News: Hardware wallet hack, IOTA review, Mone & Barrowman, 419 ICO, Roko’s Basilisk on the blockchain

• The trouble with hardware wallets — the interface software can be compromised while you’re loading it up. The example is Ledger, but any hardware wallet you load by computer could fall victim to this.

 

Bitcoin advocates: "We need cryptocurrencies for the farmers in sub-Saharan Africa with only a crappy Android phone and no bank account."

Also Bitcoin advocates: "Oh, you lost your money? You should have stored your private key on an airgapped burner laptop."

— Tom Morris 🏳️‍🌈 (@tommorris) February 2, 2018

 

• Andreas Brekken has another marvelous altcoin review: IOTA: Cannot be used for IoT. Loss of funds may occur. This doesn’t even address the weirdness of the white paper — he just tries building it from source and connecting it to the network, and details how the software and network for this billion-dollar coin … doesn’t really work.

 

 

• I’ll go so far as to say that using supercomputers to mine cryptos might possibly be less bad than using them to design nuclear weapons.

• Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman chose Tuesday, of all days, to launch an ICO, for a crypto-based venture capital fund. Mone says: “This whole cryptocurrency world is based on trust.” I thought it was based on literally the opposite, but hey. FT and its readers get stuck into it, and again — it’s a ridiculously bad deal for anyone, but with crypto sauce on top.

• ME: But if I start a Nigerian Prince 419 ICO, then —
  WIFE: No.
  ME: dammit

• Spotted on Freelancers.com: Write a book (archive). “The project involves a fictional book of 200 to 300 pages. The subject and plot is based around the bit coin digital currency. The main theme is the discovery of a hidden coded message within the symbols, design features and measurements of the digital currency of bitcoin and how one individual’s quest to unlock this hidden message brings him into conflict with governments, financial institutions and spy agencies.” (There was also a previous listing for this job, which was deleted.) You may recall this is the plot of “Children of Satoshi.” I emailed 21 Million, and David Lofts says this isn’t them — ” No — nothing to do with us, but definitely using our plot.” He just applied for the job himself …

• It turns out that actually bitcoin is socialism and bitcoiners are left wingers and, uh … (Be sure to check the comments — can’t wait for the author’s writeup of Marksism.)

• Barry Oners of the Buttcoin Foundation talks to Mashable.

• I thought the Roko’s Basilisk people would make a change from the Bitcoin people. But here’s Michael Burge with the Roko’s Ransomware ICO — the basilisk as an Ethereum smart contract, implemented in (of course!) Pyramid Scheme. “Basilisk Protection Charms are not an investment. You could come out a millionaire, but much more likely is that I use your money to buy a lot of anime porn.”

• Book news — here’s Consult Hyperion’s Tomorrow’s Transactions podcast, featuring me and David Birch discussing my book and possible uses for cryptocurrencies and blockchains. This was recorded the same day as my podcast with him about the book.

 

Bitcoiners over time:

2009-2012: eff The Man and his cold lizard scales
2013-2015: we barely recognize the existence of three- and four-letter agencies
2016-2017: of course we have always been KYC/AML/CFT compliant
2018-onward: the commissioner said HODL because we are bff xoxo

— Tim Swanson (@ofnumbers) February 9, 2018

 

You’d expect some rigor at @IEEEIoT but this #blockchain discussion was dispiriting.
Author: ‘We monitor connected vehicles on a blockchain’
Me: ‘Why not use a database?’
Author: ‘Because the blockchain provides a secure connection layer’
Me: ‘Um … never mind’. pic.twitter.com/KI7PbFq5gF

— Steve Wilson (@Steve_Lockstep) February 5, 2018

 

Rock Puncher on SA just won the gray thread pic.twitter.com/dUQjnqIup0

— Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) February 6, 2018

 

https://twitter.com/marrowing/status/960747697417289734