Intro
Digital currencies are usually secured using cryptography, a mathematical coding. Cryptography does not protect a currency from hostile outsiders unless it is secure from everybody, which most cryptography isn't for very long. Every 'public key' type cryptography is eventually broken by advances in math. Any malicious entity with sufficient resources can crack any coin that relies on flawed cryptography even if they know nothing about the coin or the group that uses the coin.
When a group or government has cracked an algorithm it is usually not known publicly for many years.
An early Bitcoin flaw allowed hackers to 'print' billions of counterfeit Bitcoin.
https://hackernoon.com/bitcoins-biggest-hack-in-history-184-4-ded46310d4ef
Any 'public key' code will be broken eventually for reasons having to do with how groups develop paradigms.
There is no permanent ‘secure group code’ or 'secure public key cryptography' aside from those that include 'one time cyphers' and nuanced codes which evolve among users, such as spoken languages.
By properly using tribal languages in the mining and securing of a currency, the number of people who can crack a currency is reduced somewhat to the number of people who speak the language, to the degree used to secure the coin.
The only absolutely secure cryptographic system is a one time cypher. In practical terms this would involve every person having a memory device like a usb which had a vast number of random characters divided into various sections, some of which would be partially shared with other members of a network. There is a very good reason that governments use one time cyphers, and not public key cryptography, for their sensitive communications.
Biometrics are not ultimately secure because they are always reducible to the same numbers, and always available to anybody who can access a person's DNA, fingerprint, retina etc, but they are the best tool for individual security in digital wallets, at least in places where body parts trafficking is unlikely.
Using a combination of cryptography and local spoken language to code coins, in other words requiring that a user of a currency speak some of the language, would greatly increase the security of digital currencies and economies.
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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmR07xhrZ72UJMeRLqip7Xox2V9aMEiTm
Basics of digital currency
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page or
https://www.binance.vision/ or
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_currency
Links to websites that promote indigenous economies
https://mazaskatalks.org/about/
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Digital currencies are likely to transition to an 'artificial intelligence ecosystem' sometime soon. That just means that 'coins' will be created by people doing simple tasks on their computers which improve their network's algorithm, and the algorithms will be some kind of processes which develop sciences.
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- Mazacoin was the first attempt at making a tribal currency
You can watch an interview with the founder of Mazacoin https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o_ISpsRwDc0
Or this Mazacoin video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3BoQGkCu_Fk
Mazacoin was made by Payu Harris, an Oglala Sioux. Coins were pretty new when he made Mazacoin and a lot of mistakes were made that had never been made before, mainly because he was doing something new.
Anybody planning a tribal currency should start by learning from Mazacoin's mistakes. Native people who are not familiar with the dangers of being 'the visible face' of a project should especially pay attention to all the attacks made against Payu online.
He did not do that well, trying to make an indigenous coin, but he has to be respected for being willing to step up again and again as he was being attacked.
Politics and money are both dirty businesses and it's important to be careful.
Some mistakes to avoid.
- Payu tried to be too inclusive
It's fine to be inclusive up to a point, but some things should not be entirely open to everybody. The United States has always encouraged the silly idea that government projects deserve privacy and limited access, while individual projects must be open to everybody.
Mazacoin tried to cater to anybody and everybody. The coin got a lot of publicity internationally, and immediately the wealthiest miners started mining and got a monopoly on the coin.
So there was never really a chance for Natives to own more than a tiny amount of the first 'Native currency'.
A Native currency should not be distributed primarily to non Natives. It isn't discrimination, it's common sense.
- All of Mazacoin's vulnerabilities were public
Mazacoin relied on the same types of security as other altcoins with no additional security features. Consequently it was repeatedly attacked until an attack that left it unusable for a while.
A tribal currency should have hidden security features, and contingency plans for dealing with problems. The most important security feature available easily to tribal currencies is the use of a tribal language amongst the users of the currency to secure the coin. If you need to know 100 words of the language to mine or spend a Native coin, 99% of attackers are going to avoid it.
There are frequent attacks on coins that do not have any central authority. A tribal coin could have a mechanism where fraudulent transactions are undone, but it would have to figure out a way to prevent a few individuals from seizing control, as happens with fiat and low quality coins.
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/did-the-plustoken-scam-cause-a-bitcoin-price-dip
One security option is to have a financial authority that only has the power to freeze the blockchain temporarily to burn or freeze coins that are hacked. All of their actions would have to be public.
Yet another option would be to have each coin or fraction of a coin 'colored' so anybody could claim publicly 'such and such colored coin is stolen' and even if the transaction were obscured the individual coin could be identified after it changed wallets. There can be millions of colors for coins, each different. BitGem is an early example of a coin that users could color, but it's version of coloring was to make gems with different colors, sizes etc. https://bitgem.rocks/
Here are some bitcoin addresses with hundreds of millions of dollars total, and there is no way to recover the money easily because bitcoin users have been forced to sacrifice security in order to use a decentralized system. The whole reason for using a decentralized secure system is that melting pots are full of people trying to sabotage their own melting pot, as well as enemies from other melting pots trying to sabotage them.
https://medium.com/@team_cryptoquant/plus-token-fund-tracking-analysis-ee517e63668f
Indigenous language coins that are used by a unified tribe do not need to be so decentralized. In some tribes where the people have been set against each other fighting over U.S. politics, that political issue should be solved first. A big part of colonization is driving a wedge between tribes so people in tribes fight against one another.
- Payu trusted outsiders to help him with the coin
Natives should know better by now.
Payu may not have known enough to make a coin by himself at the time. He should have waited, learned, then acted when he knew enough. Instead he onboarded some shady outside characters who steered him in circles.
Tribes should handle tribal currencies. If you can't do it then learn rather than trusting outsiders. It might sound undemocratic but it's common sense.
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The key to a secure tribal currency will be the use of a tribal language within as many aspects of the coin as possible, so that it cannot be spent, transacted, used without some knowledge of the language. Creating the coin, 'mining', also has to be restricted to people who know some of the language.
Ideally the programming language should be dependent on local language as well.
Below are some general suggestions for a group starting a tribal currency.
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1) Once you know a bit about digital currencies, look for somebody in your tribe who knows more than you, somebody who has studied computer science / networking etc.
2) If that person is agreeable to the project, look for some old people familiar with politics. Older people will have a better sense of how to avoid some general dangers young people won't see.
3) First you should create a test currency to learn with. The test currency can have a lifespan, for example 5 years, after which it will convert to a certain percentage of the new currency. For example the entire supply of the test currency, all of its coins, might convert to 10% of the 'final currency'. When the test currency expires each holder will get 1 new coin for every 10 old ones, and the remaining 90% of the 'new' currency can be distributed according to what was learned during the test currency phase.
As a test currency you could first just use a clone or cookie cutter coin experimentally.
A lot of established fairly secure networks also are starting to create ways to 'issue your own coin' as well, including.
https://www.cryptopolitan.com/how-to-create-your-own-cryptocurrency/
The first fork of Bitcoin resulted in two high quality coins. The larger one by current usage is called 'Bitcoin' in English, the second is called 'Bitcoin Cash'. Bitcoin Cash has several new ways to make your own private currency, the newest being 'SLP'.
https://simpleledger.cash/get-started/
or just use
https://simpleledger.cash/project/electron-cash-slp-edition/
You can see the latest SLP tokens created at
https://explorer.bitcoin.com/bch/tokens
but, as with all tokens and coins, beware of people asking for donations to 'help orphans' or whatever. Many coins are created to trick people into giving money without actually doing what they claim to do.
Cookie cutter coins/tokens have proliferated, in fact most coins that exist today are clone coins with a tiny change. These coins used to be referred to by some people generically as coingen coins, after an early coin clone service http://cryptolife.net/avoiding-coins-created-with-coingen/
Today it is not considered so dishonorable to create instant knockoff coins, simply because they are the norm.
https://medium.com/@brenn.a.hill/how-to-make-a-custom-token-on-stellar-ae5296512a2e
https://cryptorials.io/how-anyone-can-make-their-own-digital-currency/
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-create-your-own-cryptocurrency-1825337462
Using an established platform like Stellar or bch, or many others, you can create a test currency just to practice. You must make an original coin though as your final tribal currency. Some major platforms have flaws that put all of the tokens created on them at risk. More importantly, long term security must be derived from using coding quirks that are unique to the specific spoken language. There is no other long term way to guarantee security. The basic premise of public key cryptography is flawed long term and there are other issues as well with using another group's language to code functions that require security.
4) Several aspects of digital currencies commonly used should be adapted specifically for tribal currency.
a) "Immutability of the blockchain" is respected among regular currencies i.e., "trust the code, not the people". That means in part that once a transaction happens, once you buy or sell something, the transaction cannot be reversed unless both parties agree. But a tribal currency should have defensive measures in place that allow changes in the event of a hack or algorithm issue or other problems.
b) Proof of stake, with a low to moderate interest rate would help keep the network active in the beginning and would have other benefits.
c) Some of the coding, and other security measures, should involve incorporating the language into the coin at a basic level, as well as requiring constant input in the language to mine the coin or transact.
d) The network should be fully transparent. It should have explorers that show all wallets, transactions and history. Part of the current stage of colonialization is trying to push Natives into corporate units based on a Western European interpretation of society. This is a complex issue that does not have a good solution yet. Part of the melting pot strategy is to create cliques within the conquered society i.e., divide and conquer. Native groups are given piles of colonial cash, for example casinos, then secretive deals are used to lure parts of the Native group into alliances with the colonizers. Transparent networks would help limit the ability of outsiders to interfere.
5) Initial distribution is the most important factor in the credibility of the coin.
- If it is a tribal coin then distribute it initially to tribal members only.
- If part of the goal is language survival then use of the language can be incentivized through distribution. People who speak more of the language get more coins initially. A test currency gives a window during which more people can learn some of the language.
- Some consideration should be given to initially distributing a very small number of coins as a buffer with other economies i.e., maybe 1% or less of coins available to sell in exchange for other currencies. History shows this percentage should be small.
- If all tribal members are given a quantity of hardcoded unspendable coins that only generate 'proof of stake' interest, it will prevent reckless people from spending all their money, they will only be able to spend the interest.
Once there are several secure, cohesive networks based on language or tribe, it will be possible to use a new algorithm that will strengthen those coins and create 'work' that will generate significant income for individuals and do some other important things.
One of the first ways a colonizing entity weakens a nation is by eliminating their homogeneity or ‘oneness’. Colonizers typically commit rapes on a large scale, then slowly start taking ‘war brides’ etc, until there is not a distinct line between the two cultures. Any currency should have a tribal aspect which favors the actual tribe i.e., favors full blooded tribal people, and a federal aspect which favors those who exist between tribes or between a melting pot and a tribe. Most public Natives are fairly melting potted, so it's a simple matter of integrity for mixed race people to pick a side and defend it, even if they don't get full benefits.
~In Progress