Tech sector warns of harm from Liberals' Budget

Industry leaders are warning that the Liberals' Budget 2024 could cause "irreparable harm" to the tech sector in Canada.

Tech sector slams Liberals’ capital gains tax hike as “irreparable harm” | True North | Isaac Lamoreux: 

April 17, 2024 - "The Liberal government’s 2024 federal budget has sent shockwaves through Canada’s tech sector, with sweeping increases to capital gains taxes being the main cause for concern. Leaders within the industry are voicing criticism at the Liberals, suggesting that further taxation could drive businesses and talent south of the border. The budget, delivered by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, raises the inclusion rate for capital gains tax from 50% to 66% for individuals on amounts exceeding $250,000. The amendments to the Income Tax Act will come into effect on June 25, 2024. The Liberals expect to make $19.4 billion over the next five years from [the move].... 

"Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators, explained in his organization’s response to the budget that the best way for the government to boost its revenue is to drive economic growth and productivity gains by helping Canada’s innovators. 'We hope that Minister Freeland and the Liberal government will listen to innovators and adjust this proposed tax hike before they do irreparable harm to the Canadian innovation economy,' he said....

"Local entrepreneur Boris Wertz ... felt that the Liberals had 'lost their plot on innovation and entrepreneurship.' His biggest concerns were 'trying to pick winners (e.g. superclusters); proposing very rigid AI regulations; dramatic increase of number of public sector employees; (and) increasing capital gain rate.' The budget promises to invest $2.4 billion in AI support, $5.1 million of which will be dedicated toward the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act — ensuring that AI is 'safe and non-discriminatory,' according to the Liberal government.... 

"Kim Furlong, CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, said that her organization is 'baffled' by the Liberals’ decision to increase the capital gains tax. 'This measure, which effectively taxes innovation and risk-taking, will significantly dampen Canada’s entrepreneurial spirit, stifle economic growth in critical sectors of our economy, and impact job creation. Such policy change undermines Canada’s position to attract the talent needed to grow and scale companies here,' she said. 'CVCA will work tirelessly to reverse this decision,' said Furlong.

"The founder of a venture capital firm, Christian Lassonde, said that Canada is desperate for new investment dollars. 'What does this government do? Punish investing. You can’t make this stuff up,' he wrote in a post to X.

"President and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Dan Kelly, said that the capital gains tax changes will demotivate Canadians from starting businesses in the first place. 'Several sectors of Canada’s (small and medium enterprises) community will be hit with higher capital gain taxes on business sales above $2.25 million, including restaurants, hotels, doctors’ offices, insurance brokers, real estate firms, recreation and arts and recreation firms,' said Kelly in a post to X.

"Armon Shokravi, co-founder of a software development business, explained in a post to X that the tax changes, of an inclusion rate from 50 to 66%, would increase the net capital gains tax from 27% to 36%, compared to the United States, who have a tax rate of 20%. 'In my conversations with Canadian entrepreneurs, it’s clear: They’re feeling less motivated to build businesses here when moving just a bit south could mean saving a lot more,' he said..... 

"Independent MP Kevin Vuong shared a text message from a local business owner. The former founder, who works in the tech sector, said that they and their partner sat down last night and began the process of moving to the United States. 'We’re leaving to a country that celebrates entrepreneurs and innovation,' they said. 'The world is too competitive for talent and Canada is not competitive anymore.'

Read more: https://tnc.news/2024/04/17/liberals-capital-gains-tax-hike-irreparable-harm/

Budget 2024 picks a fight with Canadian tech | BetaKit Podcast | April 22, 2024: 

The espionage that took down Nortel

Did Huawei bring down Nortel? Corporate espionage, theft, and the parallel rise and fall of two telecom giants | The Intelligencer - Tom Blackwell:

February 24, 2020 - "Nortel Networks ... led the way in developing digital telephone networks worldwide in the 1970s and 1980s. By the turn of the last century ... it boasted over 90,000 employees and ... accounted for a third of the worth of companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Its technological prowess is still legendary.... Then, in 2000, the speculative Internet bubble that had so elevated Nortel suddenly burst.... In January, 2009, Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection.... 

"Nortel’s financial troubles were well documented, but what didn’t become public until years later was espionage traced back to China....

"Michel Juneau-Katsuya was head of the CSIS Asia-Pacific desk in the late 1990s when the service became aware of 'spying activities the Chinese were conducting' against Nortel.... When the intelligence agency warned the company, it all but ignored CSIS. This led Juneau-Katsuya to a startling conclusion: 'To this day, I believe there might have been one or more agents of influence controlled by the Chinese in [Nortel] which succeeded in neutralizing our warning.'

"A little later, around 2000,...  [at] a Nortel facility in Texas, Huawei returned a fibre card ... and asked for a refund, recalls Lawrence Bill, a forensic analyst who worked on the subsequent investigation.... [W] hen Nortel engineers looked closely, they realized the 'bleeding-edge' gear had been disassembled and reverse engineered, says Bill.... Meanwhile, the company started noticing knock-off versions of some of its products in Asian markets, he says. Nortel considered suing, but dropped the matter after the Huawei office across the road in Texas closed down....

"[I]n the spring of 2004 ... a Nortel employee in the U.K. noticed some documents he’d stored in the company’s 'LiveLink' database had been downloaded by a senior executive in Canada. The Brit helpfully emailed the manager — optical-networks president Brian McFadden — to say he was available to answer any questions McFadden might have about the material. The executive’s response? I have no idea what you’re talking about. Nortel’s security staff in Raleigh, N.C., were promptly alerted.

"Larry Bill, based in Raleigh, noticed a troubling fact: Logs indicated that McFadden had signed into the Nortel system from multiple locations around the world, places he had never visited.... Security advisor Brian Shields discovered that not one, but seven Nortel executives, including CEO Frank Dunn, had been hacked, and that the hackers were vacuuming an alarming volume of sensitive material out of its databases.

"By the end of his investigation, Shields says he was able to track the theft of over 1,400 documents from the LiveLink server, and that was only during a six-month period when bosses allowed him to monitor the stealing. He found evidence the break-in of Nortel’s internal computer network had started no later than 2000, and probably began in the 1990s. He says it lasted past 2009, when he was laid off. He traced most of the hacks back to IP addresses and four Internet service providers (ISPs) in China. When material was actually downloaded from Nortel, it mostly ended up at an ISP in Shanghai....

"He cites a 2013 report by cyber-security firm Mandiant, which revealed the existence of a major Internet-espionage organization in Shanghai, likely “Unit 61398” of the People’s Liberation Army. Mandiant tracked thefts of data from 141 companies in 20 major industries.... 

"Shields, who was Nortel’s representative on the Network Security Information Exchange, a U.S. government initiative to help protect the national telecom infrastructure ... has no evidence of who ultimately received the documents, but notes that only a Nortel competitor would benefit from the information, helping it develop products, craft sales pitches and out-sell rivals.  Shields cannot prove that Huawei benefited from the hacking, but is convinced that its rise to a world telecommunications superpower — as Nortel simultaneously withered away — is no coincidence.... And yet he is certain the Nortel CEO never saw that report. His investigation wound down after a few months, and it appears no one notified firms that later bought Nortel assets that its computers might be infected.

"CSIS got in touch again early in 2009, offering to help Nortel with the hacks, Shields says, but by then it was too late. Within a week, the company had filed for bankruptcy protection.... A few years later, as the National Defence Department prepared to take over Nortel’s former research campus in Ottawa, it discovered evidence of another type of spying — old-school listening bugs implanted in the building during Nortel days, a senior Defence officer told the Ottawa Citizen and Globe and Mail."

Read more: https://www.intelligencer.ca/news/exclusive-did-huawei-bring-down-nortel-corporate-espionage-theft-and-the-parallel-rise-and-fall-of-two-telecom-giants/wcm/543c8eee-d7d0-4b8a-89e9-09c3b9c92b4a

Cyberattacks use National Security Agency tech.

In Baltimore and Beyond, a Stolen N.S.A. Tool Wreaks Havoc - The New York Times - Nicole Perlroth & Scott Shane:

May 25, 2019 - "For nearly three weeks, Baltimore has struggled with a cyberattack by digital extortionists that has frozen thousands of computers, shut down email and disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services. But here is what frustrated city employees and residents do not know: A key component of the malware that cybercriminals used in the attack was developed at taxpayer expense a short drive down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at the National Security Agency, according to security experts briefed on the case.

"Since 2017, when the N.S.A. lost control of the tool, EternalBlue, it has been picked up by state hackers in North Korea, Russia and, more recently, China, to cut a path of destruction around the world, leaving billions of dollars in damage. But over the past year, the cyberweapon has boomeranged back and is now showing up in the N.S.A.’s own backyard. It is not just in Baltimore. Security experts say EternalBlue attacks have reached a high, and cybercriminals are zeroing in on vulnerable American towns and cities, from Pennsylvania to Texas, paralyzing local governments and driving up costs.

"The N.S.A. ... has refused to discuss or even acknowledge the loss of its cyberweapon, dumped online in April 2017 by a still-unidentified group calling itself the Shadow Brokers.... Thomas Rid, a cybersecurity expert at Johns Hopkins University, called the Shadow Brokers episode 'the most destructive and costly N.S.A. breach in history,' more damaging than the better-known leak in 2013 from Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor....

"Before it leaked, EternalBlue was one of the most useful exploits in the N.S.A.’s cyberarsenal. According to three former N.S.A. operators who spoke on the condition of anonymity, analysts spent almost a year finding a flaw in Microsoft’s software and writing the code to target it. Initially, they referred to it as EternalBluescreen because it often crashed computers — a risk that could tip off their targets. But it went on to become a reliable tool used in countless intelligence-gathering and counterterrorism missions....

"North Korea was the first nation to co-opt the tool, for an attack in 2017 ... that paralyzed the British health care system, German railroads and some 200,000 organizations around the world. Next was Russia, which used the weapon in an attack ... aimed at Ukraine but spread across major companies doing business in the country.... In the past year, the same Russian hackers who targeted the 2016 American presidential election used EternalBlue to compromise hotel Wi-Fi networks. Iranian hackers have used it to spread ransomware and hack airlines in the Middle East....

"One month before the Shadow Brokers began dumping the agency’s tools online in 2017, the N.S.A. — aware of the breach — reached out to Microsoft and other tech companies to inform them of their software flaws. Microsoft released a patch, but hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide remain unprotected."

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/us/nsa-hacking-tool-baltimore.html
'via Blog this'

Technology Trumps Politics

The Blockchain Matters More than the President | Foundation for Economic Education - Jeffrey A. Tucker:

January 19, 2017 - "After a wildly contentious election season, you might get the impression that the future of the country, if not the world, hinges on the quality and ideology of top-down leadership. That’s actually wrong. Very little was said during the entire election about digital technology; nothing ever came up concerning distributed ledgers and the remarkable invention of a fully private currency that lives on the Internet and works without third-party intermediaries....

"It’s a paradigmatic case of how the structure of technology in our time has flipped the traditional model of what makes societies tick and what drives history forward. As we are learning, presidents and parties come and go; what persists and what keeps advancing regardless of political trends are the tools we use to improve our lives....

"Bitcoin has matured beautifully since its release in 2009. It has long since moved past the incredulity stage, though apparently skeptics will always be with us. What we see now is the drive toward mass adoption and industry application in every area, from payment processing to enterprise-building to security titling and contracting....

"Bitcoin is a market-based money and payment system that operates on its own, without the need for regulators, central banks, or even financial intermediaries. It is not only a money and payment system, however; it is also a system for bundling, documenting, and trading immutable packets of any kind of information that can include contracts, property titles, or any other form of human agreement, regardless of geographic proximity. This means that the resulting currency and/or information system operates completely outside borders and outside the domain of the nation-state....

"And why does it matter? Everyone has his or her own opinion on this. My angle is monetary. If there can be a parallel currency to nationalized monies, developing in tandem, the world economy is granted a future beyond the current miasma. So many modern problems and horrors trace to government money: economic depressions, declining incomes, wars, government growth and debt, cultural destabilization, and so much more. Finding a solution to this problem, and a path for reform, is a priority for anyone who loves liberty....

"The Bitcoin system is being developed in the context of consensus from actual stakeholders and tested by market results. This is the right path forward. Whatever the results, they stand a much stronger chance of putting the world economy on a forward path than any legislation or executive order coming from any government or political party."

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/the-blockchain-matters-more-than-the-president/
'via Blog this'

Ethereum, a censorship resistant 'world computer'

Ethereum Project Offers Censorship Resistant 'World Computer' for Developers - Breitbart - Tom Ciccotta :

January 3, 2017 - "The Ethereum Project, an open source platform developed by 22-year old programmer Vitalik Buterin, is seeking to build upon the blockchain technology established by Bitcoin by allowing developers to use the blockchain to build decentralized applications.

"The blockchain is a decentralized database where records and entries are virtually unchangeable. While Bitcoin utilizes blockchain technology to manage a currency, the Ethereum Project provides an open source environment where programmers can create applications on the blockchain.

"Tristan Winters, a reporter at ETHNews, the leading online Ethereum news site, explained to me the Ethereum project in layman’s terms: 'Ethereum is a "world computer." Instead of hosting apps on a server, you host them on the Ethereum blockchain and p2p network.... So the apps are censorship resistant and no one can shut them down'....

"Ethereum is driven by Ether, a cryptocurrency that acts as 'fuel' for the system. According to the project’s website, Ether is a necessary element that ensures that developers are writing quality applications ... (wasteful code costs more), and that the network remains healthy (people are compensated for their contributed resources).

"Because of the open source nature of Ethereum, it has almost limitless functions. Developers have proposed and began work on decentralized file storage systems, financial systems, and business management systems.

"Ethereum allows actors to create smart contracts, which are programs that run on the blockchain that can handle currency in a way that is unchangeable. Smart contracts can be used for a variety of business functions, such as the representation of shares, organizational voting, and fundraising.

"The decentralized nature of the Ethereum blockchain would allow for social networks that are truly resistant to censorship. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, a social network operating on Ethereum wouldn’t be accessed via centralized servers. Such a network would exist as a peer-to-peer network that lives on computers throughout the world. Because such a network would have no centralized body, censorship would be extremely difficult."

Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/01/03/ethereum-project-offers-censorship-resistant-world-computer-for-developers/
'via Blog this'

Bitcoin goes retail in Portsmouth, New Hamphire

Making Bitcoin Real: Portsmouth, NH, Businesses Begin Accepting BTC - Joel Valenzuela, Cointelegraph:

August 26, 2016 - "Another establishment has begun accepting Bitcoin as payment in what is fast becoming one of the most Bitcoin-centric towns in the United States.

"Street, a posh restaurant featuring food inspired from around the globe, began accepting Bitcoin earlier this month. The integration came as a result of outreach by Steven Zeiler, a local software developer and Bitcoin evangelist, who has also succeeded in getting a local yoga studio he frequents to take Bitcoin.

"Matt Carano, owner of The Music Class (which also takes Bitcoin) and former owner of the Pão Cafe,  one of the first restaurants in New Hampshire to take Bitcoin ... appreciates the ability to use Bitcoin locally, not just through online transactions....

"According to Mike Vine, technology evangelist for the Blockchain-based content-sharing platform LBRY, New Hampshire’s vibrant Bitcoin scene can be traced back to the Free State Project involvement....

"The Free State Project hosts the Porcupine Freedom Festival, or PorcFest, a weeklong festival in a mountain campground with a heavy emphasis on Bitcoin and decentralized technology. Largely thanks to the efforts of the Free State Project movers, New Hampshire ranks as one of the world’s most Bitcoin-friendly places.

"A touristy, seaside town of only 20,000 residents in a mostly rural state with a low population, Portsmouth is an unlikely destination for a vibrant Bitcoin community. Yet, in addition to the above mentioned businesses, it is also home to several Blockchain startups.

"Vine also founded the Praxeum, a Portsmouth-based co-working and community space, with Carano. He sees New Hampshire as a future renowned hub of Blockchain and decentralized tech innovation....

"Arcade City, the Blockchain-based ride-sharing service with a new app slated for release on September 1st, was founded in Portsmouth, and owes its origin to the Free Uber campaign, which protested against the city’s ride-sharing regulations by Bitcoin-funded swarm activism."

Read more: https://cointelegraph.com/news/making-bitcoin-real-portsmouth-n-h-businesses-begin-accepting-btc
'via Blog this'

Four freedom-empowering technologies

Technology That Enables Liberties - The Libertarian Republic:

April 15, 2016 - "The FBI would have you believe otherwise, but technology empowers freedom for both Americans and people all over the world. The government agency recently clashed with Apple for access to a locked iPhone that belonged to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre that killed 14 people in December 2015.... Driven by the fear of terrorism, the FBI assumed it would have the public’s support against Apple. But the FBI was wrong — America rallied behind Apple and the FBI quickly dropped its legal push to force Apple to unlock the iPhone.

"Technology, privacy and freedom are big topics in 2016, and the case of the FBI vs. Apple is only the most recent point in the long debate. The following pieces of technology, both present and in the future, give you freedom and privacy, despite what the government thinks about them.

"Smartphones & Encryption: The default text message technology used in iPhone-to-iPhone communication, iMessage, is encrypted to the point that even Apple doesn’t know what you’re sending.... WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging services in the world, recently turned on encrypted messaging for more than a billion users.... So now ... you can enjoy the same level of privacy.

"Tor & The Dark Net: While many people associate the dark net with the Silk Road, the online drug trafficking site that was shut down several years ago, it’s really nothing more than an encrypted version of the Internet. Tor uses several public IP addresses, so your activity can’t be tracked online, and you can build websites only accessible by Tor. So, yes, that sort of privacy did lead to the Silk Road, but it could also help someone organize a peaceful protest without a government prying in.

Bitcoin: Bitcoin is another technology that some people associate with illegal activity... However, it’s growing in popularity and available for more regular purchases. So how does Bitcoin empower your freedom? Imagine using it to support a non-establishment political candidate or to buy a controversial book.... The truth is, people can see what you buy with credit cards and bank accounts, but Bitcoin is a way to circumvent that.

3-D Printing: Also known as additive manufacturing, 3-D printing could be the most liberating technology next to encryption. While governments both in the United States and around the world regulate what you can and can’t buy or own, a 3-D printer puts the power back in your hands.... Now that small 3-D printers are more affordable, it’s realistic for Americans to own one."

Read more: http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/technology-that-enables-liberties/
'via Blog this'

IRS spends $140M so far upgrading to Windows 7

Government watchdog blasts IRS for mismanaged migrations from Windows XP, Server 2003 | Computerworld - Gregg Keizer:

October 15, 2015 - "Government auditors have blasted the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for missing deadlines to upgrade Windows XP PCs and data center servers running Windows Server 2003, both of which have been retired by Microsoft.

"In a recently released report, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) criticized the IRS for spending nearly $140 million on upgrading Windows XP to Windows 7 even as it failed to meet the support cut-off of April 2014. At the deadline, over half of the IRS's PCs were still running XP.

"Nine months after Windows XP fell off Microsoft's support list, the agency still could not account for 1,300 PCs – about 1% of its total – and so couldn't say whether they had been purged of the ancient OS.

"On the server front, half of the IRS's Windows-powered servers were still running Windows Server 2003 in May, even though Microsoft would pull the support plug on that software two months later. At that time, the IRS still had not installed Windows Server 2012, the latest version, on any of its systems.

"The failure to upgrade its infrastructure to supported versions of Windows, said TIGTA, threatened taxpayers and tax collection. 'We believe that running workstations with outdated operating systems pose significant security risks to the IRS network and data, particularly in the environment where a chain is only as strong as its weakest link,' the TIGTA's report stated. 'External hackers or malicious insiders need to locate only the one computer with security weaknesses, such as one with an outdated operating system, to exploit in order to steal data or further compromise other computers.'

"That's not just theory. Earlier this year, the IRS admitted that hackers infiltrated its network and made off with personal information on more than 300,000 taxpayers."

Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2993380/operating-systems/government-watchdog-blasts-irs-for-mismanaged-migrations-from-windows-xp-server-2003.html
'via Blog this'

Do average Americans commit 3 felonies a day?

L. Gordon Crovitz: You Commit Three Felonies a Day - WSJ - Wall Street Journal:

September 27, 2009 - "Technology moves so quickly we can barely keep up, and our legal system moves so slowly it can't keep up with itself. By design, the law is built up over time by court decisions, statutes and regulations. Sometimes even criminal laws are left vague, to be defined case by case. Technology exacerbates the problem of laws so open and vague that they are hard to abide by, to the point that we have all become potential criminals.

"Boston civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate calls his new book Three Felonies a Day, referring to the number of crimes he estimates the average American now unwittingly commits because of vague laws. New technology adds its own complexity, making innocent activity potentially criminal.

Mr. Silverglate describes several cases in which prosecutors didn't understand or didn't want to understand technology. This problem is compounded by a trend that has accelerated since the 1980s for prosecutors to abandon the principle that there can't be a crime without criminal intent."

"In 2001, a man named Bradford Councilman was charged in Massachusetts with violating the wiretap laws. He worked at a company that offered an online book-listing service and also acted as an Internet service provider to book dealers. As an ISP, the company routinely intercepted and copied emails as part of the process of shuttling them through the Web to recipients.

"The federal wiretap laws, Mr. Silverglate writes, were 'written before the dawn of the Internet, often amended, not always clear, and frequently lagging behind the whipcrack speed of technological change.' Prosecutors chose to interpret the ISP role of momentarily copying messages as they made their way through the system as akin to impermissibly listening in on communications. The case went through several rounds of litigation, with no judge making the obvious point that this is how ISPs operate. After six years, a jury found Mr. Councilman not guilty.

"Other misunderstandings of the Web criminalize the exercise of First Amendment rights. A Saudi student in Idaho was charged in 2003 with offering 'material support' to terrorists. He had operated Web sites for a Muslim charity that focused on normal religious training, but was prosecuted on the theory that if a user followed enough links off his site, he would find violent, anti-American comments on other sites. The Internet is a series of links, so if there's liability for anything in an online chain, it would be hard to avoid prosecution."

Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704471504574438900830760842
'via Blog this'
Three Felonies a Day website: http://www.threefeloniesaday.com/Youtoo/tabid/86/Default.aspx

First Canadian university bookstore takes Bitcoin

Digital currency on campus: buy Bitcoin and books at SFU - SFU News, Simon Fraser University - Justin Wong:

May 26, 2015 - "Simon Fraser University (SFU) is the first Canadian post-secondary institution to accept Bitcoin for the purchase of textbooks, and to install automated Bitcoin vending machines (AVMs) campus-wide.

"The bookstores at each of the three campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey have already installed the AVMS and [are] accept[ing] the virtual currency for retail transactions beginning May 26.

"'It is our mission to challenge and engage students and provide them with learning opportunities not only inside the classroom but also outside,' says Mark McLaughlin, executive director of ancillary services.

"'SFU has one of North America’s most prominent Bitcoin student clubs and they have asked us to help introduce Bitcoin to the SFU community. As a university focused on innovation, we want to provide our students the opportunity to try digital currencies like Bitcoin through AVMs and within the bookstore and other retail locations on campus'....

"All of this is about more than just using Bitcoin to buy textbooks or support academia. McLaughlin says it will foster a dialogue about the future of currency and disruptive technologies. Vancouver is developing into the Canadian hub for digital finance and SFU wants to play an enabling role in its development, he says.

"'What we’re trying to do is get students to talk about innovation and try Bitcoin,' says McLaughlin. 'The only way to have an opinion about digital currencies is to learn about it, and we are providing a first-hand experience.'"

Read more: http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2015/digital-currency-on-campus-buy-bitcoin-and-books-at-sfu.html
'via Blog this'

Lincoln Labs building liberty-oriented "hacker" network

The Kochs' nonprofit empire is building a network of libertarian hackers, coders and designers - Yahoo News - Chris Moody:

July 23, 2014 - "It was nearing 2 a.m., the AC had been shut off and the air in the century-old downtown office of Brigade Media, a tech startup that hosted a hackathon in conjunction with a libertarian tech conference here, was starting to feel heavy....

"The hackathon — an event in which teams compete to build new apps and programs within a short period of time — was part of the first inaugural Reboot, conference where hundreds of conservative hackers, coders, designers, tech entrepreneurs and conservative political activists joined some of the nation’s top Republicans to strategize and — ideally — emerge with The Next Great App. As an incentive, the conference organizers offered $10,000 in prize money to be awarded to the best ideas.

"The gathering was the first inaugural conference put on by Lincoln Labs, a year-old club of politically-minded technologists started by three millennials with backgrounds in Republican politics: Garrett Johnson, a former aide to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; Aaron Ginn, who worked on Mitt Romney’s digital team; and Chris Abrams, who runs digital operations for Vanity Fair magazine. The group — which adopts the label “conservatarian,” a popular buzzword for the ideological coalition between conservatives and libertarians — was born in 2013 in the aftermath of the failed Republican attempt to regain control of the White House....

"For most of Lincoln Lab’s existence, the group has relied upon financial backing and support from the orbit of activist groups that are part of Charles and David Koch’s donor network. Last weekend’s conference was sponsored by an array of groups from the Koch network: Generation Opportunity, its youth outreach group; the Libre Initiative, its Hispanic organization; Americans for Prosperity, its lead political advocacy arm; and i360, which collects data on behalf of the Koch network. Microsoft, Google, and Stampede, a political consulting firm that provides campaign services to conservative candidates, also served as sponsors for the event.

"With Generation Opportunity doing most of the financial legwork, the Koch network has invested in Lincoln Labs hackathons around the country, holding similar, yet smaller, gatherings in California, Seattle, Chicago and Miami."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/catching-up-to-democrats-online--one-hack-at-a-time-125724049.html

'via Blog this'

'Libertarian utopia' at Porcupine Freedom Festival

Inside the libertarian version of Burning Man: Guns, booze and bitcoin - The Washington Post - Ben Terris:

July 2, 2014 - "Like any good bonfire, the evening ritual at the Porcupine Festival deep in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, includes a drum circle, plumes of marijuana smoke, shared bottles of whiskey and spirited debate.

"There are also guns. Lots of guns....

"Once a year for the past 11 years, this campground in the northern part of the Granite State turns into a libertarian utopia. And this year, roughly 2,000 people — mostly white men — have paid between $45 and $100 to experience for one week what life would be like without the onerous mechanisms of laws, if the market ruled to the exclusion of all else. Want to wear a loincloth and sell moonshine, shop at an unregulated market that accepts Bitcoin and silver, or listen to a seminar called “How the Collapse of the State is Inevitable”? Then this is the place for you....

"Porcfest — as it’s known here — is put on by the Free State Project, a group dedicated to recruiting at least 20,000 libertarians to move to New Hampshire. The idea — that a group of this size can make a difference in a state with a low population — came from an essay in 2001 by then-Yale doctoral student and current Dartmouth lecturer Jason Sorens. Thirteen years later, the FSP has had nearly 16,000 people sign a 'statement of intent' to move. The plan is that when 20,000 people sign the list, it will 'trigger' a large migration. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 people have moved already."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/inside-the-libertarian-version-of-burning-man-guns-booze-and-bitcoin/2014/07/01/74d9d996-ffcf-11e3-b8ff-89afd3fad6bd_story.html
 'via Blog this'

Free State Project testing ground for freedom-enhancing technology

The Free State Project: A Libertarian Testing Ground For Bitcoin, 3D Printers, and Drones - Kashmir Hill, Forbes:

June 12, 2014 - "Long before billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel dreamed up the idea of a floating libertarian island nation, a 24-year-old Yale grad student named Jason Sorens proposed a far more down-to-earth experiment for those who wanted to live the limited government lifestyle: that a critical mass of 'freedom-loving people… establish residence in a small state and take over the state government.'

"The 'Free State Project' call to action was in 2001. By 2003, five thousand people agreed to take part and they held a vote to decide which low-population state would be the staging ground for the libertarianvasion, which would be triggered when 20,000 people signed on. New Hampshire (population: 1.3 million) won ... and early movers began trickling in to help the state fully realize its 'Live Free or Die' motto....

"Thirteen years later, there are over 2,000 Free Staters scattered around New Hampshire and the petition is now 4,000 signatures short of triggering the full move....

"I was invited to snowy New Hampshire this February ... because Free Staters were interested in two things I write about: Bitcoin and corporate privacy practices. I discovered that this isolated group has fully adopted Bitcoin, and that it’s extremely enthusiastic about other 'freedom-enhancing' technologies such as 3D-printers and encryption. Everyone I met in the Project owned Bitcoin and was willing to accept it for goods and services. Of the couple thousand people living there, at least seven own 3D-printers. Though the idea originally was to get a critical mass to influence the political process, many in the movement now feel that the freedoms they want may be better realized through technology that routes around the government rather than engaging it directly."

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/12/the-free-state-project-a-libertarian-testing-ground-for-bitcoin-3d-printers-and-drones/
'via Blog this'

Overstock 1st major online retailer to take Bitcoin

Bitcoin wins the heart of libertarian CEO | City A.M. - Guy Bentley:

January 10, 2014 - "Encouraged by positive Senate hearings in November and enthusiastic Bitcoin processors, online retailer Overstock.com has decided to take the plunge and accept the cryptocurrency. In the first 90 minutes of Bitcoin sales, the site received around 150 orders....

"The libertarian chief executive of Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne, said in a press release:

This is historic. Digital currency will be an important part of the future and Overstock is excited to be the first major online shopping retailer to accept it.

As one who believes in limited government, this attracts me because it is a form of money that no government mandarin can will it into existence.

"While the use of Bitcoin can lower Overstock's transaction costs, there is more than just business behind Byrne's decision to accept the digital currency. Speaking to Wired magazine he said 'It helps us fight the machine'.”

Read more: http://www.cityam.com/blog/1389367222/bitcoin-wins-heart-libertarian-ceo
'via Blog this'

Galt's Gulch Chile, libertarian community, now accepting Bitcoin

Galt's Gulch Chile Becomes First Libertarian Community Accepting Bitcoin - PRWEB::

November 13, 2013 - "Galt's Gulch Chile, a Libertarian real estate project in Chile, has become the first real estate project of its kind to accept bitcoin. Designed as a residential organic farming community with clean waters, organic foods, and renewable energy, the project raises the question: What can't you buy with bitcoin now?....

"Galt's Gulch Chile is a self-sustaining organic farming community located within the mild Mediterranean microclimate of central Chile. This realization of John Galt's vision holds title to over 11,000 acres of pristine land with nearly 800 liters per second of registered underground and surface water rights. Galt's Gulch Chile presents, for the first time, the opportunity to purchase real estate with the revolutionary new virtual currency bitcoin.

"Bitcoin has soared past all-time highs in recent weeks, reaching a price of nearly $400 in early November."

Read more: http://www.prweb.com/releases/galtsgulchchile/20131112/prweb11324365.htm
'via Blog this'

Libertarian economics behind Silk Road website

Libertarian economics underpinned Silk Road Bitcoin drug website - FT.com - John Aglionby:

October 3, 2013 - "The goods and services traded on the semi-secretive website Silk Road since February 2011 with the virtual currency Bitcoins were so varied that the Federal Bureau of Investigation described it as 'the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet today'.

"Its philosophical underpinnings, however, were ... according to the FBI complaint published on Wednesday after the site was shut down, 'Austrian economic theory' and the works of Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard, economists closely associated with the Mises Institute, in the US state of Alabama.

"The libertarian institute’s website says it 'seeks to advance the Misesian tradition of thought through the defence of the market economy, private property, sound money and peaceful international relations, while opposing government intervention as economically and socially destructive'.

"Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road’s alleged founder who was arrested on Wednesday and allegedly made millions of dollars from running the trading site, had a user profile on the Mises Institute site and linked to the website, and cited the economists’ work in Silk Road forum postings, the FBI complaint said."

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2c1f0f78-2c17-11e3-acf4-00144feab7de.html#axzz2grWVCfoC
'via Blog this'

Interview with a digital drug lord - Forbes

An Interview With A Digital Drug Lord: The Silk Road's Dread Pirate Roberts (Q&A) } Forbes )  | Andy Greenberg:

August 14, 2013 - "Most black market drug lords don’t give interviews. But the Dread Pirate Roberts isn’t most drug lords. His website, the Silk Road, is designed to allow anyone to buy and sell drugs with the crypto-currency Bitcoin, using the anonymity software Tor to protect their identity. And those same anonymity protections have made Roberts confident enough in his security that he’s been willing to write about his illicit business under his pseudonym on Silk Road’s user forums and even give short comments to reporters in the past.

"Now he’s gone much further. For a magazine profile in the current issue, Roberts engaged Forbes in his first ever extended interview. Over the course of five hours on July 4th, the Dread Pirate answered my questions – all routed through Tor and the Silk Road’s messaging system – on topics ranging from the Silk Road’s history to the site’s business model to his own personal details and motivations. Though [the] dark web entrepreneur was unsurprisingly tightlipped on any information that might even remotely help law enforcement identify him, he did offer a few new revelations: The fact that he’s not actually the founder of the Silk Road, the possibility that the Silk Road may re-introduce weapon sales to the site, and his only-half-joking asking price to acquire the business. (Don’t insult him with bids less than a billion dollars.)

"Here’s the full, slightly edited transcript of our conversation.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/an-interview-with-a-digital-drug-lord-the-silk-roads-dread-pirate-roberts-qa/

U.S. Libertarian Party accepting Bitcoin donations

The Libertarian Party Is Now Accepting Bitcoin Donations - Garance Franke-Ruta - The Atlantic:

April 11, 2013 - "America's biggest third party is accepting donations of the electronic currency through bitpay.com, which converts the donations into U.S. dollars. Given that Bitcoin is sometimes called a 'libertarian fantasy,' it's not so surprising the Libertarian Party would make room for the currency in its fundraising efforts.

"The currency has been gaining popularity as a mechanism for political donations since the fall of 2012, when a Republican New Hampshire state representative became the first major-party politician to accept Bitcoin donations. A libertarian candidate in North Dakota and an independent state senate candidate in Vermont also set up systems to accept Bitcoin donations in the fall. The Libertarian Party of Canada began accepting Bitcoin in March."

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/the-libertarian-party-is-now-accepting-bitcoin-donations/274935/
'via Blog this'

Libertarian Party of Canada now accepting donations in Bitcoin

Libertarian Party now accepting donations in Bitcoin (BTC) :: Wire Service Media:

March 22, 2013 - "The Libertarian Party is now accepting donations in Bitcoin (BTC) (1). The most significant advantages of Bitcoin are that the amount of Bitcoin is finite (2), and the software is open source (meaning anyone can read and understand exactly how the software works). Consequently, the amount of Bitcoin cannot be expanded -all current day government currencies are expanding their currency. Expanding currency, also called 'quantitative easing' or 'inflation' is the worst way that government makes money - the other two are through taxes and borrowing. Inflation hurts lower income families the most. The Bank of Canada is continually expanding the supply of Canadian dollars and the Canadian dollar is continually losing value. As the dollar is devalued, the price of goods and services tend to go up, resulting in an insidious tax on the productive working citizen."

Read more: http://www.wireservice.ca/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=9983
'via Blog this'

A libertarian nightmare: Bitcoin meets Big Government

A libertarian nightmare: Bitcoin meets Big Government - Salon.com - Andrew Leonard:

March 22, 2013 - "Bitcoins are ... a form of monetary exchange invented in 2009 by a mysterious character who called himself “Satoshi Nakamoto” but then disappeared.... Bitcoins are undeniably cool: marvelously “mined” from the ore of computer processing power and electricity.... Bitcoin is the fulfillment of a libertarian dream, a currency created out of the workings of the free market, unaffiliated with any state authority, respectful and protective of user privacy and anonymity, and designed to resist inflationary pressures.

"That’s all fine and dandy, but then here comes the government with its strong suggestion that any organization that facilitates the exchange of Bitcoins into other non-virtual currencies needs to register with the proper authorities....

"The more popular Bitcoin gets, whether as a symbol of resistance or a perceived safe haven in financially troubled times, the more government attention it will inevitably draw, and the more inexorably it will be sucked into existing regulatory structures."

Read more: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/22/a_libertarian_nightmare_bitcoin_meets_big_government/
'via Blog this'