waxwing @waxwing@x0f.org

New release of Joinmarket (as mentioned on the weekend); it's fairly minor but if you're a user you should definitely update, and scan through the release notes too:

https://github.com/JoinMarket-Org/joinmarket-clientserver/releases/tag/v0.5.5

The first sentence of this report addresses the main point. It's quite remarkable how nasty the CCP is turning now. Does anyone even remember the two Canadians who were prosecuted out of spite?

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/britain-s-hong-kong-official-missing-in-china-was-nabbed-on-train-says-family-20190821-p52j4f.html

If Boneh and Shoup could go ahead and add a few more chapters to this, last edited ~ 2 years ago ...

https://toc.cryptobook.us/

... that would be nice.

This has a sort of glossary of key terms in zero knolwedge proof academic work:

https://zkproof.org/ZKProofCommunityReference.pdf

May be useful to some people who have tried to read academic papers on ZKP related stuff but stumbled over the initial definitions, which are a bit impenetrable at first.

That's actually quite heartening, in a way ... but also indicative of the impossibility of policing social media.

https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/information_operations_directed_at_Hong_Kong.html

After much too big a delay, I'll be putting out a new release of Joinmarket in the next few days. If anyone around here is a regular user and wants to help, please test current master - 36e834ff3f2f99fb48c0afe338a364ddaab783b4 (consider it a release candidate).

This twitter account 😂

https://twitter.com/WeWantPlates

For the non-mathematical side of the story, interesting blog post here:

https://medium.com/@juliakrivonosova/internet-voting-in-russia-how-9382db4da71f

Hat tip Jonas Nick on twitter, see this "crypto" epic fail:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1908.05127.pdf

Voting system developed in Moscow using 256 bit discrete log 🤦‍♂️

256 bit *elliptic curve* discrete log is standard; but finite field (just a multiplicative group) discrete log needs like 2048 bit (or at least 1024 let's say) to be secure; it's similar to RSA in that. At 256 bits you can crack the private keys using the Number Field Sieve in minutes on an ordinary PC.

The paper is short and worth a scan.

Banks are reverse ransomware.

Ransomware locks you out of your data and requires a payment to release it.

Banks lock you out of your money and require your private data to release it.

In both cases, there is no guarantee that they will honour their side of the contract, and sometimes, they just don't.

Related to the topic, here's an interesting link

https://debitpay.directory/

.. they have switched payment processor, but it seems to not actually work, I can't make a payment.

Now Cheapair, I had dismissed it since 2014 because flights appeared to be only bookable to/from US. But pleasant surprise: they have hotels, hotels can be booked with Bitcoin, and best of all - they use BtcPayServer 🎉

Hopefully this option remains viable for some time longer. Most everything good for BTC users is eventually killed.

So, about cheapair.com

If you want to book a hotel with bitcoin, things have changed a bit, it seems.

First, mid last year Expedia dropped Bitcoin for hotels (I know it's not news, but I forgot ... because they used Coinbase and I boycotted them for a year before that 😂 ).

Second, for Europeans, Destinia was always a viable option, but they were using Bitpay 🤢 ... and now the news is out that Bitpay will start doing KYC for purchases ... please let Bitpay die. Now, Destinia look like
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I guess almost everyone knows this but HK airport is one of, if not the, most important transit hubs in Asia.

Shutting down HK airport is big ... first question is whether the protestors really caused it or whether it's a cynical move to turn business and foreigners against them. But with it getting ugly on the streets they're running out of good options. Ghandian passive resistance seems to be slipping away.

McCormack's lawyers appear to have done a pretty good job here (only read the first 10-15 pages but it's already got the most important facts):

https://www.scribd.com/document/421285184/McCormack-s-Defense