Satoshi Nakamoto: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (2009)
Filed under paper | Tags: · bitcoin, computing, cryptography, economy, electronic money, free software, money, p2p, software, technology
A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they’ll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers. The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone.
Published on 24 May 2009
9 pages
The Red Specter. Journal of Agitation and Enlightenment 1 (2010) [English/Spanish]
Filed under journal | Tags: · activism, art, art criticism, colonialism, commodity fetishism, communism, economy, left, market economy, money, politics
Published on the occassion of exhibition Critical Fetishes. Residues of General Economy at CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Madrid, May – August 2010, curated by The Red Specter (Through its Commissariat of Public Enlightenment: Mariana Botey, Helena Chávez Mac Gregor and Cuauhtémoc Medina).
Editors of issue 1: Ekaterina Álvarez Romero and Cuauhtémoc Medina
English translations: Christopher Fraga, Lorna Scott Fox
Spanish translations: Manuel Hernández, Jaime Soler Frost
PDF, HTML, Issuu (English)
PDF, HTML, Issuu (Spanish)
Juha Suoranta, Tere Vadén: Wikiworld (2008/2010)
Filed under book | Tags: · capitalism, collaboration, economy, education, learning, political economy, politics, socialist media, web 2.0
Wikiworld explores a revolution in the world of education. The way we learn is changing: institutionalised learning is transforming into new forms of critical learning and open collaboration. This book offers a historical and political framework to think about the future of learning and educational media.
The authors provide an overview of the use of new technologies and learning practices, and assess how the changing nature of education can lead to a more socially just future. At the same time, they place their analysis of education within a wider social and economic framework of contemporary capitalism.
Publisher Pluto Press, 2010
ISBN 0745328911, 9780745328911
176 pages
PDF (2010 version)
PDF (2008 version, copyleft)