Agorism: Beat the State, show a profit, all in a non-violent way.

[gilliganscorner]

So I started toying around with this idea again after the new cigarette tax was instated. I've setup two test BBSes that share a message board and exchange files over file echoes. All traffic between hosts is encrypted including inter-bbs traffic.

"File echoes"? What is the medium of traffic?

My idea here is to setup a message board for people to exchange goods and services as they please as well as a library (Bibliotheque Apocolyptica) for exchanging ebooks. Both the library and the message boards can be spanned out across multiple BBSes so if one site is taken down, the rest will remain up and communicating with one another.

I like the decentralized approach on this. How would this differ from a P2P client like Vuze or BitTorrent?

I believe there is also functionality to setup a back channel IRC server so that users on different BBSes can communicate with one another. If there was ever a SHTF scenario and internet communications was shut down, users could communicate via packet radio or landlines.

I wonder if the Internet isn't too big to fail now? Too many businesses depend on it.

Is anyone even interested in this idea? If not, I won't waste my time. I'd like to get 5 to 10 people interested in setting up their own BBS and getting people they know IRL to participate.

I am interesting in learning more about it.

 

[FunkBuddha]

"File echoes"? What is the medium of traffic?

Essentially the files are packed with an archiver such as pkzip and sent over the binkp protocol. The authentication is handled by CRAM-MD5 which may not be the most secure way to handle it but should be sufficient.

I like the decentralized approach on this. How would this differ from a P2P client like Vuze or BitTorrent?

The files are copied from point to point. If I have a file or a message that needs to go to multiple BBSes, I can either send it to each BBS or I can pass it to a hub which would then send it to the BBSes that connect to it. While it may not be the most efficient method, if the network is designed properly it can be very reliable. For example, FidoNet.

I wonder if the Internet isn't too big to fail now? Too many businesses depend on it.

This may be true... While it may not crash or be taken down, it may become untrusted as a means of secure communications.

I am interesting in learning more about it.

BBSes are old school. They were very popular back in the late 80's and early 90's. There were huge public messaging networks such as FidoNet and several underground networks that were used for distributing copyrighted software. They were the original social networking sites.

 

[gilliganscorner]

Great post.

Sounds good to me. I'm interested. Perhaps we can also exchange in gold grams ala www.goldmoney.com.

Are you familar with what happened to e-gold.com since they were busted by the State to protect us from terrorists/criminals/kiddie porn a.k.a people who were trading outside of the taxation/inflation system to protect their personal wealth to prevent the State from siphoning off their wealth?

 

[dr. hfn]

Write for your college paper! I make $10 an article...11 published so far...on my C4L account

 

[FunkBuddha]

not crash or be taken down, it may become untrusted as a means of secure communications.

Sorry for quoting myself but this kinda proves my point.

 

[gilliganscorner]

Sorry for quoting myself but this kinda proves my point.

Wow. It's amazing the lengths they'll go to keep the taxation/inflation system going. All that rhetoric. Just in case some wise asses develop an agorist network. You know they are getting worried, Funk.

Up here in Canada, looky at the new contest we got running with our CRA (the Canadian equivalent of the IRS). I consider this good news!

 

[FunkBuddha]

Wow. It's amazing the lengths they'll go to keep the taxation/inflation system going. All that rhetoric. Just in case some wise asses develop an agorist network. You know they are getting worried, Funk.

Considering there are now 10GB deep packet inspection devices now available for ISPs and the little incident in San Francisco a few years ago, some form of hard core encryption is a must. I'd love to be able setup either SSL tunnels or site to site VPN tunnels between BBSes for data transfer.

Up here in Canada, looky at the new contest we got running with our CRA (the Canadian equivalent of the IRS). I consider this good news!

Ha! Yeah, I saw that. The underground economy in Canada has to be getting out of control for them to go on a propaganda campaign.

 

[gilliganscorner]

Considering there are now 10GB deep packet inspection devices now available for ISPs and the little incident in San Francisco a few years ago, some form of hard core encryption is a must. I'd love to be able setup either SSL tunnels or site to site VPN tunnels between BBSes for data transfer.

Absolutely. I wonder though if the so-called "unbreakable" algorithms widely (or not so-widely) used today would be pulled off the shelf if they were REALLY unbreakable. What I mean is that if the State REALLY couldn't break it, would it be pulled out of use via the standard propaganda channels, "OMFG! Oh noes! That <insert form of cryptography here> is being used by terrorists/criminals/kiddie pornsters!"

Ha! Yeah, I saw that. The underground economy in Canada has to be getting out of control for them to go on a propaganda campaign.

I think so. Man I never knew my fellow Canadians would put their beers down and turn hockey off long enough to overcome their apathy to run an underground economy. Most of the people I know, except for the ones in business, actually would rat on you if they thought you were avoiding being extorted by the State. They would have made good Nazis...but tell them that...hoo boy.

 

[StilesBC]

Gilligan/Tax Me/Remnant,

I'll be returning home in a few months. We should have a chat...

 

[gilliganscorner]

Gilligan/Tax Me/Remnant,

I'll be returning home in a few months. We should have a chat...

Shhhh. Matt. Don't blow my cover.

We should. Where's home? PM me if you'd like. BTW, I'm blogging again, but not as much as I'd like too. For what its worth, I enjoy your blog as well.

 

[gilliganscorner]

bumpage due to the ever increasing size of the State since it was last bumped.

 

[presence]

bumpage for [MENTION=7643]gilliganscorner[/MENTION]

This could lead to the most significant value to members of this forum.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Agorism isn't a good strategy for weakening the state.

It can only exploit the state's existing weaknesses; it's not going to result in significantly smaller government.

The USSR was an agorist paradise, with all the black market activity going on, and yet not such a nice or libertarian place to live, eh?

I mean, if you want to practice agorism, have at it, just be aware of the limitations.

 

[presence]

Slowly and steadily, the counter-economy results in infrastructural substitution, the replacement of the increasingly atrophic state with networks of voluntarily cooperating and trading individuals. As Konkin’s close friend, the novelist and filmmaker J. Neil Schulman, put it, “Seeking that tipping point in a Starvation Curve is the revolutionary strategy of Agorism in a nutshell.”

http://www.libertarianism.org/columns/black-market-activism-samuel-edward-konkin-iii-agorism