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Big Tech’s Freedom of Speech Purge Pushes People to Censorship-Resistant Blockchain Social Media

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During the last few days, the world has watched the Big Tech and social media crackdown after the incident that took place at Capitol Hill a few days ago. During the last 48 hours, U.S. President Donald Trump, a great number of right-wing supporters, and literally anyone who speaks out against the U.S. government has been censored. The extreme Big Tech censorship has driven a great number of social media participants to search for censorship-resistant alternatives.

Big Tech’s Purge

In 2020 and into 2021, mainstream media alongside the help of Twitter, Google, Apple, Youtube, Amazon, and Facebook has managed to whitewash the corruption and scandalous acts caused by the U.S. bureaucracy. Following the large protest in Washington and the protestors who managed to enter the Capitol building; videos, pictures, and viral social media posts littered the internet capturing the day’s events. Then after it was all said and done, in a matter of mere hours, Big Tech and the social media giants started to purge any dissent.

On January 7, Facebook announced the deletion of President Trump’s page and also said that it would be deleting all the commentary that shows “praise and support of the storming of the U.S. Capitol.” Facebook said they would also be deleting posts that call for peaceful protests, alongside pictures and videos of the Capitol breach.

Facebook has further implemented a new feature asking the user if they are sure they want to post. The company has started to purge any dissent toward the American bureaucracy and plan to “update labels on posts” and add more fact-checkers. Facebook said the firm will leverage “AI to demote content that likely violates our policies.”

Additionally, Twitter decided to follow Facebook’s censorship path as well, and also banned the @realdonaldtrump account with 87 million followers. Twitter called the President’s account a “risk” that could further incite violence and called the Capitol building breach “horrific.” The company highlighted two tweets written by Trump and said that they glorified violence. Following the deletion of Trump’s account, Twitter also slashed the followers of many activists who have shown any signs of a dissenting viewpoint.

Further, left-wing supporters have applauded the censorship and a great majority of the bureaucrats have joined the purge as well. Some of them have even called on Apple and Google for the deletion of censorship-resistant social media apps like Parler. Many progressives have fully supported the censorship of dissenting views, and are calling for even more censoring.

Decentralized Networks and Blockchain-Based Social Media Alternatives

The intense censorship storm has invoked a great number of people to leave Twitter and Facebook and search for alternatives. Of course, there are decentralized alternatives that don’t use blockchain tech like Diaspora, Mastodon, Parler, Flote, Sola, and Manyverse, but there are many social media apps that do use blockchain tech.

A blockchain-based social media application operates just like the popular social media giants we all use today, but they also allow people to post content in a censorship-resistant and immutable fashion.

Big Tech's Freedom of Speech Purge Pushes People to Censorship-Resistant Blockchain Social Media
One particular decentralized application called memo.cash skips all the censorship nonsense, as it allows users to post content to the BCH chain. In November 2020, memo.cash launched its iOS application for the App Store.

Right now there are a few blockchain-based alternative social media sites that allow people to speak and share content in an immutable fashion. Some of these applications have been operating for a few years now, and some of them are just starting to kickstart the social network. These platforms are also built on various blockchains like Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, IOTA, EOS, and more.

Big Tech's Freedom of Speech Purge Pushes People to Censorship-Resistant Blockchain Social Media
Lbry is a sharing platform that uses blockchain technology to enable users to publish material and get paid for doing so. Peepeth is similar to Twitter but user content is etched to the Ethereum blockchain.

A few of the apps also leverage both blockchain technology and the Inter-Planetary File System (ipfs.io) in a combination. Blockchain apps that people can sign up for and test today include platforms like Voice, Memo.cash, Peepeth, Member.cash, Socialx, Sapien, Lbry, Dtube, All.me, Minds, Society2, Peakd, Hive, and Indorse.

Big Tech's Freedom of Speech Purge Pushes People to Censorship-Resistant Blockchain Social Media
The blockchain-based social network Minds moved to the Ethereum network in 2018. Minds calls the application a cross-platform distributed social networking service.

For instance, the app Peepeth is a decentralized “microblogging” platform that emulates Twitter in some ways. The platform is built using the Ethereum blockchain and IPFS. Another application called Memo.cash is a decentralized social network powered by the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. Essentially, all Memo posts are visible to anyone using the BCH blockchain, with each Memo account being associated with a BCH wallet address. Member.cash is another decentralized public platform for discussion and reputation built using the BCH chain. The Member.cash model is similar to Reddit, but leverages the BCH network for censorship resistance and decentralization.

The application called Minds leverages the Ethereum (ETH) network and claims to be accessible to all, and says it is censorship-resistant as well. People looking for Youtube alternatives can try Dtube or Lbry. For instance, Lbry’s creators say the app is a decentralized content sharing and publishing platform that is wholly owned by its users. There are many types of social media applications that leverage blockchain, decentralization techniques like IPFS, and have created places where anyone can speak their minds.

As usual, the biggest downfall of all these applications is the lack of users, as most people have not gravitated toward decentralized social media. However, during the last few years as nation-states have ramped up censorship, and heightened the crackdown against anti-government rhetoric, these platforms have seen significant growth.

The best thing people can do right now is to start migrating toward social media applications that offer decentralization and blockchain censorship-resistance, because the dystopian world that looks an awful lot like Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 is surely upon us.

What do you think about the myriad of censorship-resistant and blockchain-based social media applications? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Popular Browsers Like Google Fail to Catch Copycat Crypto Sites, Scams Make the Top Results

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Popular Browsers Like Google Fail to Catch Copycat Crypto Sites, Scams Make the Top Results

As the digital asset economy grows popular and a number of crypto companies become well known, copycat scammers appear in greater numbers. There are a number of websites that are clones of the official web page from companies that provide mining device sales, wallets, full nodes, paper wallet tools, and popular trading platforms.

Just recently, news.Bitcoin.com wrote a report on mining devices, and one of the links we found looked like it belonged to a reliable mining manufacturer, but the URL really went to a copycat site that looked identical to the original URL. People make mistakes and the fact of the matter is some of these scams can be awfully hard to catch. That’s because oftentimes these web pages look exactly the same as the official website, minus a few minor details.

Some shady websites are quite obvious, like when news.Bitcoin.com’s Terence Zimwara wrote about Bitcoin Inc. and the ostensible fractional share tokens. However, some web pages are straight-up copycat web pages, and are nearly identical to the official page. For instance, there is a copycat website of the mining rig manufacturer Strongu’s official page. Google happens to keep to have the sketchy website posted at the very top of the results page.

Popular Browsers Like Google Fail to Catch Copycat Crypto Sites at the Top of the Results

The site is called “strongutech.com” and the real web page is really called “strongu.com.cn/.” The copycat website, which uses the word “tech” in the name, was created to be a phony sales site. It also managed to make it to the top of Google’s browser results with little effort. It should be known that the copycat website is not the company’s official mining store. News.Bitcoin.com has reported it to Google’s anti-phishing page which allows people to report suspicious websites.

Spoofing reliable crypto company websites has been happening for years. For instance, six years ago the popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase was spoofed by a web page called “coinbase.re/,” and everything was real except the sign-in button. Which means, after an unsuspecting Coinbase customer used it the hacker would steal login credentials. The website also was the very first “sponsored” post on the top of the Bing browser’s results page.

Popular Browsers Like Google Fail to Catch Copycat Crypto Sites at the Top of the ResultsLast summer, law enforcement in Europe arrested a group who spoofed the website Blockchain.com. The hackers managed to empty the wallets of 4,000 victims. All the malicious actors did was leverage a technique called “typosquatting,” which uses a domain name but with one small typo. There are fake paper wallet generator sites people have been complaining about over the years. Three months ago, a Reddit user also reported on a phony Ian Coleman BIP39 page on the top of Google’s results.

Popular Browsers Like Google Fail to Catch Copycat Crypto Sites at the Top of the Results

Day in and day out, scammers are using spoof websites and typosquatting to steal people’s cryptocurrencies. Scammers are also appearing on Google’s Play Store copying reputable brands and creating fake apps. Just recently, Satoshilabs, the company that manufactures the Trezor hardware wallet tweeted about an Android app that was pretending to be the official application.

“A warning to all the Android users owning Trezor devices,” the company tweeted on December 2, 2020. “This app is a scam and has no relation to SatoshiLabs and Trezor. We’ve already reported it to the Google team. Always confirm any action on your device and never type seed words until your Trezor asks you to,” the hardware wallet manufacturer added.

The fact of the matter is that as cryptocurrencies become more popular, copycats, scammers, and website spoofers will grow in number. Always make sure the URL is 100% correct when accessing the wallet, exchange, mining company, or any service you use with crypto. There have been plenty of cases where Google, Bing, and other popular browsers allow copycat spoof websites at the top of the results page, and some scams are even sponsored.

You can report phishing websites to Google and other browsers, so other individuals can have a safer browsing experience surfing the web. Moreover, many crypto companies like Coinbase offer people methods to report phishing and spoof sites as well.

What do you think about the growing number of copycat and spoof crypto sites? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

The post Popular Browsers Like Google Fail to Catch Copycat Crypto Sites, Scams Make the Top Results appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Breaking Bitcoin: Crypto Proponents Discuss Honeywell’s 6 Qubit Quantum Computer

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Breaking Bitcoin: Crypto Proponents Discuss Honeywell's 6 Qubit Quantum Computer

On June 19, 2020, the massive industrial firm Honeywell told the public the company is now running a quantum computer that effectively leverages six effective quantum bits, or qubits. Honeywell’s machine is two times more powerful than the quantum computers designed by IBM and Google. With Honeywell revealing the new quantum computer, skeptics have already started discussing the future effects on Bitcoin and 256-bit encryption.

Honeywell Reveals a Powerful Six Qubit Quantum Computer Invoking Theoretical Discussions About Bitcoin’s 256-bit Cryptography

In January 2019, bitcoiners started talking about theoretical attacks against the Bitcoin network, after IBM unveiled its Q System One at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019. The following September, the Bitcoin network threat conversation and debates picked up again, when the press reported on Google’s quantum computer performing a calculation that deemed it the “world’s most powerful supercomputer.”

Another big reveal has invoked discussions of a quantum computer breaking 256-bit encryption and the foundations of Bitcoin’s cryptography once again, and debates have started to heat up. The reason for these new conversations is due to an announcement made on Thursday from the firm Honeywell.

Breaking Bitcoin: Crypto Proponents Discuss Honeywell's 6 Qubit Quantum Computer
Honeywell’s 6 Qubit Quantum Computer.

According to the reports, Honeywell’s new quantum computer is two times more efficient than the IBM Q System One and Google’s supercomputer. Reports say that Honeywell’s quantum computer is a “game-changer” and it is heralded for the resulting “volume” of quantum processing power.

Now even though Honeywell’s quantum computer is quite powerful, in order to break Bitcoin’s 256-bit cryptography, it would take anywhere between 2,000 to 3,000 qubits of computing power. Estimates say that it would take computer scientists roughly a decade to even attempt to crack today’s 256-bit encryption, or projects like Bitcoin that leverage the cryptography.

Breaking Bitcoin: Crypto Proponents Discuss Honeywell's 6 Qubit Quantum Computer
Honeywell’s supercomputer is reportedly 2X faster than Google’s quantum computer and the IBM Q System One.

Honeywell’s latest machine is live and it has the processing power of around six qubits, which is quite powerful, but still a few thousand qubits less than what is needed to even threaten Bitcoin. The industry giant Honeywell and its new quantum computer is fast and has received praise for its “quantum volume of 64.” The publicly-traded company worth over $80 billion is also involved with blockchain research and development.

Honeywell International Inc., has revealed a number of projects that leverage blockchain ledgers. However, with Honeywell’s new quantum computer, skeptics think that it could threaten Bitcoin’s underlying infrastructure, specifically SHA256. A number of Bitcoin-based hash values could theoretically make generated private keys vulnerable to a brute force attacks.

2^128 is a Really Big Number

In a Twitter discussion between long time Bitcoin proponent Gabor Gurbacs, Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, and Blockstream’s Adam Back, the group also discussed the theoretical threat.

“Even if one could simulate a quantum computer classically, there are a number of quantum-secure signature schemes that can be used to secure Bitcoin/blockchains,” Gurbacs tweeted on June 19. “I expect those signature schemes to be implemented as practical/deployable quantum computing power increases,” he added.

Breaking Bitcoin: Crypto Proponents Discuss Honeywell's 6 Qubit Quantum Computer
Estimates say that it would take computer scientists 2,000 to 3,000 qubits to even come close to ‘breaking Bitcoin.’ Honeywell’s 6 Qubit Quantum Computer did receive praise for its “quantum volume of 64,” but it’s not even close to threatening SHA256.

Moreover, bitcoiners also discussed the well known bitcoin pundit Alistair Milne’s recent experience, when he had a single BTC giveaway where he gave out 8/12 seed words on Twitter. His mnemonic phrase or seed was brute force attacked, and the person wrote an interesting Medium blog post on how the assault was successful. Still, many veteran bitcoiners are simply not concerned about Honeywell’s new supercomputer or brute force attacks. After, Milne’s giveaway was spoiled, he jokingly tweeted about the subject last Thursday. “Lost all my bitcoin in a 1-trillion calculation brute force attack,” Milne said.

Of course, Milne made it far easier for hackers, by giving away a number of seed words too early and the developer who brute-forced the seed, John Cantrell, noted that it is much harder to do this to an unknown seed. In a tweet thread on June 19, Cantrell said that 12-word Bitcoin mnemonics themselves are secure, as long as people don’t “give out any of [the] words on Twitter.”

“Your bitcoin is safe. 2^128 is a REALLY big number – Just don’t let anyone near your seed words,” Cantrell added.

Extra Protection: Don’t Reuse Bitcoin Addresses

Other people on Twitter also stressed that they did not fear Honeywell’s new supercomputer or theoretical brute force attacks on Bitcoin because the cryptography is double protected.

Breaking Bitcoin: Crypto Proponents Discuss Honeywell's 6 Qubit Quantum Computer
Many bitcoin proponents have explained that if bitcoiners don’t reuse addresses they are giving their coins more security. Andreas Antonopoulos has also said that Satoshi’s two cryptography design choices are “absolutely genius.” “What you use as a Bitcoin address is a double-hashed version of your public key — Which means that the public key is never seen by anyone until you claim it by spending the transaction. — Therefore if you use the fundamental best practice of Bitcoin, which is only using an address once, use a different address for every transaction, spend it completely every time you use it to redirect the change to a new address,” Antonopoulos said in a keynote speech years ago.

The software engineer at Cashapp, Danny Diekroeger, tweeted about the quantum discussion and said: “Even a 51% isn’t the end of the world — It would take continued cash flow to keep the attack running so it ends eventually.”

“As for quantum – it is a risk for every form of cryptography/encryption, etc — The entire internet is as risk,” Diekroeger further stated.

“I expect best practice quantum algorithms to emerge, and worst case Bitcoin could fork (hard or soft not sure) to include state of the art algorithms — There are two main primitives used in bitcoin: hash functions and ECDSA (elliptic curve digital signature algorithm). Quantum would crack ECDSA first, far before it would crack hash functions. Mining uses hash functions, so quantum won’t affect that at first. ECDSA is what gives us private/public keys and signing.” Diekroeger added:

So if you share your public key, an advanced quantum computer could figure out your private key. Good news is most bitcoin addresses don’t share a public key — They share a hash of the public key so there’s extra protection. We don’t reveal our public key until we *spend* from an address. So by simply not reusing addresses, you’ll be protected from quantum computing even if ECDSA is compromised.

Breaking Bitcoin: Crypto Proponents Discuss Honeywell's 6 Qubit Quantum Computer
“This little genius design element is not an accident,” Antonopoulos further said in his keynote speech. “What it does is, it creates a second abstraction layer of the underlying cryptographic algorithm used in elliptic curve digital signatures allowing you to do future upgrades. Which means that the past is secure because it is hidden behind the second veil of a different algorithm and the future can be changed because you can present an address that is not the hash of an elliptic curve, or its the hash of a different elliptic curve, or its the hash of a bigger elliptic curve, or its the hash of a signing algorithm that is quantum-resistant that has nothing to do with elliptic curve. So, you can do a forward modification to secure the future, and you’ve got backward protection because you have hid the past,” the Bitcoin evangelist added.

Whatever the case may be, Honeywell’s new six quantum bits have given bitcoiners another moment to argue about whether or not quantum computers are a threat to the Bitcoin network. For now, most veterans are not at all concerned that the 10-year timeline estimates are probably much shorter, with Honeywell’s latest six qubit innovation. Despite this, many Bitcoin optimists believe they can safely fork the code toward a quantum-resistant algorithm if they needed to in the future.

What do you think about Honeywell’s new six quantum bit computer and the possible threat to Bitcoin? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below.

The post Breaking Bitcoin: Crypto Proponents Discuss Honeywell’s 6 Qubit Quantum Computer appeared first on Bitcoin News.