TrueCrypt.
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-mastermind
This series was one of the most fascinating reads I've ever enjoyed!
Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
31–40 of 146 posts
Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
#32Bitcoin
Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
#33the bible
What about the bible?
Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
#34I would imagine that lots of computer viruses and worms fit this description.
Some of the first polymorphic viruses had very advanced code translation engines, basically JITs before they were common. I wonder if any JIT concepts were invented there? One example is the DAME which stands for Dark Avenger Mutation Engine. It could recompile DOS viruses into equivalent but different machine code on the fly, including the mutation engine itself .
Link? That is super interesting to me.
Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
#35Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
#36anonymous 4chan user solving a 25 year old math problem
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18019464/4chan-anon-anim...
Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
#37The wheel is an uncredited invention that almost all of humanity uses multiple times a day.
That was also my immediate thought, although I suspect chances are good it was invented multiple times independently.
Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
#38the bible
Quite a few sections of both the Hebrew bible and the New Testament have scholarly consensus on authorship.
Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
#39The wheel is an uncredited invention that almost all of humanity uses multiple times a day.
It might be more interesting to limit answers to historical times.
Why? The original question makes no mention of this, not to mention that it might be cool to think about a bunch of inventions that have been with us for so long that we entirely take them for granted.
Re: Ask HN: Famous anonymous inventions other than Bitcoin?
#40I would imagine that lots of computer viruses and worms fit this description.
The same thing can be said about game/software cracking scene groups. I believe they were (still are?) at the forefront of practical reverse engineering techniques. An extension of that is the emulation scene, but that tends to be done in public for the most part.
I'm not sure it qualifies as an "invention", but they definitely do some incredible work. They're able to pull off full API emulations for things like Steam, Origin and even emulate UWP to a degree that allows applications to be run outside of the traditional UWP system. Professional reversers often use tools developed by crackers - things like x64dbg, ImpRec, unpacking scripts, etc are indispensable.
If it weren't for this community I'd feel far less in control of my own computer.