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Edward Snowden Slams Sam Altman's Worldcoin: 'Don't Catalogue Eyeballs'

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Re: Edward Snowden Slams Sam Altman's Worldcoin: 'Don't Catalogue Eyeballs'

#161

Post by denton-scratch »

booleandilemma wrote: post #117

“A new, collectively owned global currency that will be distributed fairly to as many people as possible.” Let’s ignore the fuzzy utopia talk and pretend that this is just a creepy plot to get a hash of every single person’s eyeballs. What’s Sam’s next move? What do you do when you have the hash of everyone’s eyes?

My guess is that the shitcoin is a distraction; the real project is to make a better iris scanner. I can see nothing even slightly attractive about this shitcoin, but you can patent and sell a better iris scanner.

Re: Edward Snowden Slams Sam Altman's Worldcoin: 'Don't Catalogue Eyeballs'

#163

Post by arcticbull »

fleddr wrote: post #133
tromp wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Late adopters do not have equal opportunity when the coin distribution is heavily biased toward initial years. Imagine if half of all gold on earth was already mined in the first 4 years (and over 99% in the first 27 years) of gold mining millenia ago.

Correct, but that does not mean its unfair. It just means being late, in the same way that I didn't buy early Apple stock. Nothing prevented me from buying that stock, the opportunity was equal at the time. Whilst anybody is forgiven for not knowing about the very start of BTC at some obscure mailing list, since then there has been a decade of mainstream media exposure, a huge amount of time to acquire BTC. Failing t…

> It just means being late, in the same way that I didn't buy early Apple stock. Nothing prevented me from buying that stock, the opportunity was equal at the time.

Sure, and that's fine for equity but really bad for currency.

> Whilst anybody is forgiven for not knowing about the very start of BTC at some obscure mailing list, since then there has been a decade of mainstream media exposure, a huge amount of time to acquire BTC. Failing to make use of this enormous time window is on the individual.

Again, totally fine for equity, shameful for currency.

Re: Edward Snowden Slams Sam Altman's Worldcoin: 'Don't Catalogue Eyeballs'

#165

Post by TechBro8615 »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #47
drexlspivey wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First, retina scanning output hash is deterministic - it is supposed to generate the same result for the same eyeball. So it can't be replaced with random number generation. His argument is valid, what stops you from replacing the retina scan with a random hash replicating a different person scanning each time and collecting new tokens? What ties the hash to the actual retina other than the device that you can mess…

DRM magic inside the Orb.

Quality shitpost.

We’ve really come full circle when a blockchain relies on DRM to work.

Re: Edward Snowden Slams Sam Altman's Worldcoin: 'Don't Catalogue Eyeballs'

#167

Post by NoGravitas »

astoor wrote: post #46

This is just so wrong in so many different ways, it actually fills me with despair to think that there are people somewhere who actually think this is in some ways a good idea. To the point of wondering if there is some way of organising more direct action to stop this kind of disaster from befalling the human race.

I should think the types of direct action needed against crypto scams are pretty straightforward, but I also think site policy largely prevents me from elaborating on them here.

Re: Edward Snowden Slams Sam Altman's Worldcoin: 'Don't Catalogue Eyeballs'

#168

Post by zamadatix »

teddyh wrote: post #124

“Slams”? What’s next, “Owns”? “Epic takedown”? These exaggerated headlines, I swear.

I love them, it's a good filter for me which signals I should go find a more original source, or at least better analysis, should I be interested in the topic.

Same with intentionally vague headlines. One this morning was "Why you should avoid this large European country after latest CDC update". It's a great signal that the article is full of fluff wording and unlikely to add useful additional insight and if I really care I should go check the CDC news bulletins for the actual news.

Re: Edward Snowden Slams Sam Altman's Worldcoin: 'Don't Catalogue Eyeballs'

#169

Post by chriswarbo »

fleddr wrote: post #142
mempko wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not here to support worldcoin because I think it's a bad idea. However, proof-of-work is also a bad idea. What bitcoin is is a decentralized clock rewarding random machines every tick. It produces bad dynamics. Parento distribution of reward, huge amount of energy waste. All so rich people (Yes, most bitcoin is held by a few rich people) can transfer wealth. It's a stupid idea. You can appreciate it's simplicity…

It's not a stupid idea. It's the invention of digital scarcity. It is supposed to be real world costly. High energy use in itself is not the issue, it's CO2 emissions. Energy can be locally abundant, renewable, yet remote, hard to transport to civilization. That would be an idealistic example of sustainable mining. Bitcoin mining isn't fully at that level of sustainability yet, but it's a solvable problem. Bitcoin is…

> Bitcoin mining isn't fully at that level of sustainability yet, but it's a solvable problem.

No it's not.

These sorts of arguments fundamentally misunderstand the Sisyphean design of Bitcoin's proof-of-work algorithm: difficulty is scaled to absorb any changes in hash power, and expending hash power is rewarded with a chance of minting coins and/or collecting fees.

Bitcoin could be made sustainable and clean today, with no extra infrastructure, no optimised hardware, no new solar panel breakthrough, etc.: miners simply have to turn off their equipment, then difficulty will adjust downwards, and Bitcoin would become efficient enough to run off a solar-powered RaspberryPi.

That won't happen; and for exactly the same reason miners won't stop burning cheap fossil fuels as well as diverting as much renewable power as they can away from useful projects like electrified transport, desalination, aluminium smelting, HVAC, etc.

Re: Edward Snowden Slams Sam Altman's Worldcoin: 'Don't Catalogue Eyeballs'

#170

Post by EMM_386 »

djbusby wrote: post #159
EMM_386 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wouldn't call the coin distribution fair if the creators can allocate arbitrary amounts to themselves, which the Worldcoin creators appear able to do. I'm certainly not defending any of this … however, it should be noted that "creators can allocate arbitrary amounts to themselves" is a typical thing even in regulated markets. Notice how Trump's new social media became a public company through a SPAC? The man behi…

This one: https://www.complex.com/life/new-jersey-deli-valued-at-100-m...

That's the one. Why I'm at -1 at the moment for that comment is beyond me. It could be because I am commenting on a site where VCs play similar games.

I only deal with facts.

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