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rdl

39,337karma·10,537submissions·July 8, 2008
about
Working on stuff at the intersection of cryptocurrency and computer security. Also a Puerto Rico resident (Act 20/22); happy to help people move to Puerto Rico to take advantage of the federal tax exemption, 0% capital gains rate, and 4% business income tax rate. Also FFL07/SOT02.

Chief Security Officer for Evertas Insurance -- the world's first cryptoasset insurance carrier. https://evertas.com/

Previously, CEO and Co-Founder of CryptoSeal (YC S11), which was sold to CloudFlare on 2 June 2014. CISO/Board Member of Tezos Foundation 2018-2020.

Previous startup founder (HavenCo, a couple ecash projects, distributed colo, and DoD/Iraq contracting, new thing), too. Deeply interested in computer security, infrastructure, security, conflict zones, and making the world a better place.

Aside from living on a Caribbean island during crypto export controlled 1990s, I've lived on a tiny artificial platform in the North Sea, plus more reasonable places like London, Amsterdam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and spent 6 months diving in Thailand.

"I, the greengrocer XY, live here and I know what I must do. I behave in the manner expected of me. I can be depended upon and am beyond reproach. I am obedient and therefore I have the right to be left in peace."

Email: ryan@venona.com (etc) Twitter: @octal https://twitter.com/octal LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlackey

Top color: aaaaaa

recent activity (10,537 total)
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I think it's totally reasonable to not want to go (back) to a process-driven organization -- that's why a lot of founders end up leaving, even before a 4 year vesting period is done, to go do other th…
16y ago·view thread
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Same problem with low-resolution webcam video. I'm not arguing against the value of seeing someone in person (although depending on the context I would be happy to give up the extra data to get the wh…
16y ago·view thread
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I see the value for some jobs, but audio seems like it is just as good as video, much cheaper, less intrusive, and vastly more accessible.
16y ago·view thread
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I already try to get transcripts/notes from interrogations^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hinterviews for this very reason. 90% of the information in 1% of the time (for a live interview, with hassle) or 10…
16y ago·view thread
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Time limits per question or per questionnaire would be useful. There are really two reasons: 1) Intelligence (and often job performance) is measured by how fast a problem can be solved. Within limit…
16y ago·view thread
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If you could be a framework for any kind of question/response (and I think timed and interactive would be a plus), that would be great. If you could then make the "grading and evaluation" workflow on…
16y ago·view thread
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I can think of some (admittedly contrived) scenarios where being allowed to discriminate on illegal-in-the-US traits would be beneficial to the company. For instance, I think women would be much more…
16y ago·view thread
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I have hired for or at 5 companies so far. I've never used video, and I have hired people based solely on phone conversations, or IRC conversations -- but usually phone/irc followed by an in-person in…
16y ago·view thread
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Discrimination can be done by employees even if it's not a company-wide policy.
16y ago·view thread
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I think you're right to want people to be off the cuff, and also relaxed. I would personally try to emulate the traditional phone interview, optionally with video -- start off with some chitchat and …
16y ago·view thread
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I think it's a lot easier for one interviewer in a team of a few, going over a big pool of applicants, to reject people for personal/stupid/illegal reasons if he can do so anonymously. Say there are …
16y ago·view thread
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I think realtime interaction is the key element missing from most early-stage screenings, not video. I'd rather have an IM/irc/voice chat with someone, propose problems, and observe how he tries to s…
16y ago·view thread
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Maybe I'm just paranoid and have low expectations for humanity, but I think the main demand for video interviews would be to do racial/ethnic/attractiveness discrimination on candidates. Early in the…
16y ago·view thread
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Given that it had pretty good traction as a bookmark site (and certainly wasn't the only project joshu had developed...actually several of the others were more interesting), it's very reasonable to be…
16y ago·view thread
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In Iraq.
16y ago·view thread
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True; and according to NS Savannah's reports, it actually would have been viable during the 1970s. I wonder if there would be a business in either operating nuclear civilian ships, or outsourced react…
16y ago·view thread
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Startup 1 (HavenCo): I regret not being "incrementalist" enough -- should have had a plan for $200k, $500k, $1m, etc., not a plan for $5-10mm in spend. I'm still not sure if it would have ended up an…
16y ago·view thread
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He sold a vibrant, viable business to...yahoo. Enough said.
16y ago·view thread
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What could an investor or board have done to have gotten you to agree with this back then? Offered $5-10mm cash off the table in another round?
16y ago·view thread
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I think you have it all wrong. Food for pets has been done too many times, there is no opportunity there. The market is in food MADE OF pets, or perhaps home conversion kits to turn pets into food. …
16y ago·view thread
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The unsolved issue in nuclear maritime is making it cost effective, including all life-cycle costs. The US actually had a couple commercial transports which were nuclear powered (NS Savannah being th…
16y ago·view thread
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Systems like these (tactical SIGINT, vs. the kind of strategic collection of everything. like NSA does) have been part of war pretty much ever since radio was invented. Most of Rommel's awesomeness in…
16y ago·view thread
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The challenge is definitely liquid fuels for transportation, especially aviation. Stationary applications can easily go electric, and conceivably maritime transport could go to electric powered by nu…
16y ago·view thread
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Many of the Kindle Ones had bad batteries which would self-discharge; Amazon would replace them for free. I had this problem (charge would only last a day or so), but I broke my K1 before getting it …
16y ago·view thread
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I disagree with his anti-engineering and anti-research points. Attacking pseudo-technical degrees like undergraduate business, sure. Attacking humanities research, sure. When I was at MIT, the best …
16y ago·view thread
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What's the reason for shifting?
16y ago·view thread
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It's interesting that they give out stock vs. cash as an employee referral bonus. I've never seen companies do that before, I'm not sure why. It's usually either a meaningless amount of cash ($250? …
16y ago·view thread
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I think it would be difficult morally for a doctor to do that. "Do no harm", and all. The most soulless way for an unethical MD to make money is probably to work with insurance companies to deny cove…
16y ago·view thread
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Your 3 examples are great, but they often end up being huge amounts of consulting -- you need to integrate with the quirks of how the specific practice works, and whatever hardware and existing system…
16y ago·view thread
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Hunter's Point is actually very low population density, especially due to large properties like Hunters Point Naval Station and other industrial sites which are fenced and controlled. Bayview is highe…
16y ago·view thread