https://github.com/urbit/urbit/issues/911
Curtis Yarvin (a.k.a. "Mencius Moldbug") leads a project called urbit to 1. create a virtual machine using lambda calculus instead of bytecode and 2. create a reputation network based on purchasing stake on namespace and stakeholders ruling the network how they see fit.
I outline my chief problem with this in the issue which was closed literally within minutes. I would like more people to weigh in here. What do any of you feel about my predictions and my morals in this situation?
Correction, that was actually within an hour. I guess with all the headaches there website gave me, it felt instantaneous by comparison.
On 12/20/17, Jean Flamelle eaterjolly@gmail.com wrote:
https://github.com/urbit/urbit/issues/911
Curtis Yarvin (a.k.a. "Mencius Moldbug") leads a project called urbit to 1. create a virtual machine using lambda calculus instead of bytecode and 2. create a reputation network based on purchasing stake on namespace and stakeholders ruling the network how they see fit.
I outline my chief problem with this in the issue which was closed literally within minutes. I would like more people to weigh in here. What do any of you feel about my predictions and my morals in this situation?
On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 8:48 PM, Jean Flamelle eaterjolly@gmail.com wrote:
https://github.com/urbit/urbit/issues/911
Curtis Yarvin (a.k.a. "Mencius Moldbug") leads a project called urbit to 1. create a virtual machine using lambda calculus instead of bytecode and 2. create a reputation network based on purchasing stake on namespace and stakeholders ruling the network how they see fit.
i've studied things like advogato, and keynote (IETF RFC 2704), the problems i'm seeing you describe there, if i can summarise in my own words and you can correct me:
(1) they're setting themselves up as a sole exclusive gateway. *they* are in control... thus it's no different from the USA controlling DNS by controlling the root-level DNS servers.
(2) ticket touts (aka "cyber squatting"). the problem with DNS is: once someone's registered a domain that's it, they can charge you whatever they like. in this case it's EVEN WORSE than the DNS registration system as there's no authority you can appeal to to reclaim a name... thus your ENTIRE BUSINESS can be phished by a cyber squatter.
does that sound like a reasonable summary? (1) cartel (2) ticket tout.
I outline my chief problem with this in the issue which was closed literally within minutes.
that should tell you everything you need to know.
I would like more people to weigh in here. What do any of you feel about my predictions and my morals in this situation?
it looks similar to blockstack, where, bless 'em, that team clearly have their hearts in the right place... designing something that is entirely libre, they've even set themselves up as a Benefit Corporation...
.... aand they're recommending that in order to discuss how to free yourself from data privacy invasions and design apps that allow users control of their data... you should REGISTER ON SLACK!!!!
gaah :)
more fundamentally than that, their entire protocol yet again sets themselves up as "my gateway or the highway". they've not realised that they've set themselves up as a cartel. sure, the source code is available!! but that's absolutely no good WHATSOEVER if, when you set up your OWN network, you are FORCED out: YOUR users cannot interact with THEIR users.
so they *talk* of it being decentralised peer-to-peer but have fundamentally failed to understand the concept.
oy, oy, what can you do, ehn? :)
l.
On 12/21/17, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton lkcl@lkcl.net wrote:
(1) they're setting themselves up as a sole exclusive gateway. *they* are in control... thus it's no different from the USA controlling DNS by controlling the root-level DNS servers.
(2) ticket touts (aka "cyber squatting"). the problem with DNS is: once someone's registered a domain that's it, they can charge you whatever they like. in this case it's EVEN WORSE than the DNS registration system as there's no authority you can appeal to to reclaim a name... thus your ENTIRE BUSINESS can be phished by a cyber squatter.
does that sound like a reasonable summary? (1) cartel (2) ticket tout.
In the case of urbit, I'm afraid they will eventually get mainstream appeal, as a network which deters spam. The issue is much much worse than DNS, not because there is no appeal body (there is, kindof). Their "name" system is hierarchal so at the top is the dev team which assigns 0000 0000 through 1111 1111 those then can assign the portion of 00 through FF which is prefixed by their name. So if I literally purchase from the dev team 0101 0101 in their name space, they will write my public key into the source code and I can literally start selling addresses 0101 0101 0000 0000 through 0101 0101 1111 1111. Continuing in this pattern until FFFF FFFF. The problem I see is prefix competition.
I outline my chief problem with this in the issue which was closed literally within minutes.
that should tell you everything you need to know.
[it was an hour to be exact; I exaggerated]
it looks similar to blockstack, where, bless 'em, that team clearly have their hearts in the right place... designing something that is entirely libre, they've even set themselves up as a Benefit Corporation...
They even suggest in their docs, when it comes to spam filtering some prefixes will be like bad neighborhoods. There is no rule stopping a prefix owner from demanding (in addition to money) social media passwords, government issued ID, travel records, an test of aquity, or pretty much any of the numerous things that can be done wrong with immigration checks. Why would anyone subject themselves to any of this? To be able to get around a website's spam filter that's why.
This fixes captcha, but breaks freedom of information at it's core as well as freedom of speech at its core.
I'd like to point out the underlining OS looks like a masterwork they literally described in their whitepaper as something you might find on an alien spaceship. https://media.urbit.org/whitepaper.pdf
I'm very afraid they might gain real traction if someone doesn't fork them and create some sort of PKI-linked captcha system. Maybe then they'll fix the error of their ways..
.... aand they're recommending that in order to discuss how to free yourself from data privacy invasions and design apps that allow users control of their data... you should REGISTER ON SLACK!!!!
gaah :)
more fundamentally than that, their entire protocol yet again sets themselves up as "my gateway or the highway". they've not realised that they've set themselves up as a cartel. sure, the source code is available!! but that's absolutely no good WHATSOEVER if, when you set up your OWN network, you are FORCED out: YOUR users cannot interact with THEIR users.
so they *talk* of it being decentralised peer-to-peer but have fundamentally failed to understand the concept.
oy, oy, what can you do, ehn? :)
l.
arm-netbook mailing list arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook Send large attachments to arm-netbook@files.phcomp.co.uk
arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk
-
Jean Flamelle -
Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton