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rdl
39,335karma·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
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recent activity (10,537 total)
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For a one-man shop, I'd just skip the title entirely. The only downside is potentially someone seeing just the card wouldn't know if you have the authority to do deals, but I really doubt that would …
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Is there anything you'd invest $10k on a $4mm pre in that you wouldn't invest $25k in on a $4mm pre? Assuming a $500k-1mm raise. i.e., do you invest within your range based on your feelings about the…
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The other service credit unions (Tower (NSA), Pentagon Federal, and Navy Federal) are all really good, too, although not as good as USAA. USAA's insurance is top-notch, too.
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I am definitely looking at Austin and Seattle, and partially-in-Nevada, as options to California.
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You could make everything on a gun out of plastic (commonly done), except for the parts subject to the detonation and bullet (chamber, barrel). Those COULD be made from ceramic. A plastic projectile…
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Very few parts of guns require high-end machining and materials (barrels, specifically, are difficult/expensive). These are also not particularly highly controlled -- the barrel for a rifle can easil…
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Somehow, hackernews handles certain transparent caches badly -- it's the only site I use which has a problem. I'm in Kuwait, unlike 100% of the other hackernews users, and can work around it using a …
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How does the tax thing work if you build the business while in CA, but get the capital gain while a resident of another state? With US federal taxes, they actually tax you on the unrealized capital ga…
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The iPad (which I've ordered but don't have yet) is heavier than the DX, and needs to be charged a lot more frequently (especially if you leave wireless off on the DX). I think that would take it fro…
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I have a Kindle (bought 1 when it first came out, gave a 2 as a gift, now DX); plus kindle app on an ipod touch and on mac. iPad is enroute. Eagerly awaiting an Android app. I have about ~150 books …
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Also doesn't seem to take into account income and capgains tax rates; for a single person making >120k that is a substantial cost savings on its own.
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This list mostly just makes me sad. Assuming it is a proxy for demand, most of it is student loans, other consumer debt refinancing, or branded commercial Education(tm) which is unlikely to ever actua…
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Become an angel investor. Part of the value-add in your investments of money is your willingness to be a connector for portfolio.
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Yeah, I still might build it (a friend of mine from FI was interested in it, but I had to go to war at short notice). It's still not the big project I want to work on though.
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pud is a very smart guy, and I actually think the blippy concept could be successful; I just don't like the implementation. I was thinking of doing a "sharing your amazon purchases" startup (as a wa…
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The main value would be in finding other accounts to attack (some of which might have known weak security). Also, if I stole a credit card, seeing what purchases someone has made in the past would let…
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Phil Kaplan is the guy most associated with Blippy (and with the biggest reputation of the 3 people at Blippy from before Blippy). I'd consider his statement more meaningful than the CEO's. The othe…
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I don't think proceeding without "money in the bank" is THAT unusual for startups. There is a certain minimum buffer, but once an investor signs up, and paperwork/etc. is executed, most people would …
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I have been having a lot of stupid caching behavior, too (I think I have a transparent cache between me and yc, and there doesn't seem to be an Expires header. Some article pages show me as logged ou…
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I was in Iraq when this happened. It is a fairly representative incident -- the only remarkable thing is that Reuters people were involved. There have been plenty of within-rules shootings which led…
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It seems vastly more likely to me that someone "arranged" to "lose" a phone ahead of time, to get it to Gizmodo with some kind of plausible deniability. Presumably also there are uniquely identifying …
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I think the 30" ACD is even more at risk, since it has been unchanged in ~forever. It was released in June 2004!
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Would you take the 15 HD now vs. the 17? There is a very small price delta, and the screen is definitely bigger and is even marginally higher dpi still, on the 17. The 17 is slim, if big, and has an…
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I was optimistic about IPS, since they seem to have found a supplier for the iPad. I still use a thinkpad T42p for the UXGA IPS 15" screen, although the 2GB RAM, Pentium M is kind of limiting. (it's…
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If so, the only relevant question is what they will name the third independent incarnation of this service after Yahoo runs FourSquare into the ground, as Google did with Dodgeball. Destroying value w…
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(I saw I got voted down and should explain) I think the odds of failure at 50-80%, including my own company, and having a bunch of ready ways to re-deploy those people into other projects is good for …
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Are there any other incubators in Vancouver, ideally associated fairly directly with real (i.e. Silicon Valley, or at least Seattle) VCs? If someone wanted to do just the minimum legal/financial/admin…
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I like accelerators for two reasons:
1) Having a same-time-founded cohort of companies. Moral support, entertainment, and when ~80% of them fail, you can pick and choose assets (great developers) hav…
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I could see someone smart investing a small amount purely for bizdev/dealflow.