On Trust

There has been a fair amount of effort on UCAN (User Controlled Authorization Networks), and other types of ‘decentralized credentials’ over the last couple years. These efforts perpetuate the same control structures that exist today, with delegated trees of hierarchical control. This is in contrast to a personal or ‘decentralized’ trust we might hope for… Continue reading On Trust

Retrieval Constraints

A couple months ago I wrote up some of the edges that I’ve encountered in thinking about how to structure decentralized data transfer systems. These are an extension of the limitations that were initially encountered in bittorrent style tit-for-tat exchanges, and have now matured into a much more extensive field looking at incentives and other… Continue reading Retrieval Constraints

Private Retrieval

It’s very exciting to have a public face to the thoughts around how to enable effective private access to data. Research Announcement The basic hypothesis here is that there’s a high-leverage opportunity to attract thought around scaling the range of anonymous database or data transfer techniques to reach something with better properties that the systems… Continue reading Private Retrieval

Unlocking North Korean Karaoke

I recently got the opportunity to understand what was going on with a Tianchi android KTV console with north korean content loaded on it. A description of the encryption and evolution of DRM protections associated with the device is published on the North Korea Tech blog.

Corporate Censorship

One of the most interesting lines of inquiry within the Censored Planet project at the University of Michigan is trying to pull apart the different actors involved in Internet  censorship. One of the interesting quirks is that a significant factor in why content might not be available to users is that the web publisher themselves… Continue reading Corporate Censorship

HOPE

I’m excited to see a bunch of friends next week at HOPE, an annual New York conference in the same vein as CCC. I’ll be participating in a panel on Internet Censorship on Friday morning, with a fantastic group of co-panelists. The talk recording is available here.

Open Letter to the Cuba Internet Task Force

The following is a response to an invitation to participate in the recently formed Cuba Internet Task Force. Task Force Representatives: I will not be joining the Cuba Internet Task Force, or Subcommittees, because I believe the harm done by the existence of these committees outweighs any potential benefit of the recommendations that can come… Continue reading Open Letter to the Cuba Internet Task Force