Chapter 5: v

Njie & Smith – Religious Extremism and Distributed Ledger Technology

 

Section 2: Key Concepts

 

Section 2.A: Summary

As distributed ledger technology (DLT) matures, some risks to stakeholders in the finance and judicial systems must be highlighted. As decentralised, anonymous stores of information have adopted new end-uses, they have also been manipulated by criminal elements, such as financial criminals and religious extremists, in order to generate revenue or build a counter-economic infrastructure.

While the response of liberal Western democracies to individual violence has typically been to exclude security threats from social and public life, i.e. imprisonment, seizure of assets, tariffs, etc., some forms of DLTs provide a simple and uniform mechanism for members of far-right religious extremists groups such as the League of New Christians (LNC) and Volkskommanden to obscure and maintain their organisational capacity.

Cryptoassets kept on DLTs can be taken as payment or donations by extremist groups, protecting identities of group members and supporters. They can be used to pay for legal defence, materiel, and other goods used to bolster the scope of the group. Cryptoassets and DLTs can also be used to launder existing organisational resources with relative efficiency, and the organisation of new groups around the creation of new cryptoassets themselves has invited a new kind of tech-savvy criminal to the forefront of digital crime.

 

Section 2.1: Distributed Ledger Technology

2.1a: Distributed Ledger Technology operates by distributing data or information across large groups, with each member possessing a unique part of a larger database. This information could be regarding an exchange of goods, or it could be data readable by a computer. This information is added to and updated within the shared ledger by each member, or “node”. Depending on the utilisation, nodes may also act as a layer of security.

2.1b: Like any database, DLT can store as much data as there is room for. This room is determined by the number of participants as well as the method of participation, and many forms of DLT are designed to maximise this data storage as well as ensure its security. As suggested by the name, the most common use of this database is the storage of information regarding assets (such as financial instruments) or digital assets themselves (such as cryptocoins).

 

Section 2.2: Use of DLT by Right-Wing Religious Extremists

2.2a: It is estimated by the National Extremism Observation Center in their 2008 report (NEOC, 2008 Report on Extremist Financing) that across the United States of America and Europe, 214 different extremist groups generated cryptoassets worth around $14 billion USD (€12.93 billion EUR) in 2007 and used DLT to launder an additional $32 billion USD (€29.5 EUR). These figures are steadily rising, and reflect a year-over-year increase of 27%.

2.2b: In 2008, the LNC used DLT to organise their attack on government facilities across state capitals in the United States. The DLT-based chat platform 8MIRROR was widely adopted by the far-right following their banning on grounds of supporting terrorism from most major internet platforms. Large payments were made to organisers utilising “dark” DLT platforms designed to obfuscate transaction sender and receiver before, during, and after the attacks from accounts associated with LNC financiers, but DLT has thus far kept the majority of backers anonymous.

 

Section 2.8: Reinvigoration of Dormant Criminal Networks

2.8a: The Aryan Hammers, Devilriders, and other criminal networks which existed prior to the inception of DLT have found new inroads to power and influence by utilising the technology. Some larger cartels have seen pools of assets freed which were not able to be easily liquidated, allowing the realisation of growth potential and enhancing organisational flexibility, while smaller gang-level organisations have taken advantage of an entirely new avenue of generating revenue by selling illicit goods and services on encrypted-access marketplaces.

2.8b: While the distributed nature of these databases allows the resources and transactions to be publicly accounted for and tracked, it obscures the connections when used effectively for the exact same reason. As such, while details and estimates are difficult to acquire, they are not impossible: our analysis suggests that the Aryan Hammers within the fringes of the Boston penitentiary system were provided with at least $25 million USD (€23 million EUR) by anonymous encryption-protected nodes in the tens of thousands, a common tactic used to hide sources of transactions. These transactions were uniformly prior to the 2008 capital attacks that the group was alleged to have participated in.

 

Section 2.13: Identifiable Trends

2.7a: The use of DLT to acquire easily-synthesised tryptamine- and phenethylamine-class synthetic drugs, and away from the traditional markets of amphetamine-based and cocaine-derivative illicit drug trafficking, represents a major shift in the relationship between criminal organisations and emerging DLT. It is not uncommon for those familiar with DLT to have an equal familiarity with darknet marketplaces, grey-market research chemical suppliers, and simple chemistry skills.These 5-HT-agonist drugs are poorly understood and our understanding of them mostly comes from the work of synthetic chemist Dr. Jann Mieter, particularly his 1989 work, 235 Tryptamines and Phenethylamines and How to Synthesize Them.

2.13a: Geographically, the most intense utilisation of DLT by volume of assets exchanged and data stored has been in the Northeastern United States, Eastern Europe, and the United Kingdom, although it has seen rapid and wide adoption elsewhere. This can be identified through energy-use data available to local municipalities and state regulators, tracked through the various DLT deployments, and cross-verified with satellite and telecommunications data. Unsurprisingly, adoption is most common near cheap sources of hydroelectric energy, such as that generated by the Moses Power Plant near Niagara Falls.

2.13b: Demographically, white supremacist, ethno-nationalist, white separatist, and other far-right religious extremists have been by far the most prolific adopters of DLT. This may stem from their social position in the higher incomes which allows them proximity to newly developing technology, or may be the result of an institutional shift away from monitoring far-right crime in the wake of 9/11 and the War on Terror. However, the rate at which these groups are collecting large amounts of power, resources, and members should be cause for significant alarm.

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A Journal. October 2, 1769.

O, GREAT misery! I was awoken by the horrifying scream of a gong-scourer after perhaps only a few scant hours of sleep. The light was still penetrating the horizon when we were all aroused from bed by the cacophony. Wiping the restlessness from my eyes, I could only see frantic movement of the other boarders towards the out-side of our fort dormitory. Upon my own egress, my eyes laid witness to Herr Stüller, recumbent, but not out of any great sense of exhaustion, or perhaps, the Greatest Exhaustion one can feel, for it was by every other witnesses’ immediate measure that he was gone from this world, his body remaining but his Soul departed.

It was achieved in an utterly blasphemous manner, as the weapon used was no less than a Cross of Our Lord, sharpened into a spike, and driven into the Bavarian’s abdomen between the lustrous panels of his breast-plate. His eyes were twisted into a wretched, distorted pain, the image of death. Perhaps it was due to his age, but his eyes were sunken, and his skin assumed a sickly pallor, making it appear (to this archivist at the least) that he had been dead for some time, despite the fact that we had all witnessed him and spoke with him just hours prior.

At once, we set about the process of detaining the scoundrel responsible, so that their wrath might not be visited upon another. No progress was made, however; no Gentleman would allow the full breadth of their possessions to be searched, and not one Gentleman would, without reservation, vouch for another. We were all strangers to each other, after all. What this necessitated was, at the very least, a full survey and census of our entire Company so gathered, so we could at least begin the process of enquiry and operate with the greatest extent of Knowledge possible. There was much reticence and hesitation in this matter, too, as many Gentlemen so assembled had a great experience with capricious Authority which had seen in them, and their associations, reason for fault and evidence of harm where there was none. However, we were Authorities only esoteric, not exoteric, and soon the atmosphere of suspicion gave way to a comradely pragmatism.

I will assemble the results of our survey here for posterity and reference, with denotation of the number of invitations provided, as it was not uniformly one each man; this, of course, checked against similar results gathered by the others present.

~ (1) Two Italian Gentlemen, Count Alessandro di Balmetti and his assistant, Nicola Matteo Portollo, in service of the Papal States.

~ (1) One Bavarian (?) Jewish Baal-Shem, the alchemist Hayyim Jacob Falk, of London.

~ (2) Four Gentlemen assembled from the Ancient and Accepted Rite, the brothers James and Hugh Valentine and their Associates Seth Paine and Basil H. Ross.

~ (1) One French Gentleman assembled from the Grand French Oriental Rite, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Georges.

~ (3) Six Jesuits, arriving together, but not as Representatives of the Society, of diverse stock; their names as follows: Henri Fontaine, Patrick Levi, Hector Ignatio de la Cruz, Prosper Reese, Francis Avery, and Nicolás Anchienta.

~ (1) One Bavarian, Herr Christian J.C. Stüller (deceased).

~ (1) Myself, One Arthur Wickham, an English Gentleman and Follower of Illumination, on behalf of the Comte de Saint-Germain.

~ (1) One French Gentleman, Louis du Antioc, on behalf of the French Crown.

~ (1) One Swedish Gentleman, Master Emanual Swedenborg.

~ (1) Two Prussian Gentlemen, Herr Walther Reusen and his assistant, Otto Zimmermann, on behalf of their patron, Struensee.

~ (0) One Kind Mandinka Gentleman, Sidia of the Sanneh Dynasty, Jali of Kantora.*

*I found it no uncertain injustice that Sidia was excluded from all other lists, ostensibly as he had not received any invitation himself and was here in service of the Italians, but enquiry into his own provenance suggests no short supply of Dignity and Esteem, which I feel must be reflected here.

Although everyone thusly assembled did recall Herr Stüller producing an invitation of his own, and as such this matter was recorded in our records, it could not be found on his corpse or in his other possessions, of which there were remarkably few. With our minds already overfilled with allegory and riddle and metaphor, no-one could quite remember the precise text of the Bavarian’s! A dagger penetrating the night sky? A starfall into a beam of light? A sign of the cross? Blast! Even now, I have a tormenting degree of frustration with myself, Narcissus gazing into the pond, staring in melancholia, not able to conjure in my mind more pertinent solutions to the problems at hand! Why can I not remember? It should be facile, yet I allow distraction to grab the reins. Does this self-criticism serve any end, other than perhaps serving as a more hostile gaze into the reflection? Thought-about-thought will have to wait, as we now not only have a murder and all its inconveniences to deal with, but also a perhaps-insurmountable obstance towards on our journey towards the Northern Lodge.

The bailiff and the few soldiers stationed here are alarmed, but at our Company’s implorement, no report is made towards the governor. Should a greater presence be made here on the part of curious officials, it is certain the entire project will collapse. Discretion and subtlety are our keystones in this obfuscatory world of darkness which seeks to stifle any Light. As such, a Greater Imperative was at-hand, and a show of investigation into Stüller was made before the louder voices simply resolved to bury him in a manner worthy of his respect (that is, horizontally); this was achieved before even mid-morning. The decision was made: we should press onward, the vast majority of our map still-assembled, and dare to position our own Reason and Knowledge as the bearers of the secret step which we would now have to surmount in a different way.

The canoes approach the shore; I will end my writing here.

In search of meaning.

Arthur Wickham

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[102 comments]

[3/23/2008 23:55]: I think I’m losing myself to this process.

 

I can feel the border between myself and the selves of others dissolving.

 

It feels like I’ve spent a million eternities within the mangrove.

 

I’ve felt every life. I’ve fallen into the brackish waters of the light. Jump after jump.

 

Am I “I”? Or am I “we”? Am I the mason building the mosque? Am I Swedenborg? I see what they see. I do what they do. I’m inside their bodies, steering the ship. Isn’t that “identity”?

 

It reminds me of that old story, the ship of Theseus. If Theseus had a ship in a port, and a part was replaced, it’s still the same ship. But, if every single part was replaced, every bolt changed, every board taken away and a new one put back, would it still be the same ship? Do our constituent parts define us?

 

This is the opposite, isn’t it? Or is it a counterpoint? I share every constituent part with these people. The only thing that’s changed is the captain. I’m steering the ship. Can there be two captains? Can two individuals share an identity?

 

Can two identities share an individual? Can I be myself and Swedenborg? I don’t think so.

 

Isn’t identity just an illusion of the mind, anyway? I mean, every way we try to define “individuality”, it always just washes out. I can’t just be a collection of human cells, there’s more non-human cells than human ones making up my body. It’s like we just have a switch in our heads that makes us believe we’re “us”, and not “them”. Maybe that’s the whole thing with this malachi stuff, it flips that switch. I can walk across the line that divides “you” and “me”. I need more than 125μg.

 

Thank fuck half of you think I’m brain-rotted and the other half think I’m writing an experimental ARG, because I certainly don’t want some malachi junkie from the future taking over my body and making me do shit without knowing it.

 

Although, jesus, I’m not actually sure. Does the ship know it’s being driven?

 

We need to stay focused on our mission. We’re disrupting the formation of the United States.

 

Whatever correlates to the flow of the rivers, whether it’s space or time or destiny or what, many of them seem to converge after 1760 (a kind of “tide pool”). Here, the twisting spires have grown dense, and it’s difficult to move further without entering the light… We think that’s the revolution. The pace of the rivers slow, and light spills into light. A crystalline patina is allowed to coalesce.

 

Do you know what light sounds like? What hard, tesselating, time-light sounds like? A chorus. Every drop, falling from one pool to the next, a perfect voice. Producing a perfect note. Along the river, it formed a drone, but here at the pools, it’s different. A choir. Every note in perfect relation to the next. The spilling, and sloshing, drop, drop, drop. We can’t explain it. It’s the only sound we ever want to hear. Why does it sound so beautiful?

 

I need to focus. I just realized I’ve been calling myself “we” for half of this, and I’m too tired to change it. 125μg isn’t enough anymore. I need to make sure I’m putting myself in the right place. I’m worried some “New Patriot” type might be discovering the same things I am, and might interfere. To be honest, I’m quite sure they already have; that’s the best case.

 

That would mean their interference caused some sort of causal fork, or whatever. They get their own “new” future. And by changing history, I’ll also just make another “new” future, which would have a lot of solved issues. I guess that doesn’t really solve any issues in the present where I’m writing this, the present which will become the “old” future… okay, so maybe that’s not the best case.

 

I guess I’m not entirely sure how interfering with the past really works here, I’ve very specifically avoided trying it until now. I need to make more observations. See if I can shift the flow of the light. I need more than 125μg.

 

I’ll try 150. Make a dive upriver, where it’s clear of the spires, before it all spills together. Some of the water seems to spring from the obsidian-like “sand” below, and feeds into Swedenborg before they all coalesce into the tide pools. I didn’t read anything about him being in the US during the revolution, but I’m still not even sure whether the rivers are supposed to represent time, or space… maybe it’s “destiny”? Maybe these lives are all causally entangled, one shaping the other? If I jumped in a pool, which boat would I captain?

 

Let’s hope this works. I have time to experiment. I have plenty of vacation time, and sick leave after that. I’ll have database access soon, too.

 

Signing off

e-x-t-r-e-m-o

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