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posted by takyon on Friday November 02 2018, @08:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the Doge-coin-in-my-wallet dept.

From the very richest Forbes Magazine (reprint) come news of a nefarious plot:

There's no better example of the power, and the terror, inspired by blockchain than Gab.com, the social network used by the accused Pittsburgh synagogue gunman to threaten Jews.

About a month and a half before the alleged gunman made good on those threats by opening fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue and killing 11 people, Gab submitted paperwork to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $10 million via an initial coin offering (ICO). The offering, dated September 18, 2018, has so far received commitments to raise $5.6 million in capital for the "free speech" social network, which is a favorite of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other members of the "alt-right."

Since the shooting on Saturday, Gab has been shut down by a host of mainstream services including payment processors Stripe and Paypal, Web-hosting company Joyent and briefly, domain registry GoDaddy. But that might not matter, because Gab has already taken the first step toward freeing itself from dependence on traditional infrastructure and support mechanisms, thanks to its funding via the ethereum blockchain. Ultimately Gab's goal is to build an entire ecosystem beyond the reach of centralized authorities—whether Facebook, Twitter or venture capitalists—making it nearly indestructible. On this, the tenth anniversary of the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper, which gave birth to bitcoin, Gab epitomizes the darker consequences of his vision.

[...] Gab can also use other blockchain services if mainstream providers try to kick it off the internet by refusing to provide critical services. If Gab needs to replace GoDaddy for domain service (the addresses people use to find websites), Ethereum Name Service provides domains for decentralized applications built on the ethereum blockchain. Web hosting? No problem. Ethereum's Substratum provides a decentralized alternative to Joyent. Others have already pioneered the idea. PeepEth is a nascent ethereum-powered social network, and Mastadon is a blockchain-based Twitter.

Previously: Social Media and the Pittsburgh Shooter: Gab.com Going Down


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Non Sequor on Friday November 02 2018, @08:53PM (8 children)

    by Non Sequor (1005) on Friday November 02 2018, @08:53PM (#757072) Journal

    I can’t get worked up over Antifa. Antifa is simply the group of people who say “yes” to the question “who wants to go start a fight with some nazis?” That’s their defining attribute, and sure it produces some distinctive selection characteristics beyond that, but it’s really mostly about punching nazis.

    None of these alt-right groups is drawn together by anything as innocent as the desire to punch nazis. Some of their recruitment material reads more like “hey, wanna hang out with some nazis?” The alt-right is made up of the people who don’t answer “no, I don’t want to be around any nazis.” I’m just saying that most people want to stay away from that kind of thing and it’s hard not to have certain perceptions of people who don’t avoid or punch nazis.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @09:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @09:32PM (#757088)

    The whole outrage over Antifa really highlights the frozen water based nature of these people. Just a teensy bit of heated violence and they melt down all over.

    Not a word about abortion clinic bombing and such, and plenty of words supporting the Charlottesville guy.

    I pretty much always see liberals condemning violence from "the left" even condemning Antifa. Never see that from the right wing section, just saying.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @09:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @09:54PM (#757098)

    The biggest problem with Antifa is their definition of "Nazi", which seems to boil down to anyone they don't like at the moment.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 03 2018, @03:08AM (5 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 03 2018, @03:08AM (#757178) Journal

    None of these alt-right groups is drawn together by anything as innocent as the desire to punch nazis.

    This is typical demonization. I don't believe that is even slightly more innocent than wanting to hang out with Nazis.

    • (Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Saturday November 03 2018, @11:17AM (4 children)

      by Non Sequor (1005) on Saturday November 03 2018, @11:17AM (#757242) Journal

      Captain America and Wonder Woman lunch nazis.

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      • (Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Saturday November 03 2018, @11:21AM

        by Non Sequor (1005) on Saturday November 03 2018, @11:21AM (#757243) Journal

        Captain America and Wonder Woman lunch nazis

        Dang it

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      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 03 2018, @11:40AM (2 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 03 2018, @11:40AM (#757246) Journal
        Add "nazi" to the end of the label you use to describe something. Then punch it in the face! What could be more Nazi than that?
        • (Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Saturday November 03 2018, @01:05PM (1 child)

          by Non Sequor (1005) on Saturday November 03 2018, @01:05PM (#757265) Journal

          Add "nazi" to the end of the label you use to describe something. Then punch it in the face! What could be more Nazi than that?

          When people say “nazis” these days, they’re talking about people who literally attended the Unite the Right rally or people who are edges away from Richard Spencer on the social graph. Seinfeld’s “soup nazi” bit came from a more innocent era, and I would not condone punching the restaurateur that character was based on.

          Second, “nazi punching” has a civil disobedience component. Antifa specifically tries to provoke the first punch (a tactic dating back to the groups that fought white supremacists handing out pamphlets at punk rock shows) but these are people willing to spend time in jail for a political statement.

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          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday November 04 2018, @10:24PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 04 2018, @10:24PM (#757748) Journal

            When people say “nazis” these days, they’re talking about people who literally attended the Unite the Right rally or people who are edges away from Richard Spencer on the social graph.

            So what? It's still more of the "soup nazi" game except that that the rules have been enlarged to allow said punching.

            Second, “nazi punching” has a civil disobedience component. Antifa specifically tries to provoke the first punch

            By punching first, let us note.