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How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

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Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#391
post #2

Author here. I've tried to keep the article as apolitical as possible, while giving some context to provide the setting. Anyway, I'm very interested in knowing if the used crypto is sound or not, and stirring a discussion around possible alternative approaches. Ask me anything if you want to know further!

Althought crypto is not hard to beat, specially knowing some user data, that is not also an issue.

The only information you would get by knowing some of that data is where somebody is supposed to vote. An information you can already infer from the Zip code. There are, at most, four possible voting sites for each zip code. In some (several) small/medium villages there is only one voting site, so, not to much to learn from decrypting.

Besides, the census (voting places) information is usually (in normal elections), placed (via paper printed listings) on voting places. And there there is more information (full name, for example).

Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn’t this the succession war between Habsburg and Borbon dynasties? I’ve seen some depictions in paintings [1] where you can see soldiers from the Habsburg (wearing the Catalan berretinas) porting a Spanish flag... I believe it was more a war for two different models for Spain, not for independence or anything like that. Sounds like revisionism to me. [1] http://www.msde.es/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/2-Embarque-de-…

That wasn't the Spanish flag until 70 years later, in 1785.

Apparently the flag in the image posted was Photoshoped. The Spanish flag in 1714 was white, both for Habsburgs and Bourbons. Looks like flag revisionism to me.

Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#393
post #364
post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not often I find myself agreeing with a UK unionist but it's a point of honour that the Scottish referendum 2014 passed off largely as an orderly point of democracy. Westminster is often seen as heavy-handed North of the border but everyone is proud of that expression of democracy (however there are still words to be had about subsequent political events!).

At least the UK gov't wasn't banning Scottish referendum websites.

Because was a legal referendum from the UK government, it's very different with the Catalonia referendum

Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure it can. It already meets all the requirements to be a member, EU law is ingrained in Catalan law, it has the ability to negotiate and state structures. It just needs to be an independent country. It would be better to be in the EU, but meanwhile that happens some bilateral trade deals with the EU should be relatively easy to accomplish. If you're referring to recognition as a country, that's a separate and huge…

Re. that being worse than Brexit, I definitely agree. But one of the requirements for entering the EU is unanimous approval from the other countries. That is not going to happen for Catalunya.

>That is not going to happen for Catalunya.

Which makes think about the ramifications for the future of the EU with a yes vote in the referendum.

A relatively prosperous region in on the European subcontinent that agrees to succeed will embroil the EU with more political and economic turmoil than it already has, and open the subcontinent up to more non EU influence.

Might be a boon for multinational corporations and some governments who have something to gain from a weaker EU.

At least something tells me that the recent former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the US State Dept words from a leaked phone conversation on the EU a couple years ago probably stands true today of the perspective some powerful people have in the world on the EU…

Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#395

As an outsider, it's strange that nobody here seems to question whether the referendum really makes sense. Forgetting about Catalonia for a moment, isn't it fundamentally amoral that a part of the country where prosperity has (by mere chance) concentrated suddenly wants to split off? Isn't this taking wealth-inequality to the next level? Of course the people in a prosperous part of the country want to split off. Abso…

Catalan here. There are historic and cultural reasons to split also. The economic rationale behind your post is absolutely correct. However we don't want to split because we don't want to share; we want to split because of the missuse and economic opression and the unending corruption that plagues Spain. We don't think ourselves of so-prosperous at all in that sense - and at the same time I'll admit corruption is alw…

And Pujol(ex president of Catalonia with money in Andorra, and some of his son in jail) cases? The 3% percent... From Huelva to Girona all sucks and the corruption is everywhere. Pujol one day said: "if I talk everything is going to be destroyed" because everyone knows that the other stole money but nobody talk

Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#396
post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a native speaker, yes. You say "The Spanish Constitution says Catalonia is a nationality". It does indeed (emphasis mine): La Constitución se fundamenta en la indisoluble unidad de la Nación española , patria común e indivisible de todos los españoles, y reconoce y garantiza el derecho a la autonomía de las nacionalidades y regiones que la integran y la solidaridad entre todas ellas. The Andalusian estatuto almos…

That's the thing: The Andalusian hasn't been challenged, while the Catalan is scrutinized to the detail and the party that's now in government gathers 4 million signatures against it: https://elpais.com/elpais/2006/04/25/actualidad/1145953019_8... (They wanted all Spain to vote on the Catalan Estatut!!! Would they do that for all regions???)

Maybe no one has challenged it because they don't see a problem with it?

Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#397
post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least the UK gov't wasn't banning Scottish referendum websites.

Because was a legal referendum from the UK government, it's very different with the Catalonia referendum

The notion of a referendum being "illegal" is farcical. No democracy should prohibit people from deciding to get together and conduct a poll on something.

Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#398
post #2

Author here. I've tried to keep the article as apolitical as possible, while giving some context to provide the setting. Anyway, I'm very interested in knowing if the used crypto is sound or not, and stirring a discussion around possible alternative approaches. Ask me anything if you want to know further!

This may have been stated already, but the DNI final character is a control one, it can be computed from the characters and the algorithm is well-known. So there should be no need to brute-force it.

Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#399
post #311
post #3

"it is nearly-impossible for any actor to block access to this content because it is replicated around the network automatically, using peer-to-peer encrypted connections that would be very hard to identify and block at the ISP level. Maybe China could do it, but Spain definitely cannot." How would China do it?

Easy. First identify some hotspot user, send the police, prosecute one or two, and let the chilling effect finish the rest.

in this particular situation, this would actually encourage wider adoption due to the streisand effect

Re: How the Catalan government uses IPFS to sidestep Spain's legal block

#400
post #377
post #61

I just left Barcelona a couple hours ago, the capital of Catalonia. Everywhere you look, Catalan flags, signs demanding 'democracia', demanding freedom. I'm told this is just normal for the region, but if this is normal then independence is eventual.

Actually, only slightly less than 50% wants independence. They are very vocal though. Also, since education in Catalonia is entirely in Catalonian (also they have their own history books), and use of Spanish in public is heavily discouraged, children will grow up in a mostly Catalonian environment, which makes it likely that that percentage will grow over time.

> and use of Spanish in public is heavily discouraged

Would help to know (for non Catalans, specially) what you hint at. My parents talk in Spanish everywhere and to anyone they want to with no problems. Have done so for all her life for my mother and more than 40 years for my father.

I assume you mean that public offices and positions require knowing and using Catalan?

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