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Came across some interesting news recently regarding Block.one (the creator of EOS) which will be launching a blockchain-based social media platform called VOICE:

• coindesk: Block.One Is Launching a Social Media Platform on the EOS Blockchain
• BlockchainNews: Block.one Plans to Tackle Pitfalls of Social Media With New Blockchain Community Called “Voice” (includes a video of the June 1 presentation including the key speakers CEO Brendan Blumer and Developer Dan Larimer – who also developed the Steemit blockchain)
• CryptoNinjas: Block.one unveils “Voice” blockchain-based social media platform
• cointelegraph: Eos Developer Block.one Announces Blockchain-Based Social Media Platform Voice

Official News Notice: Block.one Introduces “Voice” to Bring Alignment and Transparency to Social Media

Now, while the speakers pitch a fanciful picture of an idealized social media platform – void of bots and fake accounts/users - there are some very troubling aspects I have noticed and some dangerous red flags to be noticed, at least when one reads between the lines amidst all the hype and hoopla.

In this article, I will make a brief case as to why I think this promise of a new social media platform which will liberate, empower & enrich us (through their “Voice” token) and not censor us (as is the case w/ Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) is really a...

cleverly disguised façade and trap to get the masses sucked into a beast system of control on blockchain.

First red flag: you need to watch the first part of the video whereby EOS CEO Brendan Blumer brings us back to 2008 with the stock market crashes. He [rightfully] laments about how for the past century these financial banking institutions that we have depended on for so long are just not trustworthy at all.

Screenshot from the YouTuber BritVR starting at the 01:59 mark . Source. The official video can be found here.

He then asks if there is a better way for this whole system to function followed by emphasizing the merits of cryptos and a better set of “checks & balances” (i.e., blockchains). While he is completely right about what he is saying, there is zero transition from this initial point about corrupt bankers or how this problem will be solved, or how it relates to Voice. Rather, he just shifts off talking about blockchain. So, I need to ask myself: what was the purpose of mentioning this if it has seemingly nothing to do with this new social media platform called Voice? It just seems to me like it’s an indirect or subliminal message implying that “we need to get out of this evil system”.

But as you read on through the rest of my post below, I’m afraid that what Blumer appears to be tacitly implying as a way to get out of this evil system, may in fact be a trap into a much more sinister one from which there will be no escape.

Too expand a little, let me quote from the coindesk article from above which remarks the following about Blumer [emphasis added]:

He also promised that Voice will do a better job of keeping out bots and trolls than previous social networks, without really going into the mechanics of doing so. Previously, though, Block.one brought on stage a product lead from Yubico, the makers of YubiKey, to talk about ways in which EOS would integrate with WebAuthn, a password-less standard recently approved by the W3C, which governs the worldwide web.

Note that Block.one is the parent company of the EOS project. The key passage here is “talk about ways in which EOS would integrate with WebAuthn, a password-less standard recently approved by the W3C”. WebAuthn (see also webauthn.me and webauthn.guide) is a proposed authentication standard for the web developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

A pretty good recent (March 4, 2019) article from ZDNet entitled W3C finalizes Web Authentication (WebAuthn) standard sums up the idea/key features rather well; here are some key excerpts [emphasis added]:

• WebAuthn is what security experts are calling a passwordless authentication system and what they see as the future of user account security.
• WebAuthn allows users to register and authenticate on websites or mobile apps using an "authenticator" instead of a password.
• The standard is already supported in browsers like Google Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, and the preview version of Apple's Safari. It is also supported on Android and Windows 10.
• Development on the WebAuthn standard started back in November 2015, after the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance donated the FIDO 2.0 specifications to the W3C.
• The WebAuthn API is an upgrade of FIDO U2F and will support a multitude of other authentication systems besides USB-stored security keys --including biometrics.
• Besides W3C and browser makers, the FIDO Alliance has also greatly contributed to the new WebAuthn standard.
• The FIDO Alliance is an industry consortium that includes some of the tech world's largest companies. The FIDO Alliance's main mission is to create interoperable authentication methods and standards fit for the future of technology and move users and devices away from using antiquated passwords-based login systems.

In short, they want to...

get rid of pesky logins and passwords and replace them with biometrics.

This is where I have a major issue. But before getting into that worry, let me spend some time inspecting more about these two key players: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the FIDO Alliance.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

This organization is fairly well-known, as it is the pioneering group that created the World Wide Web in 1989 by the brilliant Tim Berners-Lee. The Web has changed our lives in dramatic ways, mostly in very good ones. And we certainly owe a lot to this pioneer and the W3C organization itself.

But my worry lies in the future of the Web, namely with those responsible for drafting the standards and creating this new Web Authentication System.

More specifically, the editors and contributors are from a very narrow, yet extremely powerful, players – mostly from Google and Microsoft.

Here is a quick snapshot of these figures listed on their Web Authentication: An API for accessing Public Key Credentials, Level 1, W3C Recommendation, 4 March 2019 page:

We pretty much know by now that Google has engaged in some pretty nefarious activities over the years – not limited to political bias and favoritism, significant data breaches, secretive projects, search result manipulation, and outright censorship.

As for Microfost, they have had their fair share of misdoings too. Apart from engaging in monopolistic and bullying business practices, they have also been known to include covert surveillance code into their operating systems, application software, and communication technologies which they have (like Google) readily shared with governments, intelligence agencies, and countless other third parties. Furthermore, like with their co-founder Bill Gates, they are well-known globalists who are certainly in favor of creating a highly centralized network of control (e.g., have you ever tried to opt out of Windows 10 automatic updates?).

I could go on and on about Google and Microsoft, but I think most of you know in which camp their true values, morals, , practices, and allegiances lie – mostly with G20/UN/Globalist type agencies, governments, big corporations, and supranational organizations.

Regardless of the individual credentials of the people on that list above, you need to consider the power players and behind them; think of a globalist and recent Bilderberg attendee Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO & Alphabet head) who still retains a tremendous amount of power and influence over the unit.

The FIDO Alliance

As mentioned in the ZDNet article above, the FIDO Alliance (FIDO stands for Fast IDentity Online) “donated” the FIDO 2.0 specifications to the W3C.

What the heck do they mean by “donated”?

Having worked in tech myself (going back to the 1980s) I’ve never heard of such a thing.

Here, I might surmise that the W3C could have been coerced into letting this powerful alliance (see members below) set the stage for Web 2.0.

So, let’s have a closer look at this FIDO Alliance group. Here are 3 key pages from their website:

• W3C and FIDO Alliance Finalize Web Standard for Secure, Passwordless Logins (March 4, 2019)
• Board of Directors
• FIDO Members

A few excerpts from the first [emphasis added]:

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the FIDO Alliance today announced the Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification is now an official web standard. This advancement is a major step forward in making the web more secure – and usable – for users around the world.

W3C’s WebAuthn Recommendation, a core component of the FIDO Alliance’s FIDO2 set of specifications[i], is a browser/platform standard for simpler and stronger authentication. It is already supported in Windows 10, Android, and Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari (preview) web browsers.

WebAuthn allows users to log into their internet accounts using their preferred device.

Web services and apps can – and should – turn on this functionality to give their users the option to log in more easily via biometrics, mobile devices and/or FIDO security keys, and with much higher security over passwords alone.

“Now is the time for web services and businesses to adopt WebAuthn to move beyond vulnerable passwords and help web users improve the security of their online experiences,” said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO.

Lots more red flags here folks.

While this – to be able to log in to one’s internet accounts without annoying passwords – may all sound quite convenient, the privacy implications are quite grave.

Yes, security is said to be there in terms of the real account holder logging into somewhere or posting on social media or some other platform or app and that is nice and dandy (although rest assured people always find a way to cheat the system – an inevitable reality that is to be expected); but I think the larger issue that is not being discussed at all here is PRIVACY.

Not everyone wants the world to know who they are, what they do, what they think, whom they interact with, what they use, what they buy, and so forth.

Unfortunately, it strongly appears that the future of the Web and its mainstream tools (e.g., web browsers), applications (e.g., messaging, Google Play/Store apps), and services (e.g., email, online banking, and social networking) will seemingly force everyone to be visibly IDENTIFYIABLE, TRACKABLE, and potentially SUBJECT TO SCRUTINITY, PUNISHMENT, and BEING REPORTED TO UNFORGIVING AUTHORITIES.

Now let’s have a look at a few who sit on the Board of Directors:

The top / most powerful member of the Board of Directors is Mr. Brett McDowell who “serves on the Boston Federal Reserve Banks’ Mobile Payments Industry Workgroup”.

This is ONE HUGE RED FLAG for me, as anyone from the US Federal Reserve System takes their orders from the larger Federal Reserve central bank of the United States which takes its orders from the Bank for International Settlements and International Banking Cabal; they are the ones that have financially enslaved humanity for at least the last century.

These nefarious banksters are the ones who are currently plotting and scheming the next monetary system which will replace the current dying fiat monetary system.

The new system will likely be a digital currency on a blockchain as often mentioned by none other than Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF (International Monetary Fund, or International Mafia Federation as some call them).

Thus, having one’s personal/private data and [most likely their] biometric information on such a blockchain is extremely worrisome to say the least.

Once you get sucked into that matrix of control, there is literally no way out!

You will have to be a good little world citizen and play by the rules set by this establishment, lest you be punished severely, thrown in prison, or memory-hole’d never to be seen again.

Number two on the Board list is Mr. Sam Srinivas:

Mr. Srinivas is a director of Information Security at Google.

Once again, I needn’t get into the gory details about the abuses that Google has committed over the years (actually, maybe I’ll just mention the latest one: Google Parses Your Gmail For Financial Transactions).

Suffice it to say that a top Google figure sitting on this board funnels a lot of toxic precedents into what is suppose to be a more “noble” Web 2.0.

As if the banking powers and tech media giants weren’t enough we have plenty of other power players in terms of FIDO Members. Here is a list of notable ones:

• Amazon (for their track record on security & privacy I highly recommend you watch this video entitled WARNING Amazon com SPIES on you! by Mike Adams of www.naturalnews.com – a website that was completely deleted from Google a few years back, I must add).

• Facebook

• Google

• Microsoft

• Alibaba Group (note that Alibaba is tied at the hip with the Chinese Communist Gov’t and it is highly to be expected that they would share everything with them, most likely in concordance with their Social Credit Score system which will likely be replicated in other countries).

• Bank of America

• JP Morgan Chase (a bank that has heavily been involved in manipulating markets, especially precious metals)

• Goldman Sachs (a bank that has a reputation for cheating its customers)

• Wells Fargo (an extremely dishonest bank with a horrible track record of breaching and abusing customers’ data and privacy)

• ING Bank

• RBC (Royal Bank of Canada)

• mastercard

• Visa

• PayPal

• Intel

• Qualcomm

• Lenovo

• Samsung

• Huawei

• LG

• Symantec

• Verizon

Notice the payment processing & credit card companies such as PayPal, mastercard, and Visa; these are the big players for payment of goods & services. PayPal has been known to unfairly remove and exclude certain individuals and groups from their payment system solely based on their political ideology. Also worthy of paying attention to are cell/smart phone manufacturers (like Samsung & LG), computer providers (like Lenovo), and chip makers (Intel & Qualcomm), as these players have a tremendous presence and amount of influence with the devices they manufacture which are used by billions of individuals around the globe. In addition, we have a significant telecom provider/carrier – Verizon (who has previously turned over customers’ telephone records to the NSA under the latter’s Prism mass surveillance program) from the USA among others that figure in the complete list. The criminal banks of Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs inevitably have their overreaching tentacles in the mix. Needless to say, Facebook isn’t exactly the poster child for a new Web standard of personal security; so one has to wonder in what (detrimental) ways they are influencing the endeavor.

Make no mistake; these are extremely important and influential players in their respective industries.

Of course, it could be said that they all have a legitimate stake or interest in this type of Web 2.0 authentication technology and justifiably so. I am not denying that.

All I am saying is that many of these companies have a proven track record of abuses, customer data breaches, and even overt and unaccounted/unpunished criminal behavior to the detriment of their own customers.

Therefore, we need to be more vigilant and questioning regarding their presence in this group.

Voice’s Privacy Policy

Now let’s get back to Block.one, the developer of the EOS blockchain and now Voice.com.

As millions (if not billions) have been fooled and duped regarding the fine print of Google, Facbook, & Twitter’s privacy policies in the past several years, we need to be extra vigilant not to fall into the same traps and pitfalls.

I know it’s tedious, time-consuming, cumbersome, and outright annoying to read through these policies (I think most would rather watch paint dry…) but it is imperative that we do so and not simply be too trusting that these entities will have our best interests at heart.

If we have a look at the Privacy Policy for Voice we can already see some extremely worrying points. Here are selected ones followed by accompanying comments on my part [emphasis added]:

Block.one and its affiliates (“Block.one“, “we”, “us” or “our”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. At the same time, we strongly believe that accountability and transparency are important and these principles underpin Voice.

By “accountability & “transparency” I surmise that they are implying that people who post or interact on their platform be locatable and identifiable (i.e., being able to identify a specific individual using biometrics or other means).

We collect limited amounts of your personal data when you visit the Website. This data is not made available publicly and is stored and processed by our trusted third-party partner, MailChimp… Your data, when stored by MailChimp, will be protected by them with state-of-the-art security and is accessible only by authorised employees and our trusted partners, and only when necessary.

Actually, Mailchimp does not appear to be a secure third-party to entrust user data, as can be attested by previous breaches (see related articles here and here. So, at first glance it doesn’t seem like they’ve done a decent job in choosing a partner trustworthy enough to manage their customers’ personal and private data.

For more information about how MailChimp processes your personal data, please see their privacy policy, available here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

If you look at MaiChimp’s own privacy policy, you will see that they themselves share data with other third parties (without stating who specifically that may be). So, once again there is a huge risk that your data will get propagated to doubtful participants – something the team at Voice was criticizing about competing social media platforms, yet misleadingly telling you that they will do otherwise.

Please note that once Voice goes live, separate privacy policies will apply and you will get the opportunity to review and accept those.

Wow. They are saying that once Voice is mainstream and no longer in beta a new (separate?) set of privacy policies will apply. Hence, this creates another opportunity for them to make dangerous changes that most people will likely not notice, read, or be honestly informed about. This is very sneaky and deceiving to say the least.

Who can see your information This information can only be accessed by our and MailChimp’s authorised employees.

So, employees from a third party (MailChimp) will have access to your personal data.

We use Google Analytics and HotJar to run data analytics on the Website.
Google Analytics is a third party service which transmits website traffic data to Google servers in the United States. Google Analytics does not identify individuals or associate you IP address with any other data held by Google. For further information you can access Google’s privacy policy here: www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/

Major red flag here. All data transmitted or re-routed to the United States will be permanently recorded with the NSA (an likely other intelligence agencies). Moreover, Google has been proven to willingly share such data with the NSA and others; so your personal information (IP address location, browser info, your browser history, i.e., the websites you visit) will be shared and can be used against you in the future.

HotJar is a third party service that helps us better understand our users’ experience. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices (in particular device’s IP address (captured and stored only in anonymized form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website). Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further information, you can access Hotjar’s privacy policy here: https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy

I am not all that familiar with HotJar, but they seem to have access to even more of your private data, including your “device type (unique device identifiers) – for which I believe this means your cell phone or device’s unique ID which can easily be used to identify and track you.

Disclosure and international transfer of your information We may disclose personal information about you, where reasonably necessary for the various purposes set out above: [many bullet points omitted] - to the extent required by law, in exceptional circumstances: to competent regulatory, prosecuting and other governmental agencies, or litigation counterparties, in any country or territory;

Hence, they can share your data with government or prosecutorial agencies in any country in the world. Wow.

All in all, Voice’s privacy policy, the way it is currently drafted, is far from providing users with real privacy, but rather seems to be in the same style as Facebook’s and its peers.

Block.one & EOS

A few issues here...

Firstly, I must say that I am not impressed with EOS itself. After receiving over US$1 billion dollars in funding to develop the EOS blockchain platform, I feel that the company Block.one has left much to be desired, even one year (now) after its official launch.

I, along with many others, were expecting a lot more. At the very least some easy means by which we could transact EOS tokens. For this, even a year later, I personally think they have failed miserably. I have some EOS tokens on a wallet called Exodus and they are pretty much stuck there, as I cannot easily move them. There are some independent wallets available, but they are very far from user friendly or easy to use. Moreover, there was a lot of hype but the value of the tokens themselves have really failed to take off and provide a decent increase in price.

Yes, the EOS blockchain itself does appear to be robust and highly performing (they are ranked #1 in terms of transaction processing on blocktivity.info). But really, it’s like a Ferrari engine hidden in a Pinto.

I think that they will soon release the EOSIO 2 version which is supposed to have improvements. But I still remain skeptical as to whether they will make the platform enticing enough not only for application developers, but also for the average user.

It still remains very unclear what incentive(s) and average user has in holding EOS tokens. You would think that with over a billion dollars spent on the project, that they could at least make it more comprehensible to the masses. But no, they haven’t.

Furthermore, at this stage it remains unclear how the VOICE token will relate to the EOS token. Will they be transferable/interchangeable? If they are “linked”, will the EOS token become traceable (as one’s Voice tokens seemingly will be) to its owner?

There are many questions and uncertainties about this whole project.

One that is seldom mentioned is the fact that only 10 EOS accounts seemingly own almost 50% of EOS tokens, at least according to a BTCMANAGER article.

As the article dates from last year, and technically, I am not sure whether this is still the case, it remains a worrying thing nonetheless. Who exactly would those 10 account holders be? We know that it is a similar situation regarding Bitcoin, as by some estimates, 97% of Bitcoins are owned by only 4% of wallets. These kinds of situations give potential for instances of great and grave abuse.

Next, if you have a look at Block.one’s Executive Team, you will notice a lot of names with former employment at the big banks and investment houses: JP Morgan, Citibank, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Jefferies, and CLSA. One needs to ask: why? Why would their executive team be filled with figure with lots of experience and ties to big banking and investment? One could only surmise that interests of the banking sector would be perhaps take preference or precedence over other stakeholders – especially the average Joe or Jane.

Lastly, just have a look at the news page about voice from Block.one (taken on June 7, 2019 from the address https://block.one/news/):

Notice the choice of image: the Washington monument (obelisk).

Perhaps it could be observed that since this coming out party for Voice took place in Washington D.C., that the designers of this website news page simply chose to use such an image. While that is possible, one must ask what this choice of image really has to do with a new social media platform.

For those who have read and done research on obelisks around the world and particularly those in Paris, London, Vatican City, and Washington D.C know that they are very strong symbols of power. London is known as the financial center of the world (City of London); the Vatican as the spiritual center; and Washington that of the military heart of the greater apparatus of control.

Moreover, the obelisks – particularly the one in Washington D.C. that was cornerstoned by none other than 33rd degree freemason George Washington – are very well known symbols of freemasonic power.

Here are a few relevant excerpts from Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval outstanding book entitled The Master Game [emphasis added]:

Washington DC can fairly be described as the world’s foremost ‘Masonic City.’ Its centre was laid out according to a plan drawn up by the French Freemason Pierre L’Enfant. -Freemason Today, Issue 16 [p. 495]

The analogy intended by the ‘Egyptian’ obelisk that stands in Washington therefore seems obvious. Towering more than seven times as high as those in Rome, Paris, London and New York, this powerful solar talisman is today the emblem of the capital city of the new world order. [p. 533]

Now, while I know that this point may sound quite nutty and conspiratorial in nature. But for those who have studied the way powerful Elites who control most important financial institutions as well as other institutions of control or influence in power centers around the world know that they tend to openly flaunt and arrogantly project their power so as to show their might. It is integral to their narcissistic psyches and personalities.

Their ultimate dream is indeed a New World Order. And to have effective levers of control to command such an ambitious project, they would certainly not fail to include the future direction of the internet - namely blockchain technology whereby everything can be recorded and tracked.

We need to be super vigilant and questioning folks.

Steemit ain’t perfect but…

Now, even though Block.one’s CTO (Chief Technology Officer) is none other that Steemit developer Dan Larimer we still need to remain skeptical regarding the EOS & Voice projects, as he is merely the one in charge of the nuts & bolts, or mechanics, of the blockchain engine itself.

Yes, perhaps it was initially conceived as a pioneering digital platform of freedom and liberation from the usual corrupt middlemen, yet when we look at how the human resource (and corporate) deck is stacked, we can see a whole other beast in the usual suspects.

Yes, of course Steemit has had its difficulties in the past several months such as bots taking over many aspects along with downvoting and abuses from shady whales. But nevertheless, it remains a pretty solid platform on which our posts can remain on the blockchain without worry of being deleted or censored by other parties as is the case on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (but to name the main ones).

Conclusion

While this new Voice social media platform may appear enticing at prima facie, it can be one huge Trojan Horse.

Henceforth, let’s continue to monitor the development of VOICE and the EOS platform along with moves that will be dictated by the power players on Block.one’s Executive Team and their Partners (especially W3C & FIDO Alliance) to make sure that we are not being baited and ensnared into a matrix of control by the powers-that-shouldn’t-be.

If anyone dares to engage and try the beta version of Voice, by all means do share your thoughts and experiences with us by commenting below.

I would love to be wrong about most of what I’ve written above, but my intuition and gut feeling tells me that all ain’t right and we are being set up once again.

Peace all.

In Truth & Liberty,

@libertyacademy