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Customer Letter – Apple

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The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.

This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.

Answers to your questions about privacy and security

Smartphones, led by iPhone, have become an essential part of our lives. People use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going.

All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission. Customers expect Apple and othertechnology companies to do everything in our power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply committed to safeguarding their data.

Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.

For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers personal data because we believe its the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.

We were shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December. We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected. The FBI asked us for help in the days following the attack, and we have worked hard to support the governments efforts to solve this horrible crime.We have no sympathy for terrorists.

When the FBI has requested data thats in our possession, we have provided it.Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case.We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and weveoffered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.

We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.

Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software which does not exist today would have the potential to unlockanyiPhone in someones physical possession.

The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limitedto this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.

Some would argue that building a backdoor for just one iPhone is a simple, clean-cut solution. But it ignores both the basics of digital security and the significance of what the government is demanding in this case.

In todays digital world, the key to an encrypted system is a piece of information that unlocks the data, and it is only as secure as the protections around it. Once the information is known, or a way to bypass the code is revealed, the encryption can be defeated by anyone with that knowledge.

The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But thats simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.

The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades ofsecurity advancements that protect our customers including tens of millions of American citizens from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.

We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.

Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.

The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by brute force, trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.

The implications of the governments demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyones device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phones microphone or camera without your knowledge.

Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.

We are challenging the FBIs demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.

While we believe the FBIs intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.

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Customer Letter - Apple

Julian Assange Stalls, Reveals No Leaks About Hillary Clinton …

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Assange appeared via satellite from his perch at Londons Ecuadorian embassy at 5:02 AM Eastern Time wearing a black truth T-shirt, two hours after Wikileaks tenth anniversary press conference convened in Berlin.

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Ive seen the Internet and theres enormous expectation in the United States, Assange said. Some of that expectation is partly answered but you have to understand that if were going to make a major publication in relation to the United States at a particular hour, we dont do it at 3 AM.

We have a great many upcoming publications, Assange promised, noting thatOur sources have suffered terrible consequences in the United States. Assange has implied that murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich was a Wikileaks source.

Assange said that Wikileaks will be publishing once a week for the next ten weeks with a special interest in the U.S. election and topics like war, surveillance, and Google.

Theres been a lot of misquoting of me, Assange said when asked if his upcoming publications would destroy Hillary Clinton.

In this particular case, the misquoting has to do with, we want to harm Hillary Clinton, or I want to harm Hillary Clinton. Assange said that some in the United States want to personalize his upcoming publications.

Expectant watchers filled the comments on Right Side Broadcastings Youtube livestream of the event with taunts of Boring, ZZZZZZ, and Assange is a no show. One commenter compared the event to Geraldo Riveras ill-fated entry into Al Capones secret vault, where Rivera found nothing interesting inside.

The press conference convened at 4:06 AM Eastern Time in Berlin from a dimly lit auditorium with a rudimentary projection screen.

A woman representing Wikileaks introduced a video montage commemorating the organizations biggest hits over its ten-year run, including its publication of documents and videos pertaining to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan some of which were leaked to the group by Bradley Manning and the operating procedures at Guantanamo Bay prison. The woman extensively recapped some of Wikileaks most divisive cases, claiming that the group has endured dDos cyber attacks and propaganda attacks from enemy forces.

The woman, referencing the Democratic National Committee email leak that complicated the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, said that Wikileaks is now getting hit with another major propaganda attack. The woman outright denied that anyone at Wikileaks is a Russian spy, citing thousands of documents that Wikileaks has published exposing the regime of Bashar al Assad, a Russian ally.

For us, these kinds of attacks are quite interesting, she said. The lesson weve learned through these propaganda attacks is just to keep publishing And so we will keep publishing.

A small panel ensued, with Wikileaks officials talking about their biggest cases.

Wikileaks then showed a video collecting Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and C-SPAN segments in which U.S. politicos, mostly Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Karl Rove, called for Assanges arrest and prosecution. One of Assanges attorneys spoke about Assanges indefinite detention at the Ecuadorian embassy. The lawyer made reference to the smear campaign caused by the DNC leaks and to Hillary Clintons desire, stated in a private meeting, to drone Assange.

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Sean Hannity to Julian Assange: Youve Done Us a Favor …

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The WikiLeaks founder got Hannitized again Thursday, calling in for a gushing phone interview with the Fox News star who once called for his jailing.

The bizarre Sean Hannity-WikiLeaks bromance has now only grown more loving.

On Thursday afternoon, Hannity, the Fox News host and informal Trump adviser, once again interviewed WikiLeaks chief Julian Assangethis time on Hannitys nationally syndicated radio show. Hannity gave Assange a large platform to deny that the source of the DNC and John Podesta emails was the Russian government, and to also join Hannity in some fairly typical bashing of Hillary Clinton and the liberal mainstream media.

Hannity, who could barely contain his excitement to have Assange on the program, had teased the interview on Twitter earlier in the day as his first interview in the states since the election.

You've done us a favor, Hannity gushed on-air. Thanks to Assange and WikiLeakss work, Hannity said, we can now fix the problem of our gaps in U.S. cybersecurity. (The DNC and Podesta emails were a wake-up call, in a sense.) Assange also exposed the corruption in our government for all to see.

I have so many questions for you, Hannity said, before reminding his audience of WikiLeakss perfect record: You have not been proven wrong, not one single time, he reiterated.

When asked if President Obama was trying to delegitimize Donald Trumpby promoting any evidence of Russian interference and cyberattacks aimed at helping Trump to defeat Clinton in the election)Assange answered firmly, yes.

This wouldnt be the first time that the CIA would be politicized, Hannity continued, making a Benghazi analogy.

Assange also wagged his finger at the liberal press in America that tried to make Trump voters feel ashamed of themselves for supporting the Republican candidate.

What is the difference between what you and WikiLeaks have done, and what The New York Times and CNN [have done]? the host inquired.

Our stuff has more impact, Assange replied.

Touch, Hannity answered. I cant disagree with that.

The conservative host continued to make the case that the so-called mainstream media was trying to scapegoat Assange, and that if [Hillary] were a Republican theyd be singing your praises day and night.

America owes you a debt of gratitude, Hannity said, concluding their friendly chat. We hope you come on [my TV show] soon.

Hannity is, at least, self-aware about how much of a flip-flop it was for him to morph into a Julian Assange super-fan during the 2016 presidential race.

Six years ago, Hannity accused Assange of waging war against the U.S. by publishing secret diplomatic cables that he said put American lives in jeopardy and danger all over the world. The Fox star asked why the Obama administration hadnt arrested Assange, wondering, why we can stop pirating music and Hollywood movies, but we cant stop this guy from stealing highly classified documents that puts peoples lives at risk?

Now that Assange is more widely known for being anti-Hillary, it seems, Hannity is ever-willing to let bygones be bygones.

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WikiLeaks: Hillary Clinton Says Vetting Refugees Is …

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For his part, Donald Trump says his immigration plan does not ban Muslims, but instead requires extreme vetting for Muslims arriving from countries with documented problems of Islamic terrorismconsistent with the U.S. Constitution.

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Regarding policy, Americans will decide between the sharply contrasting visions of Trump and Clintonone focusing explicitly on security and Americas interests, the other saying behind closed doors that she believes in open borders but does not say so publicly, and that national leaders can have a private position that is different from their public positions.

Apologists for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton say that Trumps immigration plan is both bad policy and unconstitutional, and that one type of immigrantSyrian refugeesshould be admitted in far greater numbers.

Buthacked emails released by Wikileaks show Clinton thinks vetting Syrian refugees is impossible. Michael Patrick Leahy reports that Clinton acknowledged this reality for refugees pouring into Jordan.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper already admitted that the U.S. cannot vet these refugees, so this may be an instance of Clinton telling the public a different position than you take in private.

Emails also show Clintons inner circle caught in an echo chamber when it comes to constitutional rights for aliens (legal or illegal, not just refugees). Mandy Grunwald writes of wanting to whack a Republican for trying to change the Constitution to deny babies born here the right to American citizenship if their parents arent citizens? (basically get rid of the 14th Amendment).

To the contrary, the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not guarantee citizenship to the children of foreigners, whether they are in the United States legally or not. Congress chooses to grant citizenship very broadly in the Immigration and Nationality Act, but the Constitution does not require it except for the children of American citizens born on American soil.

This is not exclusively a conservative idea; in addition to constitutional conservative stalwarts like Prof. John Eastman, noted judicial activist Judge Richard Posner on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has declared that the Fourteenth Amendment does not confer birthright citizenship, calling the idea nonsense.

Moreover, in 1993 now-Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid introduced a bill (the Immigration Stabilization Act) that would change current law, denying citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. Since the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, the constitutional contours of this issue have not changed from 1993 through 2016only the politics of a cynical attempt to create millions of Democratic voters for those who racially stereotype foreigners from certain countries.

All this goes back to the famous line of Justice Robert Jackson that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. It is a document that ensures several fundamental principles of fairness and justicelike due process and equal protectionto all persons, whether citizens or not. But for the most part, it is a document predicated upon American exceptionalism, and showcasing an America First paradigm. The Constitution frames issues like national security and immigration in terms of what is best for America.

The Supreme Court seemed split on what the Constitution requires when it comes to immigrants, including refugees. Liberal justices refer to constitutional limits on immigration laws, while conservative justices say that the Constitution gives Congress complete discretion and full authority to determine who can cross the U.S. border and who can stay in this country.

On issues of immigration, refugees, and the Constitution, Trump and Clinton are worlds apartpresenting voters with a clear choice.

Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.

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Wikileaks founder Assange on hacked Podesta, DNC emails: ‘Our …

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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange denied Thursday that hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta were stolen and passed to his organization by Russian state actors.

"Our source is not the Russian government," Assange told "The Sean Hannity Show."

"So in other words, let me be clear," Hannity asked, "Russia did not give you the Podesta documents or anything from the DNC?"

"That's correct," Assange responded.

Assange's assertion contradicts the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which concluded in October that"the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails [sic] from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations."

In addition to the hacked emails from the DNC and Podesta, Assange admitted that Wikileaks received "received about three pages of information to do with the [Republican National Committee] and Trump [during the campaign], but it was already public somewhere else."

Late Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russian hackers had tried and failed to access the RNC using the same methods as the DNC hackers.

Assange had previously denied that the DNC and Podesta emails had came from any government. He has steadfastly refused to identify the source of the messages.

"Were unhappy that we felt that we needed to even say that it wasnt a state party. Normally, we say nothing at all," Assange told Hannity. "We have ... a strong interest in protecting our sources, and so we never say anything about them, never ruling anyone in or anyone out.

"And so here, in order to prevent a distraction attack against our publications, weve had to come out and say no, its not a state party. Stop trying to distract in that way and pay attention to the content of the publication."

Assange added that the U.S. government, corporations and even private citizens are vulnerable to a cyberattack like the one on the DNC and Podesta.

"Everything is almost completely insecure now," he said. "Computer systems have become so complex that it is not possible to understand all the parts, let alone secure them. Its just impossible."

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Iraq War documents leak – Wikipedia

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The Iraq War documents leak is the disclosure to WikiLeaks of 391,832[1]United States Army field reports, also called the Iraq War Logs, of the Iraq War from 2004 to 2009 and published on the Internet on 22 October 2010.[2][3][4] The files record 66,081 civilian deaths out of 109,000 recorded deaths.[3][4][5][6][7] The leak resulted in the Iraq Body Count project adding 15,000 civilian deaths to their count, bringing their total to over 150,000, with roughly 80% of those civilians.[8] It is the biggest leak in the military history of the United States,[2][9] surpassing the Afghan War documents leak of 25 July 2010.[10]

The logs contain numerous reports of previously unknown or unconfirmed events that took place during the war.

After criticism over the Afghan War documents leak, more material, including certain names and details, were redacted from these documents by WikiLeaks.[24]

Other

Wikileaks made the documents available under embargo to a number of media organisations: Der Spiegel, The Guardian, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, Le Monde, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and the Iraq Body Count project.[50] Upon the lifting of the embargo, the media coverage by these groups was followed by further coverage by other media organisations. The Guardian said that "the New York Times, Washington Post and other papers were accused by web publications and some bloggers of downplaying the extent to which the documents revealed US complicity in torture and provided evidence that politicians in Washington "lied" about the failures of the US military mission".[36]The Guardian had reported that "fresh evidence that US soldiers handed over detainees to a notorious Iraqi torture squad has emerged in army logs published by WikiLeaks",[51] and Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com commented that "media outlets around the world prominently highlighted this revelation, but not The New York Times",[52] calling their coverage of the document leak "subservient" to the Pentagon, and criticising them for what he called a "gossipy, People Magazine-style 'profile' of Assange".[53]

While the U.S. tally of Iraqi & US-led Coalition deaths in the war logs is 109,000, a widely quoted[54] 2006 study published in The Lancet used a cross-sectional cluster sample to estimate about 650,000 deaths were due to the Iraq war increasing mortality.[55] Another study by the World Health Organization called the Iraq Family Health Survey estimated 151,000 deaths due to violence (95% uncertainty range, 104,000 to 223,000) from March 2003 through June 2006.[56] The Iraq Body Count reviewed the war logs data in three reports in October 2010 and concluded that the total recorded death toll, civilian and combatant, would be more than 150,000.[11]

An article on the leaked documents in Science magazine commented on these sources, as follows:

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Home – Pardon Edward Snowden

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Thanks to his act of conscience, America's surveillance programs have been subjected to democratic scrutiny, the NSA's surveillance powers were reined in for the first time in decades, and technology companies around the world are newly invigorated to protect their customers and strengthen our communications infrastructure.

Snowden should be hailed as a hero. Instead, he is exiled in Moscow, and faces decades in prison under World War One-era charges that treat him like a spy. Ed stood up for us, and it's time for us to stand up for him. Urge President Obama to pardon Edward Snowden, and let him come home with dignity.

Our ranks include lawyers, policy experts, technologists, civil rights advocates, artists, and cryptographers who are committed to human rights and open societies.

Attorney General Eric Holder

Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder

Margaret Sullivan, Columnist, The Washington Post

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders

Noam Chomsky, MIT Professor, American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist and historian

Dr. Cornel West, American Philosopher and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University

Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School

Brad Smith, Microsoft president and chief legal counsel

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Chelsea Manning’s petition surpasses 100,000 signatures

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Sunday, December 11, 2016, 6:52 PM

U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Mannings petition calling on President Obama to reduce the remainder of her 35-year prison sentence exceeded its goal of 100,000 signatures as of Sunday, which would require the White House to respond.

We did it! Thank you so much for your love and support, Manning, 28, tweeted late Saturday.

Mannings petition created on Nov. 14 could get an official White House response within 60 days.

I don't know what to say. I am just grateful that I am not forgotten. You've given me hope, she tweeted in another post Sunday.

Army doctor doesn't recommend changing Chelsea Mannings gender

The transgender U.S. soldier, formerly known as Bradley Manning, was arrested in 2010 for leaking more than 700,000 State Department documents to WikiLeaks while she served in the military.

Those documents revealed many military secrets, including a 2007 Baghdad airstrike that killed civilians, information about Guantanamo detainees and Iraq War logs.

She was convicted in military court in 2013 for violating the Espionage Act, which prohibits people to convey information that could harm the U.S. armed forces.

After her conviction, Manning announced that she identified as a transgender woman and underwent hormone treatment behind bars in 2015.

Chelsea Manning attempts suicide for second time

Manning, in a statement to the New York Times, said she took full and complete responsibility for her actions, which she called wrong.

The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members, Manning said through her lawyer to the Times.

The former Army veteran attempted suicide for a second time in October at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., after her failed suicide attempt in July led her to solitary confinement, according to the Associated Press.

President Obama, as you and the medical community have recognized, prisoners who face solitary confinement are more likely to commit suicide, Mannings petition states.

President Obama has less than 40 days to respond to Manning before president-elect Donald Trump gets sworn in on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Chelsea Manning's petition surpasses 100,000 signatures

What is Cryptocurrency: Everything You Need To Know [Ultimate …

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What is cryptocurrency: 21st-century unicorn or the money of the future?

This introduction explains the most important thing about cryptocurrencies. After youve read it, youll know more about it than most other humans.

Today cryptocurrencies have become a global phenomenon known to most people. While still somehow geeky and not understood by most people, banks, governments and many companies are aware of its importance.

In 2016, youll have a hard time finding a major bank, a big accounting firm, a prominent software company or a government that did not research cryptocurrencies, publish a paper about it or start a so-called blockchain-project.

Virtual currencies, perhaps most notably Bitcoin, have captured the imagination of some, struck fear among others, and confused the heck out of the rest of us. Thomas Carper, US-Senator

But beyond the noise and the press releases the overwhelming majority of people even bankers, consultants, scientists, and developers have a very limited knowledge about cryptocurrencies. They often fail to even understand the basic concepts.

So lets walk through the whole story. What are cryptocurrencies?

Where did cryptocurrency originate?

Why should you learn about cryptocurrency?

And what do you need to know about cryptocurrency?

Few people know, but cryptocurrencies emerged as a side product of another invention. Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown inventor of Bitcoin, the first and still most important cryptocurrency, never intended to invent a currency.

In his announcement of Bitcoin in late 2008, Satoshi said he developed A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.

His goal was to invent something; many people failed to create before digital cash.

The single most important part of Satoshis invention was that he found a way to build a decentralized digital cash system. In the nineties, there have been many attempts to create digital money, but they all failed.

After seeing all the centralized attempts fail, Satoshi tried to build a digital cash system without a central entity. Like a Peer-to-Peer network for file sharing.

This decision became the birth of cryptocurrency. They are the missing piece Satoshi found to realize digital cash. The reason why is a bit technical and complex, but if you get it, youll know more about cryptocurrencies than most people do. So, lets try to make it as easy as possible:

To realize digital cash you need a payment network with accounts, balances, and transaction. Thats easy to understand. One major problem every payment network has to solve is to prevent the so-called double spending: to prevent that one entity spends the same amount twice. Usually, this is done by a central server who keeps record about the balances.

In a decentralized network, you dont have this server. So you need every single entity of the network to do this job. Every peer in the network needs to have a list with all transactions to check if future transactions are valid or an attempt to double spend.

But how can these entities keep a consensus about this records?

If the peers of the network disagree about only one single, minor balance, everything is broken. They need an absolute consensus. Usually, you take, again, a central authority to declare the correct state of balances. But how can you achieve consensus without a central authority?

Nobody did know until Satoshi emerged out of nowhere. In fact, nobody believed it was even possible.

Satoshi proved it was. His major innovation was to achieve consensus without a central authority. Cryptocurrencies are a part of this solution the part that made the solution thrilling, fascinating and helped it to roll over the world.

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If you take away all the noise around cryptocurrencies and reduce it to a simple definition, you find it to be just limited entries in a database no one can change without fulfilling specific conditions. This may seem ordinary, but, believe it or not: this is exactly how you can define a currency.

Take the money on your bank account: What is it more than entries in a database that can only be changed under specific conditions? You can even take physical coins and notes: What are they else than limited entries in a public physical database that can only be changed if you match the condition than you physically own the coins and notes? Money is all about a verified entry in some kind of database of accounts, balances, and transactions.

How miners create coins and confirm transactions

Lets have a look at the mechanism ruling the databases of cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency like Bitcoin consists of a network of peers. Every peer has a record of the complete history of all transactions and thus of the balance of every account.

A transaction is a file that says, Bob gives X Bitcoin to Alice and is signed by Bobs private key. Its basic public key cryptography, nothing special at all. After signed, a transaction is broadcasted in the network, sent from one peer to every other peer. This is basic p2p-technology. Nothing special at all, again.

The transaction is known almost immediately by the whole network. But only after a specific amount of time it gets confirmed.

Confirmation is a critical concept in cryptocurrencies. You could say that cryptocurrencies are all about confirmation.

As long as a transaction is unconfirmed, it is pending and can be forged. When a transaction is confirmed, it is set in stone. It is no longer forgeable, it cant be reversed, it is part of an immutable record of historical transactions: of the so-called blockchain.

Only miners can confirm transactions. This is their job in a cryptocurrency-network. They take transactions, stamp them as legit and spread them in the network. After a transaction is confirmed by a miner, every node has to add it to its database. It has become part of the blockchain.

For this job, the miners get rewarded with a token of the cryptocurrency, for example with Bitcoins. Since the miners activity is the single most important part of cryptocurrency-system we should stay for a moment and take a deeper look on it.

Principally everybody can be a miner. Since a decentralized network has no authority to delegate this task, a cryptocurrency needs some kind of mechanism to prevent one ruling party from abusing it. Imagine someone creates thousands of peers and spreads forged transactions. The system would break immediately.

So, Satoshi set the rule that the miners need to invest some work of their computers to qualify for this task. In fact, they have to find a hash a product of a cryptographic function that connects the new block with its predecessor. This is called the Proof-of-Work. In Bitcoin, it is based on the SHA 256 Hash algorithm.

Read Next What is Bitcoin? A Step-By-Step Guide For Beginners

You dont need to understand details about SHA 256. Its only important you know that it can be the basis of a cryptologic puzzle the miners compete to solve. After finding a solution, a miner can build a block and add it to the blockchain. As an incentive, he has the right to add a so-called coinbase transaction that gives him a specific number of Bitcoins. This is the only way to create valid Bitcoins.

Bitcoins can only be created ifminers solve a cryptographic puzzle. Since the difficulty of this puzzle increases with the amount of computer power the whole miners invest, there is only a specific amount of cryptocurrency token than can be created in a given amount of time. This is part of the consensus no peer in the network can break.

If you really think about it, Bitcoin, as a decentralized network of peers which keep a consensus about accounts and balances, is more a currency than the numbers you see in your bank account. What are these numbers more than entries in a database a database which can be changed by people you dont see and by rules you dont know?

It is that narrative of human development under which we now have other fights to fight, and I would say in the realm of Bitcoin it is mainly the separation of money and state.

Erik Voorhees,cryptocurrency entrepreneur

Basically, cryptocurrencies are entries about token in decentralized consensus-databases. They are called CRYPTOcurrencies because the consensus-keeping process is secured by strong cryptography. Cryptocurrencies are built on cryptography. They are not secured by people or by trust, but by math. It is more probable that an asteroid falls on your house than that a bitcoin address is compromised.

Describing the properties of cryptocurrencies we need to separate between transactional and monetary properties. While most cryptocurrencies share a common set of properties, they are not carved in stone.

1.) Irreversible: After confirmation, a transaction cant be reversed. By nobody. And nobody means nobody. Not you, not your bank, not the president of the United States, not Satoshi, not your miner. Nobody. If you send money, you send it. Period. No one can help you, if you sent your funds to a scammer or if a hacker stole them from your computer. There is no safety net.

2.) Pseudonymous: Neither transactions nor accounts are connected to real world identities. You receive Bitcoins on so-called addresses, which are randomly seeming chains of around 30 characters. While it is usually possible to analyze the transaction flow, it is not necessarily possible to connect the real world identity of users with those addresses.

3.) Fast and global: Transaction are propagated nearly instantly in the network and are confirmed in a couple of minutes. Since they happen in a global network of computers they are completely indifferent of your physical location. It doesnt matter if I send Bitcoin to my neighbour or to someone on the other side of the world.

4.) Secure: Cryptocurrency funds are locked in a public key cryptography system. Only the owner of the private key can send cryptocurrency. Strong cryptography and the magic of big numbers makes it impossible to break this scheme. A Bitcoin address is more secure than Fort Knox.

5.) Permissionless: You dont have to ask anybody to use cryptocurrency. Its just a software that everybody can download for free. After you installed it, you can receive and send Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies. No one can prevent you. There is no gatekeeper.

1.) Controlled supply: Most cryptocurrencies limit the supply of the tokens. In Bitcoin, the supply decreases in time and will reach its final number somewhere in around 2140. All cryptocurrencies control the supply of the token by a schedule written in the code. This means the monetary supply of a cryptocurrency in every given moment in the future can roughly be calculated today. There is no surprise.

2.) No debt but bearer: The Fiat-money on your bank account is created by debt, and the numbers, you see on your ledger represent nothing but debts. Its a system of IOU. Cryptocurrencies dont represent debts. They just represent themselves. They are money as hard as coins of gold.

To understand the revolutionary impact of cryptocurrencies you need to consider both properties. Bitcoin as a permissionless, irreversible and pseudonymous means of payment is an attack on the control of banks and governments over the monetary transactions of their citizens. You cant hinder someone to use Bitcoin, you cant prohibit someone to accept a payment, you cant undo a transaction.

As money with a limited, controlled supply that is not changeable by a government, a bank or any other central institution, cryptocurrencies attack the scope of the monetary policy. They take away the control central banks take on inflation or deflation by manipulating the monetary supply.

While its still fairly new and unstable relative to the gold standard, cryptocurrency is definitely gaining traction and will most certainly have more normalized uses in the next few years. Right now, in particular, its increasing in popularity with the post-election market uncertainty. The key will be in making it easy for large-scale adoption (as with anything involving crypto) including developing safeguards and protections for buyers / investors. I expect that within two years, well be in a place where people can shove their money under the virtual mattress through cryptocurrency, and theyll know that wherever they go, that money will be there. Sarah Granger, Author, and Speaker.

Mostly due to its revolutionary properties cryptocurrencies have become a success their inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, didnt dare to dream ofit. While every other attempt to create a digital cash system didnt attract a critical mass of users, Bitcoin had something that provoked enthusiasm and fascination. Sometimes it feels more like religion than technology.

Cryptocurrencies are digital gold. Sound money that is secure from political influence. Money that promises to preserve and increase its value over time. Cryptocurrencies are also a fast and comfortable means of payment with a worldwide scope, and they are private and anonymous enough to serve as a means of payment for black markets and any other outlawed economic activity.

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What is Cryptocurrency: Everything You Need To Know [Ultimate ...

Monero (cryptocurrency) – Wikipedia

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Monero

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Monero (XMR) is an open source cryptocurrency created in April 2014 that focuses on privacy, decentralisation and scalability. Unlike many cryptocurrencies that are derivatives of Bitcoin, Monero is based on the CryptoNote protocol and possesses significant algorithmic differences relating to blockchain obfuscation.[1] Monero has ongoing support from the community,[2] and its modular code architecture has been praised by Wladimir J. van der Laan, a Bitcoin Core maintainer.[3] Monero's market capitalization was multiplied by 30 during the year 2016,[4] going from $3.7 million on 3 December 2015 to $111 million on 3 December 2016, partly due to adoption by major darknet market AlphaBay at the end of summer 2016.

Monero was launched on 18 April 2014 originally under the name BitMonero, which is a compound of Bit (as in Bitcoin) and Monero (literally meaning coin in Esperanto). Five days later the community opted for the name to be shortened just to Monero. It was launched as the first fork of CryptoNote-based currency Bytecoin, however was released with two major differences. Firstly, the target block time was decreased from 120 to 60 seconds, and secondly, the emission speed was decelerated by 50% (later Monero reverted to 120 seconds block time while keeping the emission schedule by doubling the block reward per new block). In addition, the Monero developers found numerous incidents of poor quality code that was subsequently cleaned and re-constituted.[citation needed]

A few weeks after launch, an optimized GPU miner for CryptoNight proof-of-work function was developed.[5]

On 4 September 2014, Monero recovered from an unusual and novel attack executed against the cryptocurrency network.[6]

Monero is an open-source pure proof-of-work cryptocurrency. It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and FreeBSD.[7]

Its main emission curve will issue about 18.4 Million coins to be mined in approximately 8 years.[8][9] (more precisely 18.132 Million coins by ca. end of May 2022[10][11]) After that, a constant "tail emission" of 0.6 XMR per 2-minutes block (modified from initially equivalent 0.3 XMR per 1-minute block) will create a sub-1% perpetual inflation (more precisely [see ref. above] starting with 0.87% yearly inflation around May 2022) to prevent the lack of incentives for miners once a currency is not mineable anymore.[12] The emission uses a smoothly decreasing reward with no block halving (any block generates a bit less monero than the previous one, formula: Emission per 2-minutes block = max(0.6,floor((MA)219)1012) XMR, with M=2641 and A=1012 times the amount of XMR already emitted). The smallest resolvable currency unit is 1012 XMR. The proof-of-work algorithm, CryptoNight, is AES-intensive and "memory heavy", which significantly reduces the advantage of GPU over CPU.

Monero daemon uses the original CryptoNote protocol except for the initial changes (as the block time and emission speed). The protocol itself is based on "one-time ring signatures"[13] and stealth addresses. Underlying cryptography is essentially Daniel J. Bernstein's library for Ed25519, which is Schnorr signatures on the Twisted Edwards curve. The end result is passive, decentralised mixing based on heavily-tested algorithms.[14]

However, several improvements were suggested by Monero Research Labs (a group of people, including core developers team), which covered the proper use of ring signatures for better privacy.[15] Specifically, the proposals included "a protocol-level network-wide minimum mix-in policy of n = 2 foreign outputs per ring signature", "a nonuniform transaction output selection method for ring generation" and "a torrent-style method of sending Monero output".[16] These changes, which were implemented in version 0.9.0 "Hydrogen Helix",[17] can help protect user's privacy in a CryptoNote-based currency according to the authors.

As a consequence, Monero features an opaque blockchain (with an explicit allowance system called the viewkey), in sharp contrast with transparent blockchain used by any other cryptocurrency not based on CryptoNote. Thus, Monero is said to be "private, optionally transparent". On top of very strong privacy by default, such a system permits net neutrality on the blockchain (miners cannot become censors, since they do not know where the transaction goes or what it contains) while still permitting auditing when desired (for instance, tax audit or public display of the finances of an NGO).[18] Furthermore, Monero is considered by many to offer truly fungible coins.[19][20][21]

Monero developers are also working on implementing a C++ I2P router straight in the code. This would complete the privacy chain by also hiding the IP addresses.[22]

"Monero is powered strictly by Proof of Work, but specifically, it employs a mining algorithm that has the potential to be efficiently tasked to billions of existing devices (any modern x86 CPU)."[23] Monero uses the CryptoNight Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm, which is designed for use in ordinary CPUs.[24]

The smart mining forthcoming feature will allow transparent CPU mining on the user's computer, far from the de facto centralization of mining farms and pool mining, pursuing Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision of a true P2P currency.[25]

Monero has no hardcoded limit, which means it doesn't have a 1 MB block size limitation preventing scalability. However, a block reward penalty mechanism is built into the protocol to avoid a too excessive block size increase: The new block's size NBS is compared to the median size M100 of the last 100 blocks. If NBS>M100, the block reward gets reduced in quadratic dependency of how much NBS exceeds M100. E.g. if NBS is [10%, 50%, 80%, 100%] greater than M100, the nominal block reward gets reduced by [1%, 25%, 64%, 100%]. Generally, blocks greater than 2*M100 are not allowed, and blocks <= 60kB are always free of any block reward penalties.

The Monero Core Team also released a standard called OpenAlias,[26] which permits much more human-readable addresses and "squares" the Zooko's triangle. OpenAlias can be used for any cryptocurrency and is already implemented in Monero, Bitcoin (in latest Electrum versions) and HyperStake.

XMR.TO allows to make payments to any Bitcoin address with the strong privacy provided by Monero.[27]

Since it is not based on Bitcoin, Monero cannot take advantage of the Bitcoin technological ecosystem, like GUI wallet or payment processors. As a consequence, everything has to be written from scratch.[28] Presently (as of March 2015), Monero doesn't have feature parity with Bitcoin. Notably, there is no support to multisignature and no Monero payment processor (but in April 2015 it was announced on bitcointalk.org one is in the works by a member of The Monero Core Team).

Monero transactions take up more space on the blockchain than Bitcoin transactions, and transactions will be even larger with RingCT added.[29] This makes it more expensive to run a full node.

Without RingCT implemented, it is still possible to deanonymize Monero transactions in some situations by analyzing the transaction amounts.[30]

CryptoKingdom is a MMORPG that uses Monero for entry into its economy.[37]

MoneroDice is a dice gambling game that uses cryptography for provably fair randomness.[38]

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Monero (cryptocurrency) - Wikipedia


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