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 […]
This video is part of my course Lightning network for private bitcoin payments among friends and for products and services Phoenix Wallet homepage
I believe in order to improve lightning network, we should allow for unbacked channels between nodes of the same owners (operators). It would enable a few very interesting use-cases, without causing inflation or any other risk to other parts of the network. Unbacked channels increase capital efficiency, availability and help in growing the network by […]
In my previous article, I explained why I think Bitcoin censorship is coming without majority of miners being forced to censor transactions. I am pleased with the discussions it brought and I would like to clarify some points. Before you choose to discuss, please read the original article and this article. I know it is […]
Note: A lot of people think this is purely about >50% attack. Not true, here’s how this unfolds with 10% of censoring hashrate. Bitcoin is often said to be anonymous and uncensorable. Thanks to chain analysis, anonymity is to some extent a disputed wishful thinking from the past. And it looks like it won’t be […]
Tell me the baboon story from Robert Sapolsky. When Robert was studying baboons, there was an outbreak of a virus that affected the hippocampus region of the brain, causing animals to go insane. The typical symptoms were for them to attack members of their troop and ultimately die. Robert watched as the entire troop of […]
(translation note: This article was first published in Slovak language here. Some references are about situation in Slovakia, but the main points are valid in general. This article was written during coronavirus pandemic, and wearing face masks for protection is not just expected, but also mandatory in some countries) As a result of current pandemics, […]