I’ve engaged in email correspondence with the man known as Eijah.
It turns out that his DefCon debut has brought upon him the wrath of his previous employer Rockstar Games. He is highly skilled, passionate about almost everything Maidsafe stands for, and needs love from the community (security and anonymity) he has worked so hard to empower. I petition the core developers to at least consider his recruitment. Along with the many popular games he has help to create, his current labor of love known as demonsaw can be found here. Having him on the team will provide a distinct advantage in many respects. Looking at his current work (check here) shows his proficiency in UI, UX, networking, and cryptography among other things. I also know from experience that he handles scrutiny like a champ. This community is a kind welcoming bunch but we leave no stone un-turned
I will directing him here tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to the discussion
He would be a handy person to have around when developing the SAFE decentralized MMORPG and he does sound like Maidsafe material. For what it’s worth I say send a recruiter or two after him.
Awesome move! Creative mind combined with programming skills plus interest in security and anonymity is exactly matching the profile of a potential MS developer! I’d love to see him on board
Hey guys, Eijah here. I’m the founder of demonsaw, a Senior Programmer at Rockstar games (somehow not fired yet), a hacker (cracked Blu-ray a few years back), DefCon speaker 2 years in a row, business partner with John McAfee, and a strong privacy activist.
I’m deeply concerned with the state of privacy in our world. I hate the way that governments and corporations abuse its people. They treat us like criminals. Privacy is not just a matter of Ashley Madison, where I might be embarrassed by a lack of personal discretion, in some places a lack of privacy can result in bodily harm or even loss of life.
2 years ago, while living in Scotland for 9 months while we finished up GTA V for PS3 & Xbox 360, I started to code demonsaw. I wanted to create a new type of file sharing and communications platform. Something that could address the blatant lack of security demonstrated by Cloud-based solutions, like Dropbox. I wanted demonsaw to be the following:
Make security easy for everyone (no difficult PGP, keystore, PKI, etc)
Empower the user to take back control (no 3rd parties, no hosted content, no eavesdropping, no centralization, no p2p)
Free forever for everybody (the demonsaw promise)
Things have been going well. John McAfee recently partnered with me to increase visibility. Speaking at DefCon the last 2 years has helped as well. But the further I go in this journey, the more I feel overwhelmed. I need friends, allies, supporters, and like-minded individuals who think the way I do. I know that I’m not alone in this pursuit. They are many of us who believe that governments and corporations have gone too far. But unless we stand up and make ourselves known, things will never change.
So that’s why I’m here today. I recently hacker-outed myself in the Forbes article (What Do You Get When You Cross John McAfee And GTA V? 'Magic' Encryption, Apparently). As I mentioned to Tonda, I did that for a specific reason. How could I expect people in oppressive environments to trust that my software will protect their privacy when I’m hiding behind a hacker pseudonym?
This was a long-winded introduction. I just wanted to share a little bit of myself with the team and explain what motivates and drives my passion for changing the status quo. We can and will make a difference. The future is ours to take back.
Hi @eijah. I’m happy to see you here. At this time of the day it’s pretty quiet here. Don’t expect the main team to respond soon until some hours have passed.
For now I’m not really the good person to welcome you, I’m new here too. But I’m very happy that you come here. I already tried your software demonsaw but unfortunately there is nothing really good to found on it so far (I mean on available files). So I look to it from time to time. Sorry. Maybe later it will prove to be a success and I hope so.
Well, on my side I welcome you. And hope you will have a pleasure to participate here.
Welcome @eijah good to have you on the team and in the community. I can’t speak for everyone but personally I can’t see what difference what you call yourself would make the value of your software. If you write good code it’ll protect people just as well regardless whether you call yourself by your birth name or call yourself Puff the Magic Hackingscale Dragon. Same if you write bad code, calling yourself by your given name won’t fix the bugs for you. I think having your code open source is more important than hanging your identity out there for the feds and media to mop the floor with. I appreciate and respect your valor and your integrity in being willing to put your reputation on the line to support what you believe in though I think in this case there might have been a safer alternative. Though what’s done is done and if you hadn’t we wouldn’t have found out about you and might not have you on the team so for that I’m grateful. I think this entire experience only goes to highlight the great need for SAFE that for which it stands. We need more privacy, security and freedom and alternative ways of generating reputation. Anyway man welcome to the community, hope you find a good home here.
@eijah Welcome! I am downloading your software as I type. This place is all about the people. I hope you spend some time here and discover there are a lot of people out there like you and share your sentiments exactly. You will find many of those people right here in this unique happy community.
I have been interested in open sourced technology that empowers real people for a while and there are gems out there (Yours undoubtedly will be on that list). Your vision, design, and social awareness is absolutely phenomenal. Thank you for your effort of an obvious labor of love.
Reading David Irivine’s white papers last year ago sparked an epiphany in me that has only gained steam since then. I made a lot of big changes in my life with saying good buy to the easy high paying job, office, staff because the company was the opposite of what I want the future to be. People like you, David and other geniuses of the world give hope to average Joe’s like myself.
Your story and work is very inspiring and I wanted to personally welcome you here. There will be many others on here that will be able to direct you wherever you are interests lay, but I’d be happy to provide any information I have collected over the last 1.5 years. Something tells me you and the MAIDSAFE team would be a match that this world has not seen for a very long time. In my opinion MAIDSAFE really has something remarkable in the SAFE network where the creators of the world will finally get the recognition and success they deserve.
Thank you. Demonsaw is primarily a secure & anonymous private decentralized Cloud that can also be used to support global sharing networks. The community-supported demonbucket project (www.demonbucket.com) aims to make public routers available with the goal of promoting the latter.
Thank you - that’s very inspiring. I never set out to be an activist, it just happened. But I’m glad it did. I can’t imagine my life without this passion that drives me to a cause greater than myself. As you mentioned, sacrifices will come and go but what we’re fighting for remains. And that’s the important thing.
When you get the chance (the 32 seconds you allot yourself for breathing every hour ). Please grace us with your presence. I’m eager to see how this evolves into something of great magnitude. So many creative intelligent approaches to long standing issues is indeed imo cause for excitement. Two powerhouses in their own right join together to fight oppression. Do I see the early beginnings of the first true global justice league? Find out on the next episode of Maidsafe! (cue cheerful but rockerish music)
@eijah welcome. I just read your Forbes article. I am curious about your thoughts on open source vs closed source code. I am not a coder and as such do not have a dog in the fight as it were. I am only asking because there seems to be strong philosophical views on either side.
http://demonbucket.com/ the server for chat (bucket1.demonbucket.com it took about 5 minutes for users to appear) is where I found some folks. If I have time I may set up a server and share all of SAFE network files?
Absolutely. Demonsaw is designed to be used in almost any way. Private networks, centralized file hubs, global sharing networks, etc. Social Crypto (i.e. group-based encryption) will increase security substantially if you need secrecy & privacy.
The last computer game I played was Space Invaders but I see you clearly have a lot of technical talent as well as having an enlightened and honourable position in the political arena that SAFE hopes to have an impact on - so welcome!
Don’t be afraid to peruse, ask questions, and comment. I’m at least hoping you’re reading up on SAFE. I IMHO believe technologies like yours and this are at the forefront of the information and communications revolution. I really do hope that both projects look at each others work thoroughly.
