Pseudonymity, Anonymity, Encrypted Communications

​​​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​This is a discussion on pseudonymity, anonymity, and ecnrypted communications. We'll talk about:

• ​How does pseudonymity and anonymity change political conversations?

• ​What are the trade-offs of pseudonymity and anonymity tech in Western societies?

• ​What is the political meaning of private conversation in real life and in the digital world?

• ​How does identity shielding change markets and transactions, particularly in a capital-driven world?

• ​Protocols and tech we’ll talk about:

  • ​IRC

  • ​Signal Protocol and the Double Ratchet algorithm

  • ​Tor and the Onion network

  • ​Monero

  • ​Zero knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs)

  • ​Urbit and Tlon