Remember the rubber hose

A talk in distributed ledgers, privacy and an often disregarded threat mode.

Transcript

1. July 20, 2018 / ricardo@samsungnext.com
   @ArgesRic

   https://mastodon.social/@ricardojmendez/
   Remember the
   rubber hose
   Ricardo J. Méndez
   

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2. @argesric @samsungnext
   About me
   Technical Director for Europe at Samsung NEXT
   in Berlin.
   We partner with innovators and invest in
   forward-looking deep-tech companies.
   This talk, however, is about privacy.
   Feel free to grab me later if you want to talk
   more.
   

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3. Speaking of
   which…
   

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4. @argesric @samsungnext
   Kudos to the
   organizers.
   We need more
   conferences taking
   people’s desire for
   privacy into account.
   

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5. Let’s talk about
   privacy
   

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6. @argesric @samsungnext
   Have you asked
   people about
   decentralization?
   

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7. @argesric @samsungnext
   Most have no idea.
   

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8. @argesric @samsungnext
   People do know a few things, though
   The "crypto"comes
   from all the data out
   there being
   encrypted...
   Blockchains are
   private because they
   are decentralized...
   And this makes them
   anonymous and
   untraceable.
   

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9. @argesric @samsungnext
   This is partly our fault.
   

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10. @argesric @samsungnext
    There’s a lot of new
    concepts for people.
    

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11. @argesric @samsungnext
    Privacy “as a way to prevent signalling concerns from
    encompassing all of our activity.”
    Vitalik Buterin, reddit thread
    

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12. @argesric @samsungnext
    Everything we do in
    public generates signals.
    

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13. @argesric @samsungnext
    First world problem?
    

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14. @argesric @samsungnext
    “We are putting X on the blockchain”
    

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15. @argesric @samsungnext
    Effectively, logging.
    

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16. Let’s talk about
    keys
    

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17. @argesric @samsungnext
    Raise your hand…
    Who believes in being
    in control of their
    private keys?
    Who expects public
    key cryptography will
    keep our data safe at
    least until quantum
    computers?
    Who has ever had a
    gun to their heads?
    

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18. @argesric @samsungnext
    Yeah. That signaling.
    

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19. @argesric @samsungnext
    “We are making the world a better place”
    

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20. @argesric @samsungnext
    What’s the worst thing
    that can happen?
    

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21. @argesric @samsungnext
    Censorship resistance?
    Pseudonymity?
    

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22. @argesric @samsungnext
    Those who can benefit
    the most are vulnerable.
    

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24. Rubber hose
    cryptanalysis
    

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25. @argesric @samsungnext
    Easy, cheap, and effective.
    

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28. @argesric @samsungnext
    We need to make it
    easier for people to be
    private.
    

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29. @argesric @samsungnext
    Yes, we are better off.
    But we have it pretty
    good already.
    

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30. @argesric @samsungnext
    Hey, I’ll take it.
    

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31. How can we help?
    

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32. @argesric @samsungnext
    Yes, users can change
    your defaults.
    

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33. @argesric @samsungnext
    If your defaults aren’t
    private, they will stay
    non-private.
    Source
    

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34. @argesric @samsungnext
    Can we help with the
    metadata?
    

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35. @argesric @samsungnext
    Plausible deniability?
    

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36. @argesric @samsungnext
    But mostly, speak plainly.
    Help them build a mental
    model.
    

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37. Because we’re
    really close
    

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39. @argesric @samsungnext
    We’re in the cusp of
    something here.
    

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40. @argesric @samsungnext
    … and then 95% of them
    won’t change the defaults.
    

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43. @argesric @samsungnext
    Thank you.
    Contact: ricardo@samsungnext.com

    

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