaar
120. systemic weaknesses
121. bitcoin itself is decentralized but bitcoin exchanges aren't
123. centralized services • Web wallets • Exchanges • OTC Bureaus • Coinbase, Circle, ...
125. Regulatory
126. BitLicense
127. Privacy (Transaction Analysis)
128. CoinJoin / ZeroCash
129. conclusions
130. "decentralizing all the things" probably won't be a mainstream phenomenon anytime soon
131. but that's okay.
132. all we need is enough
133. this revolution is peaceful.
135. things you can do • Patronize "small businesses" on the web like pinboard • Or start one :) • Run a full bitcoin node • Run a Tor exit node • Read up, dive in: http://chris.beams.io/posts/bitcoin/
136. "In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete. That, in essence, is the higher service to which we are all being called." ~ Buckminster Fuller ~
137. thanks!
138. questions? chris.beams.io/talks/revolution @cbeams