robwhiz22: asciilifeform, manufacturing is actually a smaller value-add than design, because someone can always copy your finalized designs.

robwhiz22: asciilifeform, I guarantee you that you will see very big value in your resulting market. In additition, no longer selling snake oil- i.e. a product that actually works in the usage cases offered - is its own reward.

robwhiz22: fluffypony, as mircea_popescu and asciilifeform have shown by slipping 4 months on their delivery schedule, it is extremely difficult to bring a security product to market. Plus, it's their idea. It really would be better for them to have the proposals for their consideration. I suppose they can also share in here if they want wider feedback.

robwhiz22: well, mircea_popescu has said in channel that he put me on ignore (a strange reaction after inviting me in here.) As I presume he and the chief engineer make joint decisions, the only way the investors in s.nsa will have the benefits of the new design, and corrections to the existing design, is if they pay for them as part of supporting their investment. ("Adding value", so they say.)

robwhiz22: mircea_popescu, however I believe you are not interested in selling snake oil and would be genuinely interested in creating a product that meets your basic claims about it.

robwhiz22: fluffypony, I've never made a sale in apublic forum like htis.

robwhiz22: They will only receive a copy of the proposal if mircea_popescu and asciilifeform decide to share it however. It is important not to get people's expectations up if some feature won't be included in the first iteration, for example.

robwhiz22: fluffypony, the amount varies. I've taken into consideration the fact that Polimedia is a 'startup' and also not asking for any equity, royalty, etc. It's also trailblazing something radically new.

robwhiz22: asciilifeform, like I said if you are convincing people to trust an insecure design that is unfit for the usage case you sell, you are a fraud. Convincing people to trust it is fraudulent.

robwhiz22: asciilifeform, it is not a main sourcecoming. I've only summarized things that render the Cardano totally unfit in its present form.

robwhiz22: asciilifeform, the issue you brought up about reflashing is one that I wanted to address very briefly in the shorter write-up on the Cardano A. I believe you've found microcontrollers that can't be reflashed from USB.

robwhiz22: asciilifeform, moreover perhaps attention to detail is what caused some of the shipping delays to begin with. This is why I wrote with a proposal to help while things can be helped.

robwhiz22: fluffypony I think they have sufficient investment to cover the design. It's a very low amount due to the category being totally new.

robwhiz22: The idea of the Cardano is quite simple. It is described in mircea_popescu's specs: http://trilema.com/2013/snsa-first-product-the-cardano/ -- it says, "Consider the case of visiting a random net cafe or public library. Without Cardano you are in a relatively tough spot : even should you carry your gpg keyring and gpg software on a USB stick, and even should you be able to install gpg software on the respective computer, typing in t

robwhiz22: Apocalyptic, yes. And the snake oil being sold here is that if you have an attacker with physical access, then if you have a Cardano you haven't lost. It's snake oil.

robwhiz22: bounce, the audience for that letter was Mircea who I think understands security to a certain level. I am happy to explain any of the points, but it was not a public document.

robwhiz22: Apocalyptic, did you read the pastebin? It was not cleaned up for a public disclosure but I can answer any questions on it.

robwhiz22: ThickAsThieves, new architectures for radically new product categories don't write themselves. It will take me six weeks just to come up with 20-50 pages at a high-level.

robwhiz22: asciilifeform, and you are the same kind of "engineer" as the ones who promise a perpetual motion machine and take investment for it from people they dupe. How does this help the conversatoin?

robwhiz22: asciilifeform, as mentioned ad hominem attacks don't improve a design. I can say that usually, companies will have several iterations of completely internal design proposals that htey will consider. I've never heard of a company that wanted to ship products thta would have wanted proposals (even from consultants etc) to be public in this way.