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backus's profile
John Backus
John Backus
John Backus
@backus

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John Backus

@backus

Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2012

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    John Backus‏ @backus Jul 5

    Activists are essential to decentralized systems 🏴‍☠️ Imagine BitTorrent without The Pirate Bay doing everything it can to stick around 🌰 Tor exit node operators took on real risk in the early days especially

    9:46 PM - 5 Jul 2018
    • 10 Retweets
    • 63 Likes
    • Harry Tormey Sebastian Moonjava James Waugh Philipp Seifert Jamie Pitts $trx $tezos iircaz123 Matt Baker № Gabriel D Vine🛸
    2 replies 10 retweets 63 likes
      1. New conversation
      2.  🤖 Sonya Mann  🎀‏Verified account @sonyaellenmann Jul 6
        Replying to @backus

        Running an exit node is still pretty risky, although not to the same extent that it used to be, I imagine. And activist institutions are huge targets — e.g. @riseupnet is being targeted right now

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      3. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 6
        Replying to @sonyaellenmann @riseupnet

        Yeah, I actually haven't looked into how risky it is lately. I just remember being at DEFCON in like 2013 listening to members of the Tor foundation appeal really hard to people trying to get more exit nodes

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4.  🤖 Sonya Mann  🎀‏Verified account @sonyaellenmann Jul 6
        Replying to @backus

        Also varies a lot by country. In the US, if I recall correctly, you're mainly definitely going on some fed list and at risk of having your ISP kick you off

        2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      5. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 6
        Replying to @sonyaellenmann

        Yeah. The most terrifying thing IMO is the idea that your house might be raided and all your machines seized because someone was viewing child porn through the exit node you ran. With that in mind, it seems especially valuable that institutions like MIT run exit nodes

        1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
      6. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 6
        Replying to @backus @sonyaellenmann

        Rephrasing orig tweet: It seems like decentralized systems which leverage legal grey areas depend on activists willing to fight the inevitable battles that come from running the most sensitive parts. Pirate Bay founders & Tor exit node operators knew LE would harass them one day

        2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
      7. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 6
        Replying to @backus @sonyaellenmann

        From one perspective, maybe this seems obvious: activist software requires activism. From a pure techno-utopian decentralization perspective tho, I think it is easy to see us fighting legal systems w/ pure software. Pirate Bay founders and exit node operators are critical though

        1 reply 1 retweet 6 likes
      8.  🤖 Sonya Mann  🎀‏Verified account @sonyaellenmann Jul 6
        Replying to @backus

         🤖 Sonya Mann  🎀 Retweeted nic carter

        I think "legit" institutions like Coin Center are key too, in terms of creating room for sufficient adoption to happen. Nic put it well:https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/1013890458236354561 …

         🤖 Sonya Mann  🎀 added,

        nic carter @nic__carter
        Crypto-anarchism is a bargaining strategy. If you make it functionally impossible to comply with regulations, either the state mobilizes significant resources to stamp you out, or they change the rules. The trick is to make the crackdown prohibitively expensive.
        Show this thread
        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      9.  🤖 Sonya Mann  🎀‏Verified account @sonyaellenmann Jul 6
        Replying to @sonyaellenmann @backus

        There's a delicate in-between period, which I think bitcoin and ethereum are probably out of, but almost nothing else

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      10. 1 more reply
      1. New conversation
      2. Erwin Kuhn‏ @ErwKuhn Jul 6
        Replying to @backus

        Since you've been posting some of the best stuff about P2P history (and thanks, those anecdotes are a ton of fun), what would be your favorite resources for anyone wanting to dive deep into the subject?

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 6
        Replying to @ErwKuhn

        I may just make a post of resources in the future. For now, here is my process: 1. Search "BitTorrent", "Limewire", "Kazaa", etc on Google, YouTube, Google Scholar, Wikipedia, http://archive.org  2. Read most of it, collect more keywords 3. GOTO 1 w/ new keywords

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 6
        Replying to @backus @ErwKuhn

        So, second round for example would then be searching "DHT", "PEX", "Gnutella", "FastTrack", "BearShare", "The Pirate Bay", etc. I honestly just spent like a few dozen hours searching similar stuff over and over obsessively.

        2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      5. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 6
        Replying to @backus @ErwKuhn

        I've only really read three books on this stuff, each of which I've shared from: • "How Music got Free" by @stephenwitt http://a.co/2xit0xm  • "Code Wars" by @rgibli http://a.co/fxbXY4R  • "The Starfish and the Spider" http://a.co/iBBjaHs 

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      6. Erwin Kuhn‏ @ErwKuhn Jul 9
        Replying to @backus @stephenwitt @rgibli

        Thanks, much appreciated! Been diving into the subject a bit recently, just wondered if I missed some "must-read" resource. Looking forward to seeing you dig out more gems of this history.

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      7. End of conversation

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