I’ve had several conversations with people about how their favourite cryptocurrency will overtake Bitcoin. And I have often perceived some of the projects’ features as good myself. But before we break down the various arguments and why they are unlikely to lead to success, let’s talk about two technologies that preceded crypto. The first technology […]
Updated 20. august 2024 In part 1, I explained why encrypted messengers are important. In this part, we will look at particular messengers and compare them. Signal Let’s start with probably the most well-known and widely used secure messenger – Signal. It’s been in development since 2010, but the first version of what we know […]
Recently, there have been some fairly major improvements in the encryption of our communications. Virtually all websites have switched to encrypted communication using the https protocol. If we go to an unencrypted site, the browser will warn us that something is wrong. But this positive change goes hand in hand with an increased surveillance different […]
The best way to support the local crypto economy is to create a local small-world network. If you want to buy bitcoin for $100, your best bet is to get hold of someone in your area who wants to sell. Of course, other alternatives (such as a Bitcoin ATM if you don’t want KYC) are […]
When Buckminster Fuller was asked by a student during a lecture about the possibility of becoming an astronaut, he replied: “You don’t understand, you’ve been an astronaut for a long time. We are all astronauts on Spaceship Earth”. Artificial intelligence has long been a matter of science fiction books and the future being created for […]
Many of you know the problem – you run a Raspberry Pi under your desk, which closes your window blinds, takes care of your photos and monitors the humidity of your house. And then you walk away and remember you forgot to close the blinds and want to connect to it. Instead of complicated port […]
Non-crypto payment networks such as credit cards are tied to a name. Often a billing address is required, which is sometimes verified. Since payment card security is based on knowing a few numbers (card number, expiry date and CVV) that are passed on to third parties, it is a good idea to verify some of […]
Last year, for several days, the world has been anxiously watching the election of the US President. In the US, of course, it has been the topic of the year, for some even more important than the pandemic. As with every election, political commentators, opinion polls, political scientists and so on have been supplying a […]
As a teenager, I founded one of the first, if not the first Czechoslovak web e-zine (today it would be something like a blog). It was called Netáčik. Later I started writing a column about security for PC Revue magazine, then Linux and open-source (together with Peter Paluch and other people). Alongside all this, the […]
Finally, people are thinking about cloud societies, network states and parallel communities as a real alternative to current doctrine of democratic statism. There are many societal institutions required to pull it off – parallel justice, rulescaping, proxy merchants, local reputation, etc. I would like to look at a simple use-case. Imagine a parallel society that […]