[ExI] bitcoin again

[spike]

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Bryan Bishop
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2016 1:19 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>; Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] bitcoin again

 

On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 2:29 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net <mailto:spike66 at att.net> > wrote:

So now, any time the news majors announce a hospital has been hacked, the hospital can expect to get jillions of offers to unlock the files for a small amount of bitcoins.  It would be impossible for the victim to know which one is genuine, if any.


>…All of that is completely false; there are multiple ways to demonstrate effectiveness (the most trivial is decrypting a single file). One particularly interested method is using a zero-knowledge proof of decryption: https://bitcoincore.org/en/2016/02/26/zero-knowledge-contingent-payments-announcement/ Payment would only be retrievable in the event that the party has a correct proof that they are able to correctly decrypt the files.

 

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

 

 

Cool, so now if a news agency announces that a hospital has been hacked and some yahoo demands bitcoin to unlock the files, they figure out she isn’t the real hacker, they don’t pay and catch her somehow, could not her defense team claim she wasn’t demanding any actual money?  If so, could she be convicted of fraudulently… I don’t know where the heck that would land in our legal system.

 

spike

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