
An NSA-Proof Twitter, Built With Code From Bitcoin and BitTorrent - RougeFemme
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/01/twister/
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PeterWhittaker
_NSA proof_

So a system hacked together by a few clever people is somehow proof against an
organization that owns more computer hardware and employs more Ph.D.
mathematicians than pretty much anyone else, _and_ has access to most of the
fibre through which most of the worlds' IP traffic flows?

Sure. I am also interested in the bridge, the swamp, and helping you deposit
those millions into my account, to whom should I post my most intimate
personal details?

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Sanddancer
The math for systems like this is pretty well vetted; considering that DHTs
have been used in a number of projects for over a decade, any flaw that the
NSA knows about almost certainly would have spilled out into the rest of the
world by now. There are theoretical attacks against portions of this -- the
51% attack against the bittorrent protocol for signing IDs -- but in practice,
they'd be very very difficult to actually pull off. Yes, a "few people"
implemented it, but it's all pieces that have been vetted elsewhere.

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dlsym
And I thought Twitter was all about screaming out information for the whole
world to see. An "NSA proof" version seems pretty pointless to me.

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Sanddancer
Dictators hate seeing the image of their harmonious society shattered by
people telling it like it is. China, Iran, etc, block twitter because they let
people speak their minds with less fear of retribution. An NSA-proof version
means they can't do anything to ensure that everyone toes the party line.

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maaarghk
When they say NSA proof they are referring to the fact that they cannot insert
backdoors easily due to the distributed nature [0] - it's just WIRED spinning
the title.

[0]: [http://twister.net.co/?page_id=25](http://twister.net.co/?page_id=25)

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maaarghk
The idea of using a blockchain to verify users seems really clever - it makes
the barrier to entry extremely low. I hope we see a thing like this for
diaspora so we can have rich social features without facebook. Maybe I am just
an optimist

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jackgavigan
Everytime I see something like this announced, I always wonder to myself why
people don't just use Retroshare?

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rthomas6
People on Reddit are asking why they should use this instead of Namecoin,
which doesn't allow you to spam users in exchange for "mining".

I think the only real benefit of this Twister is that it's easy to understand
and probably easier to use, which helps adoption.

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hershel
I think they use something like namecoin to store usernames and public
keys,and laso increasing the number of registered users from 20 millin in
namecoin which is quite limited, and combine it with a distributed dB for
message storage and anonymous networking.

Also adding advertising as paymemt for security is smart and I could see it
enabling companies in that area.

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venomsnake
I hope that folks at the NSA don't know about the 51% bitcoin attack.

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aortega
Haha what? Theres a reason NSA didn't tap twitter fibers, it doesn't need to.
By his very nature Twitter is completely public.

This is a bunch of trendy words mixed together to grab eyes.

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tempodox
If it worked, it would become USA's Public Enemy #1 in no time. After all,
anything that precludes the NSA from penetrating your sphincter is terrorist's
work, right?

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j2labs
NSA-proof? The willingness to say this makes it suspect. _shrug_

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dcc1
Who is to say NSA are not "Satoshi Nakamoto" after all the code is of very
high quality that was likely done by a team not a single person.

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StavrosK
It doesn't really matter if Nakamoto really is the NSA (maybe "Satoshi" is the
middle name and his first name is even Aaron, making the initials NSA, did
anyone ever think of that?!), the protocol is open and any weaknesses or
backdoors would eventually be discovered.

