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daopunk
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Building privacy and governance tools on Aztec and Ethereum

But doesn't this run on home servers instead of client-relay network? In that case Comm, using Keyservers, already exists (although the web3 part of Comm is severely lacking).

Farcaster built on Ethereum, and other blockchain-based social media networks use the blockchain for the wrong purpose; the blockchain was designed to solve the "double-spend" problem. It's important to not double spend money and votes, but beyond financial, governance, and token-based access control systems, the blockchain is simply overkill.

Social media does not suffer from the "double-spend" problem - if anything, the concept of "going viral" is literally the opposite of preventing a double spend. Social media posts are not scarce and should be "spent" as much as user engagement permits. All that matters is that we can verify the owner/creator of the post, so they receive credit for their contribution (unless they want to remain anon).

For this reason, Nostr applications will outgrow Farcaster and other purely blockchain-based social media apps!

Replying to Avatar White Noise

Privacy isn’t a crime fighting strategy. It’s a human right.

On Oct 14, EU governments are slated to vote on ‘Chat Control.’

The pitch is child protection. The reality is scanning everyone’s private messages and weakening end-to-end encryption.

679 scientists from 36 countries have signed an open letter explaining why this won’t work and will make us less safe.

Their bottom line:

- Large-scale CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) detection cannot reach acceptable accuracy. It’s easy to evade and floods systems with false positives.

- On-device scanning breaks E2EE by design, creating single points of failure and new targets for abuse.

- Expanding “mitigations” (AI filters, age checks) adds complexity and risk, not security.

(Find the full letter in the comments)

Why mass scanning is the wrong tool:

1. It flips the presumption of innocence. Treating every citizen like a suspect is not “safety”. It’s surveillance.

2. It’s the bedroom-camera problem. Putting spyware on every phone to catch a few criminals is like installing cameras in every bedroom to prevent murders. We all want to stop harm. Violating the privacy of millions of innocents isn’t the way.

3. Function creep is inevitable. Once the scanning pipeline exists, it can be re-tuned for politics, speech, and power. Borders shift, laws change. What’s legal here may be criminal elsewhere. Who draws the line next year?

4. You can’t “re-secure” leaked data. Privacy is protective armor, not a PR setting. Once stripped, it’s gone.

đŸ‘ïž The cypherpunk lesson:

As Eric Hughes wrote, “Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age.”

Cypherpunks didn’t ask for permission. they wrote code so ordinary people could have the same defensive tech that institutions take for granted.

That’s not a niche hobby. It’s democratic hygiene.

đŸ«¶ Better ways to protect children (and everyone) :

Real protection doesn’t require blanket surveillance. It needs education, prevention, faster takedowns, resourced investigators (with warrants and due process), targeted operations (against offenders, not dragnet scans of the innocent).

These are exactly the pathways experts (and the UN) recommend: effective, proportionate, and rights-preserving.

đŸ’Ș Build the free, private stack:

We already have tools that defend both safety and liberty without backdoors:

- Bitcoin for open, borderless payments.

- Nostr to own your identity and content.

- White Noise for truly private messaging: no phone numbers, no emails, end-to-end encryption with forward secrecy and post-compromise security.

This isn’t about ‘nothing to hide.’

It’s about the power to live, speak, organize, report, and dissent without pre-approval.

A controlled population is not a free population.

And a free society is the best long-term defense against abuse and corruption alike.

After P2P private group communications, we need ZK voting integrated from Aztec blockchain and SFT-based roles management systems for sybil-resistant voting in these private groups. Governable private tactical tools to fight authoritarianism and the surveillance-security state!

Curtis Yarvin's Urbit and Balaji's Network State are framed as democratic on the basis of decentralization, but are incredibly monarchic; obey or leave. It's like saying you oppose the Roman Empire, but welcome the Dark Ages where Feudal Lords reigned over peasant serfs.

This "if you don't like it then leave" mentality is one of total privilege and complete individualism. Many Bitcoiners unfortunately are libertarian individualists who only oppose MEGACORP in favor of their own CORP, their own rule, and their own people.

Decentralization != Democracy

Gen Z voted in a revolutionary new government using a Discord poll... We could do so much better with Discord-similar tooling built on Nostr and integrated with ZK voting and roles-management systems on EVM or Aztec networks. NFT token gating for sybil resistance in voting applications that use ZK proofs to protect the preferences of voters. Decentralized, immutable, private governance integrating the social aspects of Nostr and the governance capabilities of blockchains nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7enfd36x2u3wdehhxarj9emkjmn9qyw8wumn8ghj76twv3jhsetj9e3k7unpvdkx2tnnda3kjctvqqspwwwexlwgcrrnwz4zwkze8rq3ncjug8mvgsd96dxx6wzs8ccndmcqdslk3