JWRD Computing and Conservatorio S.A. are hosting : Identity, Money and Banking in the Internet Age, an educational and social event at La Manzana in Casco Viejo, Thursday, February 10th, 2022.
Many "Fintech" events talk about web and mobile apps and meanwhile completely ignore Bitcoin. Many "Bitcoin" and "Crypto" events talk about what might happen in the future and as such are often rapt in hype and speculation. This event is focused on explaining what has happened already, what tools are available today and what power they allow the literate operator to wield. In other words, rather than talk about what might be, someday, maybe, we'll explain and demonstrate what the tools are and how they're used.
Presenters :
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Robinson Dorion | CEO JWRD Computing ; Owner of Dorion Mode ; Web of Trust : dorion |
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Johan Castellanos | CFO of MAT ; JWRD Training Client |
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Felipe Echandi | CEO of Cuanto ; Secretario, Superintendencia de Bancos de Panama ; Owner of Latino Futurismo |
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Jacob Welsh | CTO JWRD Computing ; Owner of Fixpoint; Web of Trust : jfw |
Theme :
Legal asset protection instruments have played an integral role in the development of the Panamanian economy, from Sociedad Anomimas to Private Interest Foundations. Yet, custodial capture and chronic pressures from bankrupt parties abroad have resulted in information leaks as a standard practice and subsequently one of Panama's key competitive edges has been dulled. With the 21st century over 20% complete, the market has forged cutting edge asset protection tools and the rules of the game have shifted towards mathematical verifiability and alodial title ; this event will showcase such math and computing tools and explain how they're used to increase ownership and control over one's key data and communications.
Presentations :
2022-02-22 Update : links to the videos and slides have been included for each presentation.
The fundamentals of Bitcoin by Robinson Dorion
- How does Bitcoin compare to other global currencies and settlement systems ?
- How does Bitcoin rank in terms of computing power globally ?
- Why is Bitcoin's energy consumption a strength ?
- How does Bitcoin compare to other assets in terms of risk adjusted returns ?
- How did Bitcoin finance bootstrap a math based identity and credit rating system ?
- Video ; Slides
Information Theory and Decentralized Identities by Johan Castellanos
- Introduction and highlights of A Mathematical Theory of Communication by Claude Shannon
- Why are independently generated, cryptographic identities superior to centrally generated, state issued identities for Internet usage ?
- Video ; Slides
Individual Sovereignty in the Internet Age by Felipe Echandi
Practical and Elite Key Management Tools by Jacob Welsh
- What are practical steps to keep private information private while maintaining communications over the net ? A demonstration of an Airgapped system.
- How have the components of counter party risk changed in the computer driven, Internet age ?
- Demonstration of cryptographic entropy generation.
- Video ; Slides
Venue : El Teatro de La Manzana
Logistics :
- Time & Date : 10 am on Thursday, February 10th, 2022
- Location : La Manzana, Casco Viejo ; complimentary valet parking (link to map).
- Format : 45 minute presentations interspersed with complimentary coffee/tea breaks and lunch. Networking happy hour following.
- Cost : $150/ticket.
- Payment Methods : Bitcoin, Cash, Check, Bank Transfer, Cuanto
- RSVP : send an email to sales (at) jwrd.net to RSVP and indicate payment preference. Payment must be received to confirm reservation.
- Reservations are also accepted via Eventbrite(i).
Come take a nourishing bite from the apple of knowledge.
- Eventbrite fees are paid by buyer, just as Bitcoin network fees are paid by buyer. For those keeping score at home, at current market rates, (~1000 satoshi/kB) Bitcoin is cheaper than Eventbrite for the buyer on a tx fee qua tx fee basis. [^]
I would be nice if this event address the (n-1) nodes computational power waste of energy consumption in the race to calculate the nonce in the PoW of Bitcoin, and posibilities of that becoming a usefull PoW alternative in the future.
Comment by Roberto Jose Cerrud — January 20, 2022 @ 19:55
@Roberto Jose Cerrud
Nothing in the universe has an objective quality of useful or wasteful. Whether one thing is a "waste" or "useful" is only an opinion of those with agency. To me, the energy consumption of mining nodes is extremely useful, as it secures the system which I use to store my money that I in turn use to feed myself.
If miners were to get something of value from mining other than bitcoins, it would become more economically feasible for a group to perform a 51% attack. Let's take a hypothetical example of protein folding, as I have heard people argue that bitcoin mining would be more beneficial to the world if the mining rigs were simultaneously solving equations that allowed us to better understand the ways proteins configure.
In this hypothetical example, a drug dealer may find that the output of this protein folding work is very valuable to him, as he realizes that with the data generated he will be able to develop soma the wonder drug that causes serotonin to flow through the human body without any short/long term side effects. This drug would be so popular, that the drug dealer would easily be able to sell it to over half the world's population, and generate an unfathomable fortune in doing so.
In this scenario, the results of this protein folding to the drug dealer are much more valuable to him than the btcs generated in the process. He decides he has the best product on the market, soma, so he may as well issue print his own currency and accept it as the only form of payment to get his soma. His only currency competitor is bitcoin, and well, he can easily mess with the block history since he controls 51% of the mining.
I understand that the above is a highly contrived example, but the fact remains that any external value gained from bitcoin mining weakens the security provided by the incentive structure of bitcoin.
Comment by whaack — January 28, 2022 @ 20:08
@Roberto Jose Cerrud
Which problem is this you're referring to ? Mind linking ?
As far as "waste" , Bitcoin's computational power expenditure yields at least two useful things 1) a block reward to he who finds the block and 2) security for the network.
Bitcoin's longstanding lead in computing is indeed a problem its enemies, for Bitcoin is here to consume their proverbial lunch and more, for Bitcoin preserves property rights while its enemies/competition do not.
@whaack Setting aside the soma example there and focusing on:
Two historical counter examples came to mind : 1) outmaneuvering capital controls and 2) booking tax deductible losses while pocketing the BTC.
These are both "something of value" accessible to miners in various jurisdictions that aren't BTC qua BTC, yet an enduring 51% attack we've not seen.
Now to your example :
How do you reason that a drug will be more valuable than money itself ?
If he's to bootstrap a currency out of this, will he make it open source ? If not, how will he get people to trust it ? Cause they want the magic pill so bad ? Plenty of people's lives are just fine without this magic pill and they can carry on with plain old btc. Even if the main plug only takes his own currency, surely there will be a secondary market of bulk buyers that resell for straight BTC. How will this magic pill algo lead to him controlling enough BTC hash to mess with Bitcoin. Is he still using sha256 ? Is it something else ?
While we agree that Bitcoin hashing isn't a waste, but in fact highly useful, I'm not to the point where I accept as fact that an external value gained from mining weakens Bitcoin security, maybe you could clarify your thought there and change my mind though.
In any case, Cheers !
Comment by Robinson Dorion — January 29, 2022 @ 02:01
@Robinson Dorion
I would argue that the external value obtained via mining in the scenarios you described are simply not enough relative to the value of the btc themselves to put a threat to the security of the network. The point I was trying to make with the hypothetical scenario is that should there ever be an immense external value gained from mining, then the game theory security model is put at risk.
> If he's to bootstrap a currency out of this, will he make it open source ? If not, how will he get people to trust it ? Cause they want the magic pill so bad ?
Yes, the idea was that they want the pill so bad they will use his currency. I admit this is a scenario that I do not myself believe could ever possibly happen, so suffice to say I question whether making these unrealistic hypothetical scenarios helps me prove my point or reason about anything.
> Plenty of people's lives are just fine without this magic pill and they can carry on with plain old btc. Even if the main plug only takes his own currency, surely there will be a secondary market of bulk buyers that resell for straight BTC. How will this magic pill algo lead to him controlling enough BTC hash to mess with Bitcoin. Is he still using sha256 ? Is it something else ?
I didn't specify whether he uses sha256, but I imagine that if in fact one was to find some use out of mining, the network would need to hard fork to switch algos. In reality, it's true that in order to 51% attack you need 51% of sha256 hash power, which is not something one can easily obtain even if they have the ability to print fiat money to themselves.
Comment by whaack — January 29, 2022 @ 21:37
After some back-and-forth on the merits of sharing versus withholding to sell, we've opted for the former; slides and artisanally h264-encoded recordings of all four presentations are up on jwrd.net.
The event was a good time by all reports, with some learning, some fun, good food, drink and networking. We didn't sell out the house but had a respectable 25 paid attendees plus the presenters and staff. As the venue closed before sunset, the after-party moved on to a nearby Blue Moon pub and hung together until around 8pm.
Technical difficulties we weathered included a laggy slide clicker, a power outage halfway through Felipe's talk (apparently that's what happens on the borderlands of the old town when it rains) and the transition to a previously-tested HDMI hookup provided by the A/V crew failing on me at the critical moment for no explicable reason.
Comment by Jacob Welsh — February 22, 2022 @ 18:37
Thank you Jacob. The article body has been updated with direct links for videos and slides.
Comment by Robinson Dorion — February 22, 2022 @ 21:10
I am very interested in learning.
Comment by Ashley — March 22, 2022 @ 01:38
@Ashley
Cool, feel free to ask a smart question.
Comment by Robinson Dorion — March 22, 2022 @ 02:01
I am very interested in learning about the subject.
Comment by Ashley — March 22, 2022 @ 02:20
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