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Nate ⓩ🛡
@nate_zec
🛡 Shield all the things! Building at , focused on #Zcash.
The IntertubesJoined October 2013

Nate ⓩ🛡’s Tweets

ChatGPT "safety filtering/bias" demonstrates unambiguously that the answers are controlled by some agenda of some cabal, which is a Big Problem in my book (regardless of if the *current* cabal agenda is good or not). Did the "AI Safety" movement end up making AI much less safe?
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My favorite format would be a podcast w/ 2+ experts giving an overview of developments, esp. if they constructively debate opposing sides of some topic like is LIDO net good/bad or different proposals for how ETH should change wrt liquid staking. could nail it. ;-)
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Last I looked into LIDO (7+ months ago) I saw some concern about its influence over Ethereum governance. Has there been any contention or developments around LIDO since then?
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This is me trying to be funny, but just to be clear, this podcast episode is a truly awesome overview of everything MEV with plenty of deep little tangents. HT
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So phishing bots are asking me if I can remind them of that one link to the MEV bot that makes tons of money (as a setup into a phishing scam). Well here's my earnest answer to the setup question; here's the best link I know of: unchainedpodcast.com/the-chopping-b
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So phishing bots are asking me if I can remind them of that one link to the MEV bot that makes tons of money (as a setup into a phishing scam). Well here's my earnest answer to the setup question; here's the best link I know of:
Lots of highly suspicious responses to this with the same formula: "I had trouble to and <ACCT> helped me out". Very bot-like, since I wasn't describing an actual support problem. Stay alert, phishers gonna phish!
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Replying to @RuZcash
If people use phrases they choose or which are in some way not purely random (such as filtering for favorite words, etc...) then it's an issue! IIRC, there was a period where Bitcoin "brain wallets" got drained rapidly because they were user-chosen phrases.
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BTW, for Zcash, and public quarterly transparency reports about their $ZEC holdings (which should also cover , thus all Dev Fund). Not as nice as real-time data, but much more transparent/reliable than proprietary metrics.
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Replying to @nate_zec @In4Crypto and 8 others
I recommend avoiding "proprietary algorithm metrics", unless you are really confident you want to trust a particular site's secret sauce. First of all, we don't know the algorithm, but more subtly, who knows what influences and incentives feed into the algorithm.
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Ok, what's the story on twitter w/ going private and "engagement"? Is engagement a thing that only relates to the algorithmic "For You" tab? Who tf uses that garbage? The only engagement I care about is that ppl who follow me (or someone who retweets me) see my posts.
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For clarity, I'm the 'Nate' here.
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(Disclosure: Zingo is made by a team that includes my brother, Zancas. Not my other brother, Nate, who is the Chief Research Officer at @ElectricCoinCo. Zancas is an independent hacker.)
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Periodic reminder on threats to the crypto mission: app stores >> misguided govenments That reminds me to check into Solana Phone. What other tools do we have?
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"Stanford was reportedly alerted to the book-reading" is a literal quote here. I can imagine threatening contexts involving a book, then I would hope a more specific attention to what was threatening was highlighted. Pls tell me there's more context!
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Bare with me on sending out memos! I'm super busy these days, so this will be my pre-bedtime ritual over the next week or so. But don't let that stop other Zealots from jumping in and sending private memos! Never hurts to have fully private comms set up across the movement. 😉
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Just received an Orchard shielded payment to my Zcash UA on Zingo! wallet. 🤓 Post your UAs! forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zingo-in-you
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BTW, a lot of the smug expertise-signaling responses assume guessing private keys can never be a problem. I'd say a better framing is "what would it take for this to become a problem?"
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I consider "asks basic questions publicly" on my list of ageless virtues. In fact, I think most genius comes from being unafraid to ask any question. More importantly it's a skill that can be improved, unlike "raw brainpower". Become a Curious Asker.
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The asker could have learned, and many silent observers, too. Then all of humanity would be one more notch wiser! Instead this opportunity was squandered on "expertise signaling". Damn shame.
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Damn. Someone asked what prevents a thief from generating wallet keys until they find a match to steal someone's funds. This is an excellent question! They were chastised until they deleted their tweet.
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Hey , I found your art through model retweets with emphatic endorsements, and I really appreciate it! Not sure what triggered the mob and sorry you have to deal with that. Hope it doesn't impact your passion or how you share it. ❤️
The first time I saw "fake news" in the press, ~2016 era, I immediately connected it with seeing American neo-Nazi's rant about the "Lügenpresse". Both phrases went straight to the same bucket: potentially dangerous propaganda with little meaningful usefulness beyond that.
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Fun read. I'd love to see more posts with this style of feasibility analysis for big picture projects. Perfect level of detail for me to track, and I learned a lot.
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I'm fascinated by the fact that cargo airships get more efficient as they get bigger, forever. How far can we push it? My friends and I hired an engineer to design us the biggest flying object ever to find out. elidourado.com/p/cargo-airshi
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The blockchain should be STRICTLY only for pure money uses and we should censor other uses. … btw, I only accept payment in JPEGs.
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Replying to
At the time those discussions were had “security of the network” outweighed “use case neutrality”. It was a different era and homogeneity was needed to scale Bitcoin mining without unintentional forks. Would be interesting to hear ’s view if that helped/hindered Omni.
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DeFi was supposed to bank the unbanked, but an overwhelming majority of dApps look terrible on mobile devices (which are the major way developing nations consume digital content). Crypto needs a mobile-first pivot asap.
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Should Zcash adopt "usecase neutrality" as a goal? Should there be other higher priorities? (Still needs clearer definition.)
  • yes
    51.9%
  • yes; < other priorities
    15.4%
  • no
    3.8%
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    28.8%
52 votesFinal results
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Two challenges for Zcash dev community: (a) is there strong consensus "Use Case Neutrality" should be the norm? (b) if so, how does it factor into specific proposals? I'm curious to hear what Zcash ppl think about this topic.
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Where will "use case neutrality" be trickier and messier? - anything to do with distinguishing transparent usage. - anything bringing new use cases to the table, such as ZSAs (proposal development underway by ).
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Is the discrimination in ZIP-317 consistent with "use case neutrality"? I argue it is, because the goal is to bring the cost users pay closer to the cost of the network supporting their usage for a wider variety of use cases. The intended outcome is "more" neutrality, IMO.
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IMO, Zcash dev culture should enshrine a (messy) notion of "use case neutrality" which is implied by permissionlessness. What's the best way to be neutral about use cases? As far as privacy tech can *prevent* ppl from distinguishing use cases, it's the strongest solution.
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For Zcash *shielded* transactions this controversy is moot, because by the nature of strong encryption, this enshrines permissionlessness as primary. No one can discern use cases directly with the ideal fully shielded chain! I say ideal, because metadata allows discrimination.
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(Tangent: AFAICT, this entire discussion, with the same arguments, was already had in Bitcoin community back in the day around projects like Omni or Colored Coins. IIRC, one primary outcome was limiting OP_RETURN size. I'd love a BTC historian to give a refresher on that era.)
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