Hey everyone. This origin post will be a bit lengthy but successive posts will be more consise and less about ME and more about pressing community issues.
I'm new to this mailing list and wanted to express where I'm at in my journey through cyberspace, amongst fellow explorers of the landscape. I've always been inclined towards computer science - dad brought the first computer home when i was 4, so I've grown up with the machines. It was only last year that I took a deeper plunge and began learning to code in C and C++ (for DSP - to build software synths) which opened up pandoras box, and its been an amazing journey of development so far. Bitcoin is the reason I am here - writing this message, feeling these feelings and thinking these thoughts. I have become a far more aware individual in the way I use a computer because of it. Bitcoin made cyber-security an important subject to consider - even from a very high level - regular user perspective. Data = value. If you don't realize it, someone else who has, WILL capitalize. From a very fundamental user perspective cyber security is simply 'stay vigilant!'. Even security in general, if you behave like an idiot in public, a metaphorical fist is just around the corner and directed right at your face! Don't download random shit you cant trust - do you really NEED this thing? There are several ways of verifying the authenticity of data you download from the internet - from checking hashes if provided - to using and anti-virus is you're on MS. Speaking of MS, balance must be reestablished with a few words on Linux. Privacy. The trust model in Linux and other open-source && || free software projects follows a natural law of distribution and decentralized ownership. If enough people use it, and enough professionals have audited it for their own personal sake, we place trust in these communities of individuals who themselves are using these products and therefore incentivized to support its development into its most efficient version. Technology built upon our current broken economic platform is bound to do a lot of damage - and with something as powerful as computers (intelligence) the consequences can be BAAAD. Our minds are under attack! Our virtues and humanity is being slowly corroded. This is why the free software movement is possibly the only hope humanity has from protecting us from ourselves and our manipulative nature. With companies in such a rush to push out new software to market and make profits - we are forgetting about certain fundamentals. Free software might not be as easy to use and pretty as their prop counterparts but does not come with the gigantic invisible opportunity cost of convenient proprietory software. This is changing the more developers join the community - and this is the need of the hour. MORE OPEN SOURCE DEVS! We have lost our sense of community! Lately, I've been on the hunt for work to build up some savings so I can travel again. I recently joined a blockchain company in India and ended up leaving within a week because like every other Tom Dick and Harry - these guys are just creating more shitcoins and unnecessary blockchain products that is just trying to ride this wave. No one at this company had ever mined a crypto or run a full node! I came in as a community member who wants to support the ecosystem - which starts with running a node. I understand them as a business, their interests are different but the least you can do is try to solve a real world problem. In their defence they do have a few good projects based on Lumens that aid in remittances which is an important service for India - but again, we've got bigger problems to be addressed in India. We need to work towards creating a better interface for the lowest class to get on the blockchain! I managed to get one of the guys at work to run a node and even that was just a VTC node - small sized blockchain so not too much of a deal breaker. Its a start, but it always comes back to BTC! With BTC under constant attack these days we need more honest nodes and more honest miners. It is because of Bitcoin that today I run a Linux only machine and pay attention and work on staying more vigilant about my behaviour online (in still lazy in many aspects, we get stronger in time). Bitcoin represents much more than just digital cash. Its a fundamental shift in the way we think about interacting with each other over cyberspace! Its ironic how free-software and open source is historically known to be financially a very unattractive path to take - and here we are with the same principles and ideologies building an entire new economic platform that is slowly and steadily providing financial independence to millions. Hopefully the community doesn't burn out and lose sight of the original mission. Its about decentralizing financial power. Centralized control is one of the major causes of poverty in our world! The solution has never been to throw more money at the problem - it required a fundamental change in the economic model that gives individuals FULL control over their capital! Currently the only way to achieve that is by running a crypto full node. BE your own bank! Your voice and validation is required for consensus! Ill close it here with a mention of the question I keep asking my self in computing. Do we really need it? For the regular computer user, what is the degree to which you really need the services you have subscribed to? I'm an electronic music producer by profession - ive been using Ableton Live for 9 years - so thats pretty strong reason to stay on Windows or Mac but I have still pushed my self to learn Bitwig (at the cost of slowing down my production rate and benefit of becoming a more flexible producer) just to stay Linux-only and fuck off the constant surveillance. If you are a professional in what you do, you get the fundamentals and should be able to pick up new tools. If I can do that, a regular user who just uses their computer to use Office and Browse the internet should seriously have a sitdown with the self and rethink their relationship with their computer and why they use it. You don't need to be a programmer with OS's like Ubuntu and Mint. Guided installations, beautiful UI's and GUI Software managers have you covered. As intimidating as the cmd-line might seem at first, even on these OS's a noob will end up experimenting, loving and end up using the cmd-line regularly (even for tasks you were used to using via the gui). If anything Bash is a great way to start learning programming since it is essentially a very high-level language where keMake sure you have a BIOS password to protect from physical access. Only download from trusted sources + Browse with a vpn, and as a regular user you have done tons for your own cyber - security already. If anyone has more basic security tips, please share - i am a noob myself - still skimming the surface. To summarize - Think! Be vigilant. Convenience in tech comes at a high invisible opportunity cost. For yourself, and the community. <3 Best, Viz.
