Cryptocurrencies: an Introduction for Policy Makers Brian Conley
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Moneylab Reader: an Intervention in Digital Economy
READER A N INTERVENTION IN DIGITAL ECONOMY FOREWORD BY SASKIA SASSEN EDITED BY GEERT LOVINK NATHANIEL TKACZ PATRICIA DE VRIES INC READER #10 MoneyLab Reader: An Intervention in Digital Economy Editors: Geert Lovink, Nathaniel Tkacz and Patricia de Vries Copy editing: Annie Goodner, Jess van Zyl, Matt Beros, Miriam Rasch and Morgan Currie Cover design: Content Context Design: Katja van Stiphout EPUB development: André Castro Printer: Drukkerij Tuijtel, Hardinxveld-Giessendam Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2015 ISBN: 978-90-822345-5-8 Contact Institute of Network Cultures phone: +31205951865 email: [email protected] web: www.networkcultures.org Order a copy or download this publication freely at: www.networkcultures.org/publications Join the MoneyLab mailing list at: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/moneylab_listcultures.org Supported by: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amster- dam), Amsterdam Creative Industries Publishing and the University of Warwick Thanks to everyone at INC, to all of the authors for their contributions, Annie Goodner and Morgan Currie for their copy editing, and to Amsterdam Creative Industries Publishing for their financial support. This publication is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. EDITED BY GEERT LOVINK, NATHANIEL TKACZ AND PATRICIA DE VRIES INC READER #10 Previously published INC Readers The INC Reader series is derived from conference contributions and produced by the Institute of Network Cultures. They are available in print, EPUB, and PDF form. The MoneyLab Reader is the tenth publication in the series. -
Cryptocurrency: the Economics of Money and Selected Policy Issues
Cryptocurrency: The Economics of Money and Selected Policy Issues Updated April 9, 2020 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R45427 SUMMARY R45427 Cryptocurrency: The Economics of Money and April 9, 2020 Selected Policy Issues David W. Perkins Cryptocurrencies are digital money in electronic payment systems that generally do not require Specialist in government backing or the involvement of an intermediary, such as a bank. Instead, users of the Macroeconomic Policy system validate payments using certain protocols. Since the 2008 invention of the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies have proliferated. In recent years, they experienced a rapid increase and subsequent decrease in value. One estimate found that, as of March 2020, there were more than 5,100 different cryptocurrencies worth about $231 billion. Given this rapid growth and volatility, cryptocurrencies have drawn the attention of the public and policymakers. A particularly notable feature of cryptocurrencies is their potential to act as an alternative form of money. Historically, money has either had intrinsic value or derived value from government decree. Using money electronically generally has involved using the private ledgers and systems of at least one trusted intermediary. Cryptocurrencies, by contrast, generally employ user agreement, a network of users, and cryptographic protocols to achieve valid transfers of value. Cryptocurrency users typically use a pseudonymous address to identify each other and a passcode or private key to make changes to a public ledger in order to transfer value between accounts. Other computers in the network validate these transfers. Through this use of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency systems protect their public ledgers of accounts against manipulation, so that users can only send cryptocurrency to which they have access, thus allowing users to make valid transfers without a centralized, trusted intermediary. -
FOIA) Document Clearinghouse in the World
This document is made available through the declassification efforts and research of John Greenewald, Jr., creator of: The Black Vault The Black Vault is the largest online Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) document clearinghouse in the world. The research efforts here are responsible for the declassification of hundreds of thousands of pages released by the U.S. Government & Military. Discover the Truth at: http://www.theblackvault.com Received Received Request ID Requester Name Organization Closed Date Final Disposition Request Description Mode Date 17-F-0001 Greenewald, John The Black Vault PAL 10/3/2016 11/4/2016 Granted/Denied in Part I respectfully request a copy of records, electronic or otherwise, of all contracts past and present, that the DOD / OSD / JS has had with the British PR firm Bell Pottinger. Bell Pottinger Private (legally BPP Communications Ltd.; informally Bell Pottinger) is a British multinational public relations and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. 17-F-0002 Palma, Bethania - PAL 10/3/2016 11/4/2016 Other Reasons - No Records Contracts with Bell Pottinger for information operations and psychological operations. (Date Range for Record Search: From 01/01/2007 To 12/31/2011) 17-F-0003 Greenewald, John The Black Vault Mail 10/3/2016 1/13/2017 Other Reasons - Not a proper FOIA I respectfully request a copy of the Intellipedia category index page for the following category: request for some other reason Nuclear Weapons Glossary 17-F-0004 Jackson, Brian - Mail 10/3/2016 - - I request a copy of any available documents related to Army Intelligence's participation in an FBI counterintelligence source operation beginning in about 1959, per David Wise book, "Cassidy's Run," under the following code names: ZYRKSEEZ SHOCKER I am also interested in obtaining Army Intelligence documents authorizing, as well as policy documents guiding, the use of an Army source in an FBI operation. -
Testimony of Lecia Brooks Chief of Staff, Southern Poverty Law Center
Testimony of Lecia Brooks Chief of Staff, Southern Poverty Law Center before the Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy Committee on Financial Services United States House of Representatives Dollars against Democracy: Domestic Terrorist Financing in the Aftermath of Insurrection February 25, 2021 My name is Lecia Brooks. I am chief of staff of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Now in our 50th year, the SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people. SPLC lawyers have worked to shut down some of the nation’s most violent white supremacist groups by winning crushing, multimillion-dollar jury verdicts on behalf of their victims. We have helped dismantle vestiges of Jim Crow, reformed juvenile justice practices, shattered barriers to equality for women, children, the LGBTQ+ community, and the disabled, and worked to protect low-wage immigrant workers from exploitation. The SPLC began tracking white supremacist activity in the 1980s, during a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and other organized extremist hate groups. Today, the SPLC is the premier U.S. nonprofit organization monitoring the activities of domestic hate groups and other extremists. In the early 1990s, the SPLC launched its pioneering Teaching Tolerance program to provide educators with free, anti-bias classroom resources, such as classroom documentaries and lesson plans. Now renamed Learning For Justice, our program reaches millions of schoolchildren with award-winning curricula and other materials that promote understanding of our nation’s history and respect for others, helping educators create inclusive, equitable school environments. -
Blockchain and The
NOTES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INDEX Notes Introduction 1. The manifesto dates back to 1988. See Timothy May, “The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto” (1992), https:// www . activism . net / cypherpunk / crypto - anarchy . html. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. Timothy May, “Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities” (1994), http:// groups . csail . mit . edu / mac / classes / 6 . 805 / articles / crypto / cypherpunks / may - virtual - comm . html. 7. Ibid. 8. For example, as we wi ll describe in more detail in Chapter 1, the Bitcoin blockchain is currently stored on over 6,000 computers in eighty- nine jurisdictions. See “Global Bitcoin Node Distribution,” Bitnodes, 21 . co, https:// bitnodes . 21 . co / . Another large blockchain- based network, Ethereum, has over 12,000 nodes, also scattered across the globe. See Ethernodes, https:// www . ethernodes . org / network / 1. 9. See note 8. 10. Some blockchains are not publicly accessible (for more on this, see Chapter 1). These blockchains are referred to as “private blockchains” and are not the focus of this book. 11. See Chapter 1. 12. The Eu ro pean Securities and Market Authority, “Discussion Paper: The Dis- tributed Ledger Technology Applied to Securities Markets,” ESMA / 2016 / 773, June 2, 2016: at 17, https:// www . esma . europa . eu / sites / default / files / library / 2016 - 773 _ dp _ dlt . pdf. 213 214 NOTES TO PAGES 5–13 13. The phenomena of order without law also has been described in other con- texts, most notably by Robert Ellickson in his seminal work Order without Law (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994). 14. Joel Reidenberg has used the term “lex informatica” to describe rules imple- mented by centralized operators online. -
Cybersecurity-The Silk Road Market
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Open Educational Resources Hostos Community College 2020 Cybersecurity-The Silk Road Market Amy J. Ramson CUNY Hostos Community College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ho_oers/7 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] CYBERSECURITY: SILK ROAD MARKET These slides describe an account of how the Department of JusEce through the FBI and DEA successfully brought the mastermind, Ross Ulbricht, behind the DARK WEB drug bazaar, SILK ROAD, to jusEce Silk Road Professor Amy Ramson, Esq. This OER material was produced as a result of the PIT-UN network Challenge Grant – New America Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License Ulbricht-head of the Silk Road market Ø Ross Ulbricht was born on March 27, 1984 Ø Ulbricht created the Silk Road website in 2011 Ø Ulbricht earned millions of dollars in profits from the commissions collected on purchases Ø Around January 2012, he adopted the username Dread Pirate Roberts referring to the pirate in the popular novel and film The Princess Bride that is passed to whom ever was wearing the mask Ø In order to assure users that posts from by DPR were his own, DPR authenEcated his posts using an electronic signature known as a PGP key. Ø See explanaon of PGP key signature authenEcaon on next slide PGP electronic signature authenEcaon Ø When sending digital signatures, PGP uses an algorithm that generates a hash (a mathemacal summary) which is encrypted with the sender's private key Ø The receiver uses the sender's public key to decrypt the hash code. -
The Legal Status and Regulation of Bitcoin in Australia
The University of Notre Dame Australia ResearchOnline@ND Theses 2017 Future digital money: The legal status and regulation of bitcoin in Australia Chinelle van der Westhuizen Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses Part of the Law Commons COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969 WARNING The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further copying or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice. Publication Details van der Westhuizen, C. (2017). Future digital money: The legal status and regulation of bitcoin in Australia (Master of Laws (Thesis)). University of Notre Dame Australia. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/160 This dissertation/thesis is brought to you by ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Notre Dame Australia School of Law FUTURE DIGITAL MONEY: THE LEGAL STATUS AND REGULATION OF BITCOIN IN AUSTRALIA Chinelle van der Westhuizen LLB, LLM (University of Pretoria) This thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Laws by Research 2017 DECLARATION This thesis does not, to the best of my knowledge, contain previously published or written material by another person except where due reference is made in the text, or any material previously submitted for a degree in any higher degree institution. _________________________________ Chinelle van der Westhuizen _________________________________ Date i ACKNOWLDEGEMENTS First and foremost, I thank God for his abundant love and goodness throughout this research period and for Blessing me with the talents to endure such a challenging research project. -
Bitcoin and the Uniform Commercial Code Jeanne L
University of Miami Law School Institutional Repository University of Miami Business Law Review 6-1-2016 Bitcoin and the Uniform Commercial Code Jeanne L. Schroeder Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umblr Part of the Banking and Finance Law Commons, and the Commercial Law Commons Recommended Citation Jeanne L. Schroeder, Bitcoin and the Uniform Commercial Code, 24 U. Miami Bus. L. Rev. 1 (2016) Available at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umblr/vol24/iss3/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami Business Law Review by an authorized administrator of Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Bitcoin and the Uniform Commercial Code Jeanne L. Schroeder* Much of the discussion of bitcoin in the popular press has concentrated on its status as a currency. Putting aside a vocal minority of radical libertarians and anarchists, however, many bitcoin enthusiasts are concentrating on how its underlying technology – the blockchain – can be put to use for wide variety of uses. For example, economists at the Fed and other central banks have suggested that they should encourage the evolution of bitcoin’s blockchain protocol which might allow financial transactions to clear much efficiently than under our current systems. As such, it also holds out the possibility of becoming that holy grail of commerce – a payment system that would eliminate or minimize the roles of third party intermediaries. In addition, the NASDAQ and a number of issuers are experimenting with using the blockchain to record the issuing and trading of investments securities. -
How Did Dread Pirate Roberts Acquire and Protect His Bitcoin Wealth?
How Did Dread Pirate Roberts Acquire and Protect His Bitcoin Wealth? Dorit Ron and Adi Shamir Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel {dorit.ron,adi.shamir}@weizmann.ac.il Abstract. The Bitcoin scheme is one of the most popular and talked about alternative payment schemes. It was conceived in 2008 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity remains unknown even though his bitcoin holdings are believed to be worth several hundred million dollars. One of the most active parts of the Bitcoin ecosystem was the Silk Road marketplace, in which highly illegal substances and services were traded. It was run by another mysterious person who called himself Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR), whose bitcoin holdings are also estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars at today's exchange rate. On October 1-st 2013, the FBI arrested a 29 year old person named Ross William Ulbricht, claiming that he is DPR, and seizing a small fraction of his bitcoin wealth. In this paper we use the publicly available record to trace the evolution of his holdings in order to find how he acquired and how he tried to hide them from the authorities. For example, we show that all his income from the months of May, June and September 2013, along with numerous other amounts, were not seized by the FBI. One of the most surprising discoveries we made during our analysis was the existence of a recent substantial transfer (which was worth more than 60,000 dollars when made on March 20-th 2013, and close to a million dollars at today's exchange rate) which may link these two mysterious figures. -
United States District Court Southern District of New York ------X
Case 1:14-cr-00068-KBF Document 21 Filed 03/29/14 Page 1 of 64 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ------------------------------------------------------X UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : 14 Cr. 68 (KBF) - against - : (Electronically Filed) ROSS ULBRICHT, : Defendant. : ------------------------------------------------------X MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT ROSS ULBRICHT’S PRE-TRIAL MOTIONS CHALLENGING THE FACE OF THE INDICTMENT JOSHUA L. DRATEL JOSHUA L. DRATEL, P.C. 29 Broadway, Suite 1412 New York, New York 10006 (212) 732-0707 Attorneys for Defendant Ross Ulbricht – Of Counsel – Joshua L. Dratel Lindsay A. Lewis Whitney Schlimbach Case 1:14-cr-00068-KBF Document 21 Filed 03/29/14 Page 2 of 64 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents.. i Table of Authorities. iv INTRODUCTION. 1 STATEMENT OF FACTS. 3 ARGUMENT POINT I COUNTS ONE, TWO, AND THREE SHOULD BE DISMISSED BECAUSE THE CONDUCT CHARGED THEREIN AGAINST MR. ULBRICHT DOES NOT STATE AN OFFENSE UNDER THE ENUMERATED STATUTES AND BECAUSE EVEN IF THE CONDUCT DID STATE AN OFFENSE, THOSE STATUTES WOULD BE UNCONSTITUTIONALLY VAGUE AS APPLIED IN THIS CASE. 6 A. The Applicable Law Regarding Challenges to the Sufficiency of an Indictment.. 7 B. The Statutes Cited In Counts One, Two, and Three Do Not Cover the Conduct Alleged Against Mr. Ulbricht.. 9 1. Count One: The Controlled Substances Trafficking Conspiracy. 9 2. Count Two: The Continuing Criminal Enterprise. 13 a. Count Two Fails to Allege Sufficiently That Mr. Ulbricht Occupied a “Position of Organizer, a Supervisory Position, and a Position of Management” Necessary to a CCE Violation.. 14 b. Count Two Fails to Enumerate the Requisite Predicate Series of Violations Necessary to a Violation of 21 U.S.C. -
Blueprints for 3D Handgun Take Refuge in Pirate Bay (Update) 10 May 2013, by Robert Macpherson
Blueprints for 3D handgun take refuge in Pirate Bay (Update) 10 May 2013, by Robert Macpherson The State Department—which confirmed it has been in contact with Defense Distributed, but gave no specifics—is tasked with monitoring and licensing US arms exports through its Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. "The United States is cognizant of the potentially adverse consequences of indiscriminate arms transfers, and therefore we strictly regulate exported defense items and technologies to protect our national interests," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. But the crackdown on the Liberator clearly came too late to forestall the re-posting of its computer- A 3D printer prints an object during an exhibition in New aided design (CAD) files on The Pirate Bay, a York on April 22, 2013. Blueprints for the world's first 3D popular peer-to-peer file sharing service that has printable handgun took refuge Friday at file-sharing been linked by its critics to film and music piracy. website The Pirate Bay, upsetting a US government attempt to get them off the Internet. "Nice try blocking this fed," wrote one Pirate Bay user, utilizing a slang word for federal government, in a comments section that veered strongly in favor Virtual blueprints for the world's first 3D printable of Americans' constitutional right to own and carry handgun found a safe harbor Friday at file-sharing firearms. website The Pirate Bay, dodging a US government attempt to pull them off the Internet. Defense Distributed, a Texas nonprofit that promotes the open-source development of firearms using 3D printers, withdrew the files needed to make the single-shot Liberator at the behest of the State Department on Thursday. -
3D-Printing, an Additive Menace to International Security?
UNIVERSIDAD PONTIFICIA COMILLAS Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Bachelor´s Degree in International Relations Final Dissertation 3D-PRINTING, AN ADDITIVE MENACE TO INTERNATIONAL SECURITY? STUDENT: MARÍA CARMEN MARTÍN PALACIOS DIRECTOR: ILEANA DANIELA SERBAN Madrid, April 2018 INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION ……………………............................................................................................................... 1 2. RESEARCH FOCUS AND SCOPE .............................................................................................................. 2 2.1. RESEARCH AIM .......................................................................................................................... 2 2.2. TERMINOLOGICAL CLARIFICATIONS ....................................................................................... .. 3 2.3. JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY AND OBJECTIVES …………………………………………………………………… 7 3. STATE OF THE ART ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 8 3.1. METHODOLOGY AND STRUCTURE ………………………………………………………………………………………… 9 4. RECENT HISTORY OF 3D TECHNOLOGIES ……………………………………………………………………………………… 9 4.1. GENERAL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES …………………………………………………….. 10 5. INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND 3D PRINTING ……………………………………………………………………………… 12 5.1. THE ORIGINS OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING CRIMINALITY: COUNTERFEITING…………………. 13 5.2. 3D PRINTING AND ARM MANUFACTURING ………………………………………………………………………… 14 5.3. 3D PRINTING AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ………………………………………………………. 14 5.4. ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND GUNSMITHS: STUDY CASE