Posts
The Problem with Protos
Of Rujgev’s Bitcoin investments, stated crypto opinions, and potential financial connections to parties with beneficial crypto interests, any single one would be a cause for concern. All three combined with Protos’ claims, and financial connection to the Crypto Critics, raise the spectre of disinformation and potential conflicts of interest.
Pushing Back On Protos
“Yet the nature of the system isn’t discussed in Tomlin’s piece, and the objectively measured heavy costs of this social cancer are presented as opinion rather than fact.”
Public Submission Opposing Bitcoin iShares ETF
Similar to the SEC’s Howey Test except for the last criteria, I proposed the Madoff test:
1. An investment of money
2. In a common enterprise
3. With the expectation of profit
4. To be derived from the funds contributed by new investors
The Only Crypto Story You Need?
Matt Levine’s witty and engaging ‘The Crypto Story’ ultimately fails to grasp crypto’s fatal flaw. He comes perilously close to revelation, but frustratingly remains mired in illusions and disinformation that have been internalized by the public.
The Trial of Satoshi Nakamoto
I have assumed intent based primarily on what has been designed and built, as opposed to the more credulous method of assuming intent based on what someone has said anonymously on the internet. If we are to assume intent at all, we should at the very least be skeptical of those whose actions can only be defended by a claim to ignorance.
The Strange Case of Nakamoto’s Bitcoin – Part 1
In actuality, categorizing the mother of all crypto as Ponzi or pyramid is an attempt to fit a square peg into a round hole. Bitcoin is neither, it belongs to a new genus of fraud. It has several specific qualities that make it unique, and many others that it shares with known forms of investment fraud, notably Ponzi and pyramid schemes. By carefully examining Bitcoin’s construction and observing its relations with other forms of investment fraud, we can better understand the inner workings of the Nakamoto scheme.
Centralizing Control: Why Bitcoin is Dangerous
Bitcoin is centralized, but not in the way you think it is. “Kings granted out much of their kingdoms as large fiefs to their nobles,
Decentralizing Control — The Future of Digital Spaces
An Introduction to CrossConnect & The Three Concerns I am not entirely sure how I arrived at this point. After fifteen years of working in
About Me
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I'm a technologist and 15 year veteran of the Telecom industry. I love to build things, and over the course of my career I have had the good fortune to design and work on a wide array of infrastructure projects.
Architecture, Infrastructure, & Mobile
In 2013 I was responsible for the architecture, launch, and operation of Text911, one of the world’s first production deployments of text to 911 services, assisting more than 3 million hearing and speech impaired Canadians. The service is still in operation today.
I have considerable expertise with systems architecture and the breadth of my experience includes datacenter operations, HA OLTP systems, database clusters, high performance data processing networks, and information security.
As Director of Technology, I managed and grew the technical practice of Canada’s largest messaging aggregator, and in 2018 assisted in the sale of Impact Mobile to the UK based CPaaS provider IMI Mobile.
Consulting & Advocacy
In 2020, I left an increasingly consolidated and centralized industry to work independently as an IT consultant. I now help clients achieve business goals by using my experience and expertise to build, deploy, and operate digital infrastructure.
I also work on issues related to the ethical use of technology, with a specific focus on cryptocurrency, and am interested in how we can shape policy so that digital platforms are used in the public interest.
Governance & Digital Identity
The past gives us perspective on the present, and I’m particularly interested in the history of Telecom, from telegraph to telephone, and internet to iPhone. If we look closely at what’s come before, we can see the outline of what needs to be built for the future.
The digital platforms we’ve constructed are not fit for the purpose of representing the interests of the public. If we are to build self-sustaining digital platforms that can serve common interests, then we require new ways governing organizations and the platforms they control.
Networks require two properties in order to function, a medium, and an identifier.
The focus in networking has always been on the medium and the protocols which dictate how we communicate over it. However, the next step in the evolution of networks lay in digital identity and the emancipation of end users and their data.
After being exposed to concepts relating to self-sovereign identity I realized that while we have the technology to build digital platforms that grant inherent user rights, we lack the governance frameworks to properly construct and manage them.
My work on the neutral governance of systems is derived from examining the governance systems of existing platforms and organizations. My interest lay in formalizing a governance model that isolates control from the economic interests tied to the concept of ownership.
