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Trilema
trilema.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2013
Trilema is the blog of Mircea Popescu, covering Bitcoin, cryptography, factored RSA keys, and sharply opinionated commentary on software and the crypto industry.
What HN saysHN commenters link it for his Bitcoin block size views, the MPEX and Cardano designs, and in discussions after reports of his death.
25HN people shared it
17linked it in comments
12stories submitted
414story points
5 years agolast shared
2013people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 14096 RSA key in the strongset factored?3 people · 205 points · first shared 2015 · 103 comments on HN
- 2S.NSA first product - The Cardano3 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 3The Phuctoring2 people · 96 points · first shared 2016 · 29 comments on HN
- 4Homepage2 people · first shared 2017
- 5To the DAO and the Ethereum community: Fuck you1 people · 90 points · first shared 2016 · 51 comments on HN
- 6More factored RSA keys, and assorted other considerations1 people · 5 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 7IoT Drama Hits Solar Inverters with Revealing Data1 people · 4 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 8Python 2 Finally Stable, No Reason for Python 31 people · 4 points · first shared 2016 · 6 comments on HN
- 9Bitcoin and the poor1 people · 3 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 10MPEx CEO responds to SEC inquiries1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 11The sins of the group of posers behind the so called “Bitcoin Foundation”1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · 1 comments on HN
- 12Introducing the Bitcoin ISP on Trilema1 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 132016 Internet Cenus1 people · 1 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 14Badbios aka badlydonedamagecontrol1 people · first shared 2013
- 15Why i nixed p2p colored coins and all that jazz1 people · first shared 2014
What HN people wrote when they linked it
ur-whale · 2021-06-27
If accurate - and it's rather likely [1] - then the world has lost someone who was quite interesting.
Weird [2], controversial, completely unpalatable to some and hated by many, but most definitely interesting [3]
RIP Mircea, if you are indeed dead, you were certainly not boring [4]
[1] http://thewhet.net/2021/06/goodnight-sweet-master/
[2] http://trilema.com/
[3] https://archive.md/9AvNW
[4] https://archive.md/wip/cJNKb
pmorici · 2017-02-12
>What? Who?
Mircea Popescu, He is the original guy who started promoting the idea that it was a mistake to raise the block size unless some incentive to run a full node was added to the system. I don't think he actually supports segwit either, he thinks soft forks are crap. He is the original voice in opposition to block size increases though and many people listen to him.
http://trilema.com/
A lot of people disagree with your characterization of how lightening networks will play out. Since they don't really exist in real world usage yet hard to prove one way or the other.
bitwize · 2016-01-10
Urbit has no shortage of true believers who will insist that, in practice, Hoon -- and Urbit's alarmingly weird verbiage in general -- is very easy and pleasant to use and not at all strange, despite it being as penetrable to hackers outside the project as, say, the rantings of a Sea Org member. In fact I think a major portion of the purpose of the project is to produce a vanguard of true believers who buy into the whole vision thing, and then go spread try-it-you'll-like-it propaganda on sites like this to recruit yet more true believers, etc.
As evidence I submit that a gentleman put up a significant bounty to implement a simple game in Urbit[0]. There were no takers.
When you consider chunks of Urbit's completely reinvented network space are for sale for real cash money, it gives you a glimpse as to the rest of the project's purpose.
Urbit is the brainchild of a blogger who is prone to lead his readers on lengthy circumlocutions only to tie them up into conclusions about political systems -- if indeed they be conclusions at all -- which are not only old ideas but some of them really bad ideas which humans have tried before and proven to be really bad. While the ideas underpinning Urbit may not align with Moldbug's politics -- Urbit's design and rationale follows his methodology. The funny weird names not only for symbols but for common OS concepts like files, network endpoints, and closures, are a part of an elaborate cup-and-ball game intended to convince the unwary…
haskellandchill · 2021-10-29
You can always sacrifice speed for security. I like this design which was used to manage bitcoin: http://trilema.com/2013/mpex-tech-stuff/. Blockchain is a way of creating distributed ledgers. The rest is ideology. If you are making a publicly accessible API you can chose how to implement it. Regulations were applied to digital cash but given more run room with crypto.
DanBC · 2016-12-25
I think Cardano uses avalanche noise.
http://trilema.com/2013/snsa-first-product-the-cardano/
> E) Entropy generator. This is an avalanche noise array, with some sanity checking in place.
Have I misunderstood?
21 · 2016-06-18
He is pretty famous in the Bitcoin community.
He donated $20K to save OpenBSD, so he certainly has money for lawyers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7087800
He also is not scared easily, here is he refusing a SEC request of questionable jurisdiction - http://trilema.com/2014/interacting-with-fiat-institutions-a-guide/
andor · 2016-05-02
The announcement is here: http://trilema.com/2016/the-phuctoring/
Other related articles are in their "breaking news" category: http://trilema.com/category/breaking-news/
By the way, I just noticed I'm on their very first list, but I never got the promised email.
floodyberry- · 2016-05-02
People, such as the same nutjob who is doing it now: http://trilema.com/2015/full-disclosure-4096-rsa-key-in-the-strongset-…
Explanation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9561179
MSRogers · 2016-05-02
Yes, all this nonsense was brought up in the previous cover-up of this story also. See http://trilema.com/2015/on-how-the-factored-4096-rsa-keys-story-was-ha… for a discussion of that.
awt · 2016-04-06
Wind power is not viable: http://trilema.com/2016/heres-where-you-forget-about-wind-power-as-an-…
grubles · 2015-05-18
Possibly some people have been exposed to mircea through hearing about his insane quotes such as:
The most you can do, after having been educated/raped, is picking the what and the how for other, later, virgins.
http://trilema.com/2014/patriarchy-is-a-thing-because-nobody-likes-liv…
Or they have read his Guide To Beating Women blog post:
http://trilema.com/2011/cum-se-bate-femeia/
Or perhaps they have read how his site for betting with bitcoin screwed someone over for about $7,000 in bitcoin:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=339544.0
timothya · 2015-05-17
Meanwhile, on the original post, the author is acting like HN was tampering with the ranking of the article because it started doing poorly after people realized that a real key wasn't factored:
> "Update II : Amusingly enough, it seems Hacker News hand-diddled their story list to remove this discussion. Way to go Ydumbinator crew!" [0]
[0]: http://trilema.com/2015/full-disclosure-4096-rsa-key-in-the-strongset-…
pingec · 2014-11-17
This guy calls it BS. Any thoughts?
http://trilema.com/2014/the-united-states-scammers-service-formerly-ma…
seagreen · 2014-01-21
You don't have to keep your private key on a general purpose computer. See Cardano -- http://trilema.com/2013/snsa-first-product-the-cardano/
j_s · 2013-10-27
Thanks for the heads-up on the author; you're not the only one doubting the story: http://trilema.com/2013/badbios-aka-badlydonedamagecontrol/
At a minimum, this will inform a few more people about real work that's been done with USB and hard drive controllers (by @travisgoodspeed, @SpritesMods).
https://twitter.com/dragosr/status/393584001534812160