My first livestream in 4 months, but this is a topic worth going live about.
There are currently 2 bills in Congress that are trying to destroy privacy and freedom of speech on the internet.
The “EARN IT” bill would have internet “best practices” determined by a commission, and the “Lawful access to encrypted data act” would put backdoors in all of your software and devices.
Attorney General Bill Barr says the government should have access to everything, that “companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content,”
If a company’s system is private and doesn't have a back door, according to these laws they can be required to redesign their system.
The “lawful access to encrypted data act” would create a chilling effect on society. When people know their actions and words are no longer private: They self-censor. They conform and live in fear. A surveilled society is a repressed society, and we are dangerously close to having every part of our lives observed.
Officials like to say surveillance is for the “good of the nation”, but they mean the nation state, ie it helps the people in power keep their power. They don’t mean for the good of the citizens. In fact, weakening the privacy of every citizen makes us all much worse off.
Luckily there are many people fighting this bill, including Crystal Rose, CEO of Sense chat, a private messaging platform.
She shares what is most insidious about this bill, and what she's doing to fight it. If you’d like to help also, reach out to members of Congress to tell them to leave our digital security alone:
https://act.eff.org/action/stop-the-earn-it-bill-before-it-breaks-encryption
If you would like to send me a superchat in crypto, visit https://cointr.ee/naomibrockwell
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Huge thank you to all the supporters who keep this channel running!
It's interesting that politicians actually need to "do something" about encryption. Good sign that breaking existing encryption is not trivial for 3 letter agencies! At least we have that.
These kinds of issues of control and capture are why "permissionless" is the root property of crypto and the main reason I think Bitcoin Cash is unique. While many things look permissionless today in crypto, it will not necessarily stay that way as we move forward in history.