Contents

• Open Source projects
  • Open Transactions – Truledger – Voucher-Safe
  • Loom – Ripple – Lucre – OpenMoney
  • OpenCoin – OpenCoinage – OpenTransact
  • OpenBank – MyBanco – i2conomy – Flowplace
  • Bitcoin
• Digital Currencies
  • Some that failed
• Important Concepts
• People
• Misc. Links

Open Source

Open Transactions

Open Transactions (github)

Transaction processor featuring Untraceable Digital Cash, Anonymous Numbered Accounts, Triple-Signed Receipts, Basket Currencies, and Signed XML Contracts. Also supports cheques, invoices, payment plans, markets with trades, and other instruments… it’s like PGP for Money…. Uses OpenSSL and Lucre blinded tokens. —Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Android, Windows—Native APIs for Java, Ruby, Python, PHP, Perl, C, C++, Objective-C, C#, Tcl, and LISP.

Open Transactions FAQ
Moneychanger, a Java GUI for Open Transactions

Cypherpunkd Episode 011: Introduction to Open-Transactions Financial Crypto System and Integration with Bitcoin – Part 1 – Part 2

Interview with Cypherpunk Fellow Traveler on the “Open-Transactions Financial Crypto System and Bitcoin Integration”. Traveler gives an intro to where this system came from from, motivations behind it, history. How to look at this system and what it does. Accounts transfers, Vouchers, Checks, Digital Cash, Basket Currencies, the Integrated Stock Exchange type Market features. …And drum roll… Integration with Bitcoin… to fulfill the other need for Bitcoin: Anonymous and Instant transaction settlement.

Truledger

Truledger Website

Truledger (rebranded from Trubanc) is an anonymous, digitally-signed general ledger and trading system. Like Loom, it allows anyone to issue assets. Unlike Loom, which relies entirely on (very good) obscurity for security, Truledger’s digital signatures allow the server and the client to prove to each other that they agreed at a particular time on their balances. It does this while allowing destruction of transaction history for closed trades.

Truledger in Plain English
Cypherpunkd Episode 028: Truledger: An Anonymous Digitally Signed General Ledger and Trading System

Bill St. Claire of the great http://billstclair.com/blog/ and author of the Truledger Anonymous Digitally Signed General Ledger and Trading System joins us for an Intro to the System and a walkthrough where we cover many aspect of the system. We discuss the client software, the servers. Digital Signatures, Coupons, destruction of account history. Lisp, multiplatform binaries, the future for iphone and android. How to run a Client, a Multi-user client and more.

Voucher Safe

Voucher-Safe Website

A voucher is an encrypted digital representation which stands for or represents something else. A voucher is said to be “backed” by whatever underlies it, such as gold or silver. Vouchers are digital bearer certificates circulated and validated by a Publisher. It is a mechanism for the secure, anonymous exchange of digital vouchers peer-to-peer between users, implemented as an extension to XMPP (external link) (aka Jabber (external link)), an instant messaging service. Basically, you can pay anyone you can chat with.

Voucher-Safe Wiki
Cypherpunkd Episode 023: “Voucher-Safe – Secure P2P Digital Cash and Infrastructure

Voucher-safe has no accounts… you have wallets, and exchange over a p2p network protocol xmpp these bearer certificates. We hear how close the system is to full production and the initial issuers. Justin talks about some of the protocol, how to integrate your own software in with the API. Operating in a P2P via Jabber/XMPP protocol from clients to servers to an entire infrastructure all the way to the actual Issuers of the assets. It has operational incentives built in at every level of the system.

Loom

Loom Website

Loom is a system which enables people to transfer ownership of assets at will.

Assets in the real world are represented by digital assets in Loom. In Loom, these digital assets sit at various locations in a giant digital space. They stay there until someone moves them to another location.

To own an asset means that you are the only one who knows its location. It’s like burying a gold bar deep in the woods where only you can find it.

To transfer ownership of an asset to someone else, you first move the asset from your own secret location to another location which the recipient knows about. This other location, known as a contact ID, is a sort of “drop point” which you and the recipient share. It’s like moving your gold bar to a place under a certain bridge in the park.

The recipient then visits the drop point and moves the asset to his or her own secret location. Now the recipient owns the asset and you don’t.

Loom FAQ
Loom Source(github)

Cypherpunkd Episode 004: Loom for Dummies Part 1
Cypherpunkd Episode 013: Loom for Geeks Part 2

A very basic introduction to Loom. Simple, easy to understand and very informative. Topics covered include: The difference between Loom and Paypal/e-gold/GoldMoney/Pecunix type systems we are all familiar with. Very easy to understand explanations on how loom making and receiving of payments work. What are usage tokens and invitations. Loom locations, contacts accounts and assets.

Ripple

Ripple Project

Ripple solves the first problem by finding one or more people who can exchange your IOU for one issued by someone the store owner trusts. For example, if the store owner trusts your friend Alice, and Alice trusts you, you can give your IOU to Alice, and Alice can give her IOU to the owner. This can all happen instantly over the internet.

Ripple implementations
Ripple Monetary System (wikipedia)

Lucre

Lucre Website

lucre is an implementation (in C++ and Java) of David Wagner’s Diffie-Hellman variant on Chaumian blinding.

Open Money

Open Money Website

The open money project remains a work in progress – a continuation of almost 25 years of LETSystem and community currencies development all over the world, two community way projects in Canada using smart cards, the Japan open money project, and, most recently, a community currencies services provider – ccsp.

OpenCoin

OpenCoin Project

The opencoin project implements “digital cash”. The system gives minting software, wallet software and everything that is necessary to have a system for anonymous electronic transactions. It can be used for vouchers, online payments, complementary currencies etc. Opencoin defines standards and provides an implementation around the blind-signature system as invented by David Chaum, known as electronic cash / digicash. The software and specs are opensource under a GPL License.

OpenCoinage

OpenCoinage Website

OpenCoinage is an umbrella project for developing royalty-free, open-source digital cash standards and reference implementations:

OpenCoinage RDF is an RDF vocabulary for describing digital currency issuance (so-called Ricardian contracts) and the entities related to it.

OpenCoinage APIs are intended to specify communications protocols for digital cash issuance and for peer-to-peer digital cash payments and exchanges.

OpenCoinage SDK is a software development kit, available for multiple popular programming languages, for interacting with digital cash issuers and for parsing and verifying standardized digital cash tokens.

OpenCoinage Apps are reference implementations of white-label digital cash e-wallet applications for various platforms including Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, as well as for the Android mobile operating system.

OpenTransact

OpenTransact Website

Proposed simple REST based standard for financial transactions

OpenTransact (github)
NuBux

A sample electronic currency based on OpenTransact . The value is backed mostly by hot air and does not imply any kind of promise.

OpenBank

Open Bank Project

We aim to create a RESTful API so that banks and their customers can securely and cost effectively adopt Web 2.0, Open Source and 3rd party tools, services and strategies. We want to promote greater openness to financial data.

MyBanco

MyBanco Website

MyBanco is a kit made to run a ‘bank’. This ‘bank’ only does core banking, so the software does not take in account things like FOR-EX [foreign exchange] and other forms of trading (such as a stock exchange). MyBanco is modular software, which splits all functions into easy to manage separate applications which can be installed on separate machines to scale high loads.

Flowplace

Flowplace (github)

A rails based social platform for using free currencies.

i2conomy

i2conomy (github)

IOU based distributed currency for I2P.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin Website
Bitcoin Wiki

Satoshi introduces Bitcoin on the Cryptography mailing list

An interesting quote by Satoshi later in that thread:

I actually did this kind of backwards. I had to write all the code before I could convince myself that I could solve every problem, then I wrote the paper. I think I will be able to release the code sooner than I could write a detailed spec.

Some older ideas that may have inspired Bitcoin:

• B-money
• Bit-gold
• RPOW

Digital currencies

• eCache
• Pecunix
• WebMoney
• Liberty Reserve
• e-dinar
• GoldMoney
• gBullion
• iGolder

Some that failed

• DigiCash
• Yodelbank
• Digital Monetary Trust
• e-gold
• 1mdc
• e-bullion
• epassporte
• OS-Gold
• Standard Reserve
• INTGold
• evocash

Important concepts

Blind signatures

Blind Signature

See also: Undeniable signature, Group signature.

Proof of work system

Proof-of-work_system
HashCash
RPOW.net

Triple-entry accounting

Triple-entry accounting

Ricardian contracts

The Ricardian contract
Systemics Ricardo contract spec

Bearer instruments

Bearer instrument
Bearer bond

People

David Chaum

• David Chaum’s website
• David Chaum on Wikipedia

Ian Grigg

• Ian Grigg’s homepage
• Ian Grigg’s papers
• Financial Cryptography blog

Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin)

Nobody knows this guy but there’s a page with some speculation on the Bitcoin wiki.

J. Orlin Grabbe

• OrlinGrabbe.com (maintained by someone else)
• Archive of Orlin’s Essays
• Cryptography and Number Theory for Digital Cash
• Archive of Orlin’s original homepage (NSFW)

Patrick Chkoreff (Loom)

• Patrick Chkoreff on Twitter
• Chkoreff on Github

Bill St. Clair (Truledger)

• Bill St. Clair website
• Bill St. Clair on Github
• Information about Patrick Chkeroff’s Loom anonymous electronic trading system.

Nick Szabo

• Nick Szabo’s website

Daniel A. Nagy

• Daniel A. Nagy’s website

Misc. links

• Agile Banking Google Group
• Metacurrency Project
• Complementary Currency Software
• Resources for diving deeper into the exploration of currencies
• Electronic Money, or E-Money, and Digital Cash
• Status Report on Free Market Money (2005)

I’ve also installed git-flow, which is a set of scripts based on that popular project organisation and branching model.

I’m feeling like a Git pro already.

Considering that PHP 5.2.15 5.2.16 is supposed to be the last release on the 5.2 branch, it’s a good idea to start using a 5.3 capable framework.

I forked it and added filtering hooks to accompany the existing “action” hooks, similar to what WordPress does. I also plan to make an authentication plugin soon.

HTML5 Video Player is cross-browser, supports subtitles,  is skinnable with CSS and has a Flash fallback for incompatible browsers.

HTML5 Uploader lets you drag-and-drop multiple files for uploading. Supports FF, WebKit and Chrome.

Signature Pad transforms an HTML form and lets users draw their signature on a canvas. Seems like a great way to add some legitimacy to contracts/agreements performed online. Not much different to the electronic signature pads couriers use.

Mind Notes is a mind mapping tool using Javascript and some HTML5 features.

Baker eBook Framework lets you publish books for the iPad that  include HTML5 video, audio, animations or more.

Modernizr helps you detect features so you can make cooler web apps.

I’ve been eyeing an Olympus E-450 (with a Zuiko 25mm “Pancake” lens), which is a fairly compact dSLR, as my next camera. I think CHDK doesn’t support any dSLR models yet, so I’ll probably have to get another point-and-shoot if I want to play with it. Damn you, Canon!

###

The wiki has a page with a lot of SD memory benchmarks, sorted by camera model. Useful for the next time you buy an SD card.

A few days later I decided to ignore the advice of other barefoot enthusiasts, as well as the brochure that came with the shoes, telling me that I should take it easy with this barefoot thing. I went out for a run with my new shoes, I mistakenly chose a route with extended lengths of gravel mixed with dirt and I returned home thinking “this wasn’t too bad after all”. My heels were somewhat sore, which seemed reasonable. What followed was three weeks of painful walking, a visit to a doctor that insisted human feet are not meant to be used without padding on the heels, an x-ray that revealed no heel damage and many doubts about running barefoot.

Fast forward two years, I’ve now walked many kilometers wearing my FiveFingers, hiked through unfriendly terrain, worn them while swimming in the sea and of course, I’ve been asked countless questions about my weird shoes.

I believe that our feet are meant to carry us through jungles, rocky roads and all manners of uncomfortable surfaces. We can’t run fast but we can run long distances and that’s why we can hunt deer. It’s a fact that we can run barefoot. Some people take this the wrong way, arm themselves with some “nature knows best” bullshit and go on to declare war on shoes. Please stop doing that. Shoes are good for us, except that we’ve started making really bad designs and marketing the hell out of them.

A good shoe:

• is not tight
• is not too loose, it must stay on your foot
• has ample room for your toes
• has a flexible sole
• the sole is not too narrow
• has as little padding as needed
• is flat, doesn’t have more padding on the heel

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem many shoes fit that profile. I remember when I was young and I’d fall for the “shoe will fit after you wear it” routine that my mother and various salesmen did so I’d buy a damn pair after trying on dozens. Don’t fall for that. If the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t buy it.

What I like most about the Vibrams is the fact that they made me question what I knew about shoes and the way I use my feet. Products that do that are few and far between. I remember when I first put on my FiveFingers, I thought to myself “Okay, now I will have to hack the way I walk“.

I mostly land on my forefoot when I run now and it feels better. I don’t run regularly though, so I still have to work on that. When I walk, I mostly land on my midfoot but it varies. It’s actually okay to land on your heel while walking [1]. The way I used to walk was fairly awful and I’m glad I managed to improve. My problem mainly stemmed from the fact that I walked too fast and took wide steps, which resulted in hard heel strikes. Wearing shoes with thick soles takes the edge off, however you are still doing damage to your knees and back, and you may end up with sore heels if you walk too much. Compared to before, I now can walk longer distances, get less tired, my legs get a lot less sore, my knees never hurt and it just feels more like the right way to walk.

At first, I started walking slower and taking smaller steps. That was a big help and it made it possible to land on my midfoot. I can’t really explain the difference between lifting your feet and pressing down with them, but that was what I focused on next. It made my landing a lot softer, which is something you need when wearing minimal shoes. You need to lift your foot, keep it relaxed, land softly on your heel/midfoot with a slight rolling motion towards the forefoot and repeat. After you practice enough you will have a smoother gait that feels more natural.

I think my FiveFingers have been a fairly good product, however this summer the sole developed various cracks and holes.  I also started riding a bicycle with them, which seemed to create a lot of additional wear from the studded pedals and foot braking.  I guess only lasting for two years is not too bad considering the cost (about $60 at the time) and the physical limitations of such a thin sole. I certainly got plenty of use out of them.

There were some issues with the yellow-colored antimicrobial microfiber footbed. For the first few weeks, it didn’t smell at all and I thought it was magical. Then it started smelling pretty bad and I had to start washing the shoes regularly. It’s manageable if you wash them often and you don’t put them on with dirty feet. I like being barefoot around the house so I’d often wear them with not-so-clean feet and the dirt would end up sticking to the footbed along with sweat.  I washed them with a bar of soap, a toothbrush and some running water, which would take a good 30 minutes to do properly. They are also machine-washable, so I’ll have to try that in the future.

Vibram have fortunately introduced new materials such as kangaroo leather, Smartwool and Dri-Lex. I’m guessing these are better than the classic yellow microfiber but I’m not sure which one I want to try in my new pair. I do love my Smartwool socks but the one pair that uses it, seems to be mostly suited for indoors use. I’m leaning towards the KSO Trek with kangaroo leather or the Bikila with Dri-Lex. I would love to hear from you if you’ve bought one of the new designs.

I think the FiveFingers are a well-executed project overall and a good quality product. I will soon be buying a new pair or two. If you are considering getting a pair for yourself, I say go ahead. Don’t worry about people giving you funny looks or that you won’t be able to learn how to walk with them. You will figure it out. Feel free to ask me any questions.

[1] http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/6FAQ.html
[2] http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_footwear.cfm
[3] https://www.smartwool.com/

Fear is the disease,
Hustle is the antidote.

— Travis Kalanick   (via TechCocktail)

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Flow3

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Lithium

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Fat Free Framework

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Sonic Framework (github)

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Lisa Framework

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Mangrove Framework

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Nano Framework

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km53

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Crossley Framework

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Ploof

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Z-PHP

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