We began yesterday when Week 1 courseware went live. The academic festival will run for 12 weeks. Registration continues for the 5th edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA (June 7 – Sept 1, 2021). Our program is self-paced, 100% online with thrice weekly Live sessions, and everything is recorded and archived. I will kickstart the Live session on Saturday and I invite you to register today. Cost is $140 (or N50,000 naira). Click, REGISTER and join us …
https://school.tekedia.com/course/mmba5/
Bitcoin experienced one of the most frontal attacks in its history: the ability of the FBI to reverse and recover a transaction executed by Colonial Pipeline to a criminal gang. With that, the greatest selling point for Bitcoin was muted. Yes, that crusading that it is untethered to the government does not hold water now. The operation was a technical finale: “The FBI was able to access the “private key,” or password, for one of the hackers’ bitcoin wallets.”
Bitcoin’s price slipped again Tuesday. The reason for the move was unclear, however it may be related to concerns over security of the cryptocurrency after U.S. officials managed to recover most of the ransom paid to hackers that targeted Colonial Pipeline.
Court documents said investigators were able to access the password for one of the hackers’ bitcoin wallets. The money was recovered by a recently launched task force in Washington created as part of the government’s response to a rise in cyberattacks
Yes, many things happened here but the most consequential is this: the FBI took over the wallets at the exchange. And when you remember that exchanges are under the control of governments since banks can only give them bank accounts only after they have been registered, you will agree with me that what the FBI has done here is monumental.
It is simple: find ways to trace the transfer, and get to the final exchange destination. Work with the government there or possibly work with the exchange or maybe hack the exchange, and you can get your money back!
Yet, the biggest risk to Bitcoin’s valuation is China. As China weans alternative coins in its nation, for the arrival of e-yuan at scale, expect gravity to continue to work on Bitcoin. Of course, this does not mean that BTC will disappear. What will happen is this: the ephemeral exuberance of parabolic rising “currency” will fade.
China is on the path to bring full scale on e-yuan even as it works to stop Bitcoin and other cryptos in the nation: “The Chinese government is set to launch another digital Yuan lottery to help its ongoing digital currency trials, happening in the capital of Beijing. The Beijing Local Financial Supervision and Administration announced yesterday that the government will distribute 40 million digital yuan ($6.2 million) to Beijing residents as part of a test run for the new digital currency.”
My model has been this: 20% off peak due to e-yuan. 10% off due to e-euro. 30% off due to e-dollars. So, if you run the numbers, the stable state of BTC is absolutely lower than its current $32,000 since only E-yuan has been applied.
Shine your eyes!
The biggest mistake in the contemporary technology scene is to think that anyone could promise you privacy once something is shipped online. Yes, the latest news is that the FBI, the America mega crime buster, has arrested hundreds of people in many countries, after tricking them to use an FBI-controlled app, masquerading as a safe-encrypted messaging app: “More than 800 suspected criminals have been arrested worldwide after being tricked into using an FBI-run encrypted messaging app, officials say.”
The operation, jointly conceived by Australia and the FBI, saw devices with the ANOM app secretly distributed among criminals, allowing police to monitor their chats about drug smuggling, money laundering and even murder plots. Officials called it a watershed moment. Targets included drug gangs and people with links to the mafia.
Drugs, weapons, luxury vehicles and cash were also seized in the operation, which was conducted across more than a dozen countries. This included eight tons of cocaine, 250 guns and more than $48m (£34m) in various worldwide currencies and cryptocurrencies. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the operation had “struck a heavy blow against organised crime” around the world. European Union police agency Europol described Operation Trojan Shield/Greenlight as the “biggest ever law enforcement operation against encrypted communication”.
Here is the deal: from cryptocurrency to encrypted messaging apps, if you think any encryption or technology can mask you while committing a crime, you have a big problem. Just this week, the FBI was able to recover cryptos paid to a criminal organization after they had received the coins from a US company, Colonial Pipeline. The crusaders of cryptos would have made you believe that such was not possible because coins are decentralized and hidden from the government. Nonsense!
Let me repeat it again: Bitcoin and other cryptos may be decentralized but they are centralized at the exchanges, and governments control those exchange companies, as they have to register with the governments to be connected to the banking systems. Simply, after all the hiding, the governments will wait for you at the exchanges, and they can ideally check all balances, linking all to your bank accounts and addresses which you used to set it up. Most exchanges even require your government issued identification documents before they can approve withdrawal, typically through a bank where you have an account!
In this FBI-Hollywood styled playbook, you can see an agency which is thinking ahead. The FBI runs many fake university websites in America to catch people doing illegal admissions. But it is not just the FBI; the CIA executes a similar gameplan. In short, it busted a bad gang in central Africa many years ago when it operated cybercafes – the best ones in the chosen cities on speed. When the criminals came to the cafes to do their thing, they did not know that they were using computers rigged by CIA tools. One afternoon, the CIA and the local police closed them up.
This is where I am hoping that Nigeria’s EFCC can improve its game. We need to invest more on prevention than prosecution in the land. Those who are overly worried about super-encryption need to check themselves. Why? With the reduction in information asymmetry, we are learning more about ourselves online, in many ways, and we are changing as a people.
Unlike a few years ago, sharing your resume online was a bad idea. In short, the resume was a classified personal document. Today, we share it publicly to the world via LinkedIn. More so, our grandmothers told our sisters never to enter cars of people they do not know. Today, everyone enters vehicles operated by strangers via Uber. Also, we were warned never to sleep in a stranger’s house. Today, via Airbnb, many do just that. Why? That information asymmetry friction has been fixed by technology to a large extent, improving trust.
And within that framework, anyone who thinks he needs super-encryption to do business in this world may need to check carefully if what he/she is doing is actually in compliance with laws of the land. If not, no encryption will save you because nothing is protected when it matters. Sure, we need to protect our IPs, trade secrets, hide from bad governments, but that must not make us paranoid to the extent that we become stupid to install apps that can get us into bad lists.
EFCC needs to focus on prevention more than prosecution!
Comment: I remember working on a project in Nigeria 15 years ago where we were told that data could not be held overseas due to government restrictions. We had to install local servers to complete the project. Now everything sits in the “cloud” including federal and state government data on Microsoft Azure, AWS or Goggle cloud, just like our family photos and other personal information. Indeed information asymmetry is improving trust!
My Response: “Indeed information asymmetry is improving trust!” – This line does not actually follow the points you made. There are many technology stacks. Information asymmetry is not measured at the infrastructure stack. So, while your conclusion is correct, the premise is wrong. Free flow of information, stored locally or in foreign cloud, is improves trust in communities as we use Uber, Airbnb, LinkedIn etc. But trust on information within consumers is different from trust at infrastructure level.
More so, if they want Nigeria, even if we host locally, it changes nothing. I build microchips for a living. If you do not use Amazon, Google, or Azure, you will still buy servers from HP, Oracle, etc. While your consumer-level may be managed, your infrastructure could be infiltrated.
Remember: CIA ran Crypto AG which at a time was the #1 encryption company in the world, supplying governments, banks, etc. So, hosting your server in Ikeja and buying encryption from Germany changes nothing. For protection, you need to design EVERYTHING 100% as China does.
It takes a line of code to break a system.
Tenacity is critical in business because without it, any mission could be lost. In business, I have come to understand that one of the most important skills is the capacity to do the best possible job at the shortest time possible on something with the highest impact.
Yes, everything must be bounded by time because without that time consciousness you will not make progress. The world will not wait for you – you have to fit into the world as defined by 24 hours in a day.
Good People, if you master your time, you will WIN your FUTURE. Show me a man who is in charge of his time, and I will show you a man who can predict his future. But show me someone whose time defines him, there you have someone who will be unable to create his future.
The greatest victory in a career is winning your TIME. Time the time, and rise to the mountaintop.
First, I do not believe that it would be fully executed: “Presidency Meets With China’s Cyber Regulator to Build Nigerian Internet Firewall”. (I think this certainly not true, >90% fake news.) Yet, sure, there is a possibility that Nigeria can explore how to build Nigeria’s version of the Great Firewall of China, making sure that Nigeria’s internet is disconnected from other parts of the world. And by doing that, the government of Nigeria will regulate, control and rule over the Nigerian web.
On Saturday morning between 11 am and 12 pm, as Nigerians woke up to the reality of a Twitter ban, and downloading Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to access Twitter, the Nigerian government, through the office of the Presidency, reached out to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to discuss plans to build an internet firewall, FIJ has learnt.
The government officials present at the meeting include Ibrahim Gambari, the Chief of Staff to the President, and Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture.
The internet firewall is a way of having a separate network for the Nigerian Internet that will give the government control over social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. This is similar to the internet filtering system China operates, called the Great Firewall.
The reason why China’s Great Firewall works is not because it has the best technology. The reason is simple: it has a market that global technology companies want access to, and are open to do all things necessary to remain in the good books of China. Apple will remove VPN software when asked because it wants to do business in China. The same goes for the Android Play Store for China. If Apple does not see Nigeria as a market, it may not help the government. And if that is the case, a Nigerian firewall system will fail.
More so, unlike Nigeria, no lawbreaker goes free in China. Today, Nigeria negotiates with bandits and allows them to continue to operate. So, what would be different if people break the firewall rules?
For Nigeria to emulate and mimic China, it has to think beyond technology to effective prosecutorial power while deepening its market depth so that makers of technology systems will comply when they are asked to fall in line.
People break laws in Nigeria and nothing happens. In America, all the policemen will be ready to die rather than allow a criminal to have a field day. But in Nigeria, we know the forests where bad guys are, and we have done nothing! Buying Chinese technology will not change that suboptimal legal and law enforcement playbook.
I will be watching this redesign, and depending on how it goes, I will organize a webinar on Nigeria Great Firewall and the Opportunities for Digital Startups. Yes, if Nigeria decides to block some foreign companies, some local ones will emerge. While that would be a bad idea, expect opportunities. My job is to find how to live and do business in anything my environment throws at me. If it is a bidirectional ban (allow Nigeria but block the world), expect massive shifts in local opportunities. Then, if that is the case, I will update this Harvard article – “Can African Tech Startups Succeed in a World Dominated by Facebook and Google?” Because Google and Facebook will not dominate anymore in Nigeria!
Update: The presidency has said that this is not true. But I will leave the analysis nonetheless. I never believed that it was true but wanted to use it to pass some tech perspectives.
“The story is absolutely fake, It’s a figment of the reporter’s imagination,” the Presidency said in a statement.