Editor’s note: This post is the fourth in a four-part series about making privacy-preserving cryptocurrency accessible and useful for underserved populations. Its original author, Violet Rollergirl, is a transgender sex worker who has modified the post from its original in order to speak to a broader audience. We are republishing her work here with her express permission.
Technology, taught collectively.
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Using Private Electronic Money: Off-Ramping
Using Private Electronic Money: On-ramping
Editor’s note: This post is the third in a four-part series about making privacy-preserving cryptocurrency accessible and useful for underserved populations. Its original author, Violet Rollergirl, is a transgender sex worker who has modified the post from its original in order to speak to a broader audience. We are republishing her work here with her express permission.
Testimonials
“heighten[ed] my own digital defense practice”
During the anti-globalization movement of the early 2000s, tech collectives such as Riseup and Autistici came into existence to provide autonomous, non-corporate communication tools and “How-Tos” for social movements to organize safely and securely with emerging new media. In South Africa, the Right2Know campaign was initiated in 2010 in response to the Protection of State Information Bill, which aimed at weakening the rights of journalists and whistleblowers to access information. As part of their work, R2K has published guides for activists to protect themselves digitally.
To heighten my own digital defense practice, I recently took a virtual workshop offered by the New York-based Tech Learning Collective. This collective provides technology education for radical organizers and revolutionary communities with special attention to underserved groups. These groups, which design tools and training for activists, are not a new occurrence.
“wonderful workshops […] eminently practical and affordable”
I first learned of the Tech Learning Collective at a privacy conference in late 2020. I struck up a conversation with one of its representatives and ended up taking one of their wonderful workshops in January. TLC offers some top-notch courses on computers with a focus on cybersecurity. Unlike college courses or cybersecurity certification courses, TLC offers eminently practical and affordable content, focused squarely on doing. It’s like the difference between taking a karate class to earn colored belts and taking a personal self defense class to actually protect yourself. But it’s also much more than that, and hard to describe.
“engag[ing for] curious minds”
Teaching a technical class from the terminal is a difficult proposition when you have students coming in from all over the world. The instructor of “Exploring Cyberspace: Network Sniffing and Scanning” did a commendable job getting a sense of the (virtual) room and talking at our level. Their task is probably helped by the fact that the Tech Learning Collective’s course offerings have titles and a mission that engage curious minds.
Before taking the class, I had some passing experience with one or two of the tools the instructor introduced. I would have considered myself a beginner. The instructor managed to take us into deep waters by illustrating small steps, making sure we understood the fundamental terminology, and asking us lots of questions. The scope of the class was thoughtfully limited—enough to make sure we could swim but also realize there is much more to learn. Quite an accomplishment in under two hours!
“gay and good[,] Tech Learning Collective is rad”
If you’re looking for something gay and good to take your mind off the [Covid-19] quarantine blues, Tech Learning Collective is rad. It’s a fun way to pick up some skills for hacking the planet without having to interact with tech-industry bootcamp recruitment bullshit.