The Decentralists Mike Cholod, Henry Karpus & Geoff Glave

WIRED recently published an explosive article The Kremlin has Entered your Telegram Chat, regarding the experience of Russian rights activist Marina Matsapulina. 
Matsapulina, like most Russians and indeed most Ukrainians, was using the globally-popular Russian-developed Telegram. Equivalent to the American WhatsApp, communicating through Telegram is touted as totally private and secure. So how did the Russian secret service know her every move?
Is Telegram, the supposedly anti-authoritarian app co-founded by the mercurial Saint Petersburg native Pavel Durov, now doing the Kremlin’s bidding? Or it is compromised because its servers are located in Dubai, a known friendly nation to Russian oligarchs and expats. 
Nearly everyone in Ukraine uses Telegram - an app created by a Russian in Russia. Should Ukrainians switch to WhatsApp? Listen to this episode of the Decentralists to learn more.

We came to Ukraine because we felt our Manyone app could be incredibly helpful to refugees. Many agreed, so we redesigned it to enable displaced people to securely &privately report details of damage or destruction of their home, land and property (HLP). 
Ukraine must find an efficient way to document and process the expected millions of rebuilding claims, even from those who may not have a property deed or other formal proof of occupancy. 
Furthermore, political agreement and precedent must be established to forfeit Russian assets, leading to a legal mechanism to forfeit them and apply the funds to the rebuilding of Ukraine.
No organization exists to confront these political & legal challenges or to manage such a daunting task. Until now: The Peace Coalition. 
Join the Decentralists to learn how technology and policy can unite to rebuild Ukraine.

It’s not easy traveling to Ukraine during wartime with multiple flights and a 24-hour train ride from Warsaw, but it’s certainly an adventure. You’ll find that Kyiv has every modern conveniece like ride-sharing, food delivery and digital government services. However, it also has daily air raid sirens, and deadly missile & drone attacks courtesy the Russian Federation. Most people speak English, restaurants are full and the bars make awesome cocktails, but a little anxiety is always palpable.
Season 5 is all about Ukraine and its brave people so if you want to stay informed, listen to The Decentralists. Mike’s now been living in Kyiv for nearly six months. 

What’s life really like in a war zone? Have a listen and find out.

It’s been three months since we last released an episode of The Decentralists and for that we apologise. However, we have a pretty good excuse. Mike went to Kyiv for two weeks in early August on a mission for our non-profit, The Peer Social Foundation. He’s still there - deeply involved in planning the country’s recovery with the brave people of Ukraine. 
What the heck are the Decentralists doing in Ukraine? How do you even get there? What’s life really like in a war zone?
Please have a listen – there’s much more to come…

Palantir, Clearview A.I., NSO Group, maker of the infamous Pegasus spyware, Anomaly 6 and Zignal are a few examples of private companies that offer to spy on anyone for a price.  Anomaly 6, a mobile phone spyware solution set up by 2 former NSA military intelligence officers, can track roughly 3 billion devices in real time, equivalent to a fifth of the world’s population. Zignal Labs, a social media monitoring firm that leverages its access to Twitter’s rarely granted “firehose” data stream to sift through hundreds of millions of tweets per day without restriction.

With their powers combined, A6 proposed, Zignal’s corporate and governmental clients could not only surveil global social media activity, but also determine who exactly sent certain tweets, where they sent them from, who they were with, where they’d been previously, and where they went next. This enormously augmented capability would be an obvious boon to both regimes keeping tabs on their global adversaries and companies keeping tabs on their employees. These firms represent a burgeoning new private military-grade surveillance industry and it is targeted at us!

Is this the beginning of surveillance on demand? What can we do to prevent this type of surveillance from happening? Join the Decentralists this week and find out why hacking tools are available to the highest bidder and how anyone can hire their own Private Spy...for a price.

As reported by the BBC, Affinity Credit Union in Iowa has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple regarding its ‘closed’ payment system, Apple Pay.
The complaint alleges that Apple prevents consumers from using competing mobile wallets capable of offering competing tap and pay solutions. Affinity claims Apple charges banks and credit unions at least $1 billion in excess fees annually for the privilege of using Apple Pay. 
Is this surprising behaviour from Apple? Will Apple ever open its iOS ecosystem? Join The Decentralists as we discuss recipes for good ol’ American Apple Pay.