diff --git a/content/journal/migrating-from-github-to-sourcehut/index.md b/content/journal/migrating-from-github-to-sourcehut/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..abcc309 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/journal/migrating-from-github-to-sourcehut/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +--- +title: "Migrating from Github to Sourcehut" +date: 2024-10-31T16:05:04-04:00 +draft: false +references: +- title: "Cryptocurrency is an abject disaster" + url: https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disaster.html + date: 2024-10-31T20:10:12Z + file: drewdevault-com-yuxzdw.txt +--- + diff --git a/static/archive/drewdevault-com-yuxzdw.txt b/static/archive/drewdevault-com-yuxzdw.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ca105d --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/drewdevault-com-yuxzdw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,156 @@ +Cryptocurrency is an abject disaster April 26, 2021 on [1]Drew DeVault's blog + +This post is long overdue. Let’s get it over with. + +πŸ›‘ Hey! If you write a comment about this article online, disclose your stake in +cryptocurrency. I will explain why later in this post. For my part, I held +<$10,000 USD worth of Bitcoin prior to 2016, plus small amounts of altcoins. I +made a modest profit on my holdings. Today my stake in all cryptocurrency is +$0. + +Starting on May 1st, users of sourcehut’s CI service will be required to be on +a paid account, a change which will affect about half of all builds.sr.ht +users.^[2]1 Over the past several months, everyone in the industry who provides +any kind of free CPU resources has been dealing with a massive outbreak of +abuse for cryptocurrency mining. The industry has been setting up informal +working groups to pool knowledge of mitigations, communicate when our platforms +are being leveraged against one another, and cumulatively wasting thousands of +hours of engineering time implementing measures to deal with this abuse, and +responding as attackers find new ways to circumvent them. + +Cryptocurrency has invented an entirely new category of internet abuse. CI +services like mine are not alone in this struggle: JavaScript miners, botnets, +and all kinds of other illicit cycles are being spent solving pointless math +problems to make money for bad actors. Some might argue that abuse is +inevitable for anyone who provides a public service β€” but prior to +cryptocurrency, what kind of abuse would a CI platform endure? Email spam? +Block port 25. Someone might try to host their website on ephemeral VMs with +dynamic DNS or something, I dunno. Someone found a way of monetizing stolen CPU +cycles directly, so everyone who offered free CPU cycles for legitimate +use-cases is now unable to provide those services. If not for cryptocurrency, +these services would still be available. + +Don’t make the mistake of thinking that these are a bunch of script kiddies. +There are large, talented teams of engineers across several organizations +working together to combat this abuse, and they’re losing. A small sample of +tactics I’ve seen or heard of include: + + β€’ Using CPU limiters to manipulate monitoring tools. + β€’ Installing crypto miners into the build systems for free software projects + so that the builds appear legitimate. + β€’ Using password dumps to steal login credentials for legitimate users and + then leveraging their accounts for mining. + +I would give more examples, but secrecy is a necessary part of defending +against this β€” which really sucks for an organization that otherwise strives to +be as open and transparent as sourcehut does. + +Cryptocurrency problems are more subtle than outright abuse, too. The integrity +and trust of the entire software industry has sharply declined due to +cryptocurrency. It sets up perverse incentives for new projects, where +developers are no longer trying to convince you to use their software because +it’s good, but because they think that if they can convince you it will make +them rich. I’ve had to develop a special radar for reading product pages now: a +mounting feeling of dread as a promising technology is introduced while I +inevitably arrive at the buried lede: it’s more crypto bullshit. Cryptocurrency +is the multi-level marketing of the tech world. β€œHi! How’ve you been? Long time +no see! Oh, I’ve been working on this cool distributed database file store +archive thing. We’re doing an ICO next week.” Then I leave. Any technology +which is not an (alleged) currency and which incorporates blockchain anyway +would always work better without it. + +There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cryptocurrency scams and ponzi +schemes trussed up to look like some kind of legitimate offering. Even if the +project you’re working on is totally cool and solves all of these problems, +there are 100 other projects pretending to be like yours which are ultimately +concerned with transferring money from their users to their founders. Which one +are investors more likely to invest in? Hint: it’s the one that’s more +profitable. Those promises of β€œwe’re different!” are always hollow anyway. +Remember the [3]DAO? They wanted to avoid social arbitration entirely for +financial contracts, but when the chips are down and their money was walking +out the door, they forked the blockchain. + +That’s what cryptocurrency is all about: not novel technology, not empowerment, +but making money. It has failed as an actual currency outside of some isolated +examples of failed national economies. No, cryptocurrency is not a currency at +all: it’s an investment vehicle. A tool for making the rich richer. And that’s +putting it nicely; in reality it has a lot more in common with a Ponzi scheme +than a genuine investment. What β€œvalue” does solving fake math problems +actually provide to anyone? It’s all bullshit. + +And those few failed economies whose people are desperately using +cryptocurrency to keep the wheel of their fates spinning? Those make for a good +headline, but how about the rural communities whose tax dollars subsidized the +power plants which the miners have flocked to? People who are [4]suffering +blackouts as their power is siphoned into computing SHA-256 as fast as possible +while dumping an entire country worth of COβ‚‚ into the atmosphere?^[5]2 No, +cryptocurrency does not help failed states. It exploits them. + +Even those in the (allegedly) working economies of the first world have been +impacted by cryptocurrency. The price of consumer GPUs have gone sharply up in +the past few months. And, again, what are these GPUs being used for? Running +SHA-256 in a loop, as fast as possible. Rumor has it that hard drives are up +next. + +Maybe your cryptocurrency is different. But look: you’re in really poor +company. When you’re the only honest person in the room, maybe you should be in +a different room. It is impossible to trust you. Every comment online about +cryptocurrency is tainted by the fact that the commenter has probably invested +thousands of dollars into a Ponzi scheme and is depending on your agreement to +make their money back.^[6]3 Not to mention that any attempts at reform, like +proof-of-stake, are viciously blocked by those in power (i.e. those with the +money) because of any risk it poses to reduce their bottom line. No, your +blockchain is not different. + +Cryptocurrency is one of the worst inventions of the 21st century. I am ashamed +to share an industry with this exploitative grift. It has failed to be a useful +currency, invented a new class of internet abuse, further enriched the rich, +wasted staggering amounts of electricity, hastened climate change, ruined +hundreds of otherwise promising projects, provided a climate for hundreds of +scams to flourish, created shortages and price hikes for consumer hardware, and +injected perverse incentives into technology everywhere. Fuck cryptocurrency. + +A personal note + +This rant has been a long time coming and is probably one of the most justified +expressions of anger I've written for this blog yet. However, it will probably +be the last one. + +I realize that my blog has been a source of a lot of negativity in the past, +and I regret how harsh I've been with some of the projects I've criticised. I +will make my arguments by example going forward: if I think we can do better, +I'll do it better, instead of criticising those who are just earnestly trying +their best. + +Thanks for reading πŸ™‚ Let's keep making the software world a better place. +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + + 1. If this is the first you’re hearing of this, a graceful migration is + planned: [7]details here [8]β†©οΈŽ + + 2. β€œBut crypto is far from the worst contributor to climate change!” Yeah, but + at least the worst offenders provide value to society. See also [9] + Whataboutism. [10]β†©οΈŽ + + 3. This is why I asked you to disclose your stake in your comment upfront. + [11]β†©οΈŽ + +The content for this site is [12]CC-BY-SA. The [13]code for this site is [14] +MIT. + +References: + +[1] https://drewdevault.com/ +[2] https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disaster.html#fn:1 +[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_DAO_(organization) +[4] https://www.rferl.org/a/bitcoin-blackouts-russian-cryptocurrency-miners-minting-millions-sucking-abkhazia-electricity-grid-dry/30968307.html +[5] https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disaster.html#fn:2 +[6] https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disaster.html#fn:3 +[7] https://man.sr.ht/ops/builds.sr.ht-migration.md +[8] https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disaster.html#fnref:1 +[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism +[10] https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disaster.html#fnref:2 +[11] https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disaster.html#fnref:3 +[12] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ +[13] https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/drewdevault.com +[14] https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT