Compilation | Wu Talks about Blockchain

The content is transcribed by AI from Snowden’s speech at Token 2049. There may be errors. The original link is as follows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD-XU6Y3TfA

First of all, hello to everyone at Token 2049 Singapore. I haven't been to Singapore for a long time, I think it was around 2009 when I was working for the CIA and was stationed in an embassy not far from you.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov is a person I mentioned on Twitter a few weeks ago, and I wanted to talk about it here today because it is very representative of the changes that are happening. For those who don’t know, just a few weeks ago, the old powers attempted to take control of Telegram in a well-coordinated operation to take Pavel Durov hostage to France. They complained publicly that Telegram did not provide them with enough control to shut down channels, expose user identities, etc. Telegram is not a truly secure communication tool. It cannot be called a secure messenger. It is more like a group chat tool with private messaging. Although it has a feature that can send end-to-end encrypted messages called "Secret Chats", almost no one uses it.

State agencies in the US and Europe have been complaining that Telegram doesn’t give them enough control to shut down channels, disclose user identities, and so on, as Facebook does. The government knows it has the ability to do so due to certain flaws in Telegram’s service design, but Telegram appears to have made some efforts to resist these demands. Durov was taken to France and quickly jailed, but was released on bail a few days later, and Telegram changed its terms of service shortly thereafter.

This is the harsh reality of the world. If you don’t design your service from a protocol level to resist intervention, this is what you’re going to end up in. The great thing about cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin in particular, is that they were designed with a worst-case scenario mentality to avoid the inevitable disaster. In Durov’s case, I hope that he can be free to actually address the design issues that got him into this mess, and create a service that doesn’t put too much power and data in the hands of vulnerable humans.

The real lesson here isn’t about Durov or Telegram, but about all of us. We are entering a new phase in history where the countries that once championed the ideals of classical liberalism (the United States and Europe) are now working to stifle them. These countries are using technology to control the actions and thoughts of everyone, not just within their borders but around the world. This is not just about surveillance, but about control.

The point is not about Durov or Telegram, but about all of us. We are entering a new phase in history, and the countries that we thought embraced the ideas of classical liberalism are working hardest to move backwards. They used to celebrate the individual's autonomy over their own lives, but now they are doing everything they can to bureaucratize, influence, push and shape, and ultimately control every individual within their territory and beyond. This is the new power that technology has given them.

The recent Telegram incident and the new EU chat control proposal are examples. The EU is pushing this proposal to establish a procedural framework for global control of all voices. They are not worried about secret conversations, or getting the keys to some conversations from Durov, but because they see speech they don't like, they think it is misleading information, false information, or voices that are not wanted in society, so they want to eliminate these voices. And once we lose this freedom, there is no going back.

This got me thinking about the changes happening in the modern world. I was still reading yesterday about Israel's unprecedented actions—consumer electronic devices all over the world are exploding simultaneously in pockets, hands, faces, and even cars. Although this is not the first remote bomb attack, it is the first time it has occurred in the form of such a large-scale "broadcast" bomb attack. This shows that public communication systems have become extremely vulnerable to devices that can be triggered by remote signals.

Almost every one of us is carrying a device that you can’t take apart to inspect, that’s dangerous even without explosives installed, and that has enough energy in its batteries to start a fire. In the future, devices could burn down your house while you sleep with the push of a button. This brings me to my last topic — the rejection of our heritage by some in our community. I’ve seen some discussion about this recently, and I don’t want to be unfair to Saylor’s views because I don’t follow these topics particularly closely, but I saw someone dig up an old quote where they said, “We don’t need to talk about the anarchist angle of Bitcoin, don’t talk about privacy, don’t mention its unstoppable design, or that no one can silence it or stop it, because that will upset billionaires who want to invest in something that is regulated and controllable.” And I think that’s completely wrong.

We have to talk about the core value of the system, the "crypto" part of crypto, which is what makes it special. I don't care if this makes billionaires uneasy or if it slows JPMorgan to enter the market. The fact is, they are joining the journey whether they want to or not, and the era of the dollar is over. As Lynn Alden said, debasement is deeply embedded in our economic model. We can see changes in money issuance and deficit spending, and although it may not happen this year or next year, or in five years, the end is obvious from the course of history. We are now at the end of the era of paper money, and it is coming to an end.

So, as a community, we need to focus on protecting the core elements that make our currency successful, and everything else has failed. I also think this means we need to recognize that a lot of altcoin activity doesn't make a lot of sense in the crypto space, and frankly, it just dilutes the overall foundation of crypto. Of course, not all projects are like this, there are some good ones out there. But everyone here can think of examples where, even if we sugarcoat it, they are still scams waiting to be ripped off, and this phenomenon has happened over and over again.

Some people think of it as gambling, maybe like buying a lottery ticket. But we have to consider the impact of this behavior on the entire system. If it is not isolated and people are not made aware of its harmfulness, it is like unrecognized "toxic waste", and many people don't even realize it. I think as a community, everyone's awareness is rising, but there are more and more new people joining, and new "leeks" are born every day, and we shouldn't be that kind of people.

We should be committed to building a new world because we have already arrived. In the old system, when the government took your wealth, you could at least see that you might have helped build a road. But if we as a community are just buying things that we don't use, or spending money on meaningless luxuries, can we really create a better system? We need to be able to answer this question. As our place in the world becomes more important, we have to do better if we want to live a better life.

So, I would say that we need to focus on not being part of the problem. We have an extraordinary opportunity, we have already changed the world in many ways, and the world is listening. They are joining in, they are engaging, they see the value, and we don't need to argue anymore. We have a responsibility to be good stewards of this moment in history that was created by us, for us, and will be passed on to future generations.

When you look at what's going on right now, the need to control speech, the rise of these new disruptive technologies, like artificial intelligence, which can be a huge boon or a huge disaster for us, depending on who holds the levers of power and how we distribute that power, when you see new ways that consumer electronics are being used against us, from small, individual targets to large-scale "broadcast" attacks, and when you see leaders in our communities rejecting the precious traditions that created this space, I think the lesson is clear.

We should oppose bureaucracy, refuse to blindly follow modernity, embrace tradition, and then you can save the world. That's all we need to do. You will face the Durov problem, whether it is your cross-chain bridge, Tornado Cash or other projects, if you don't ensure that people can use your system privately without restrictions, someone will point a gun at you.

Question 1:

Hi Edward, I'm Brendan from ARA Block, first of all you are a great guy. I worked in national security in Europe and the Middle East and learned a lot of uncomfortable truths 20 years ago. My question is: how do we design technology from the most first principles to ensure it is secure?

1 Answer

That's a big question, and some of you here may be better suited to answer it than I am. But when you look back at the Bitcoin whitepaper, you'll see that it was designed to be adversarial, and that's the main thing we need to think about. A lot of projects, like Solana, have good ideas, but they just think that if they centralized everything, it would be faster, more efficient, and cheaper. And while they're right to some extent, almost no one uses it except for memecoins and scams. Because once countries start to get involved, control of the system can be easily taken away.

You have to design for adversarial situations, not just convenience or initial rapid product iteration. This may be uncomfortable for many startup founders, who may want a minimum viable product (MVP). Of course, if you want to make money quickly, this works, and many people have proven this and continue to do so. But if you want a system that will last for a long time, you have to make sure it can withstand attacks, which means you have to think about how to defend against future attacks and ensure that the system can survive. Because in the cryptocurrency space, we live in "position X", which is the focus of attack. We have to make sure we have a "roof" that can withstand such attacks.