View this post on Hive: [So Australia has banned encryption - What's next.](https://peakd.com/@apshamilton/so-australia-has-banned-encryption-what-s-next)

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In mid-February 2020 Justin Sun acquired the shares in Steemit Inc and proceeded centralise the blockchain under his control, improperly using Steemit's founders stake (intended for development and decentralisation of the blockchain) and tricking exchanges into initially supporting his power grab.

After extensive efforts to resolve the dispute failed, the community revolted and formed a new, fully decentralised blockchain - Hive - without the pernicious influence of Justin Sun and his minions. 
Because of Open Source licensing, Hive was legally able to duplicate all the code and content on Steem.
The vast majority of the community and decentralised applications and projects moved to Hive and Hive was listed on many cryptocurrency exchanges without having to pay the normal listing fees.

On 19 May 2020, a Steem hard fork (0.23) designed to steal the Steem from 65 accounts associated with creating Hive became public.
My position on this hard fork can be found here: https://peakd.com/hf23/@brianoflondon/letter-to-exchanges-do-not-run-steem-hard-fork-23-hf-0-23-0

This was the final straw for my involvement with Steem.

I will now post exclusively on Hive at https://peakd.com/@apshamilton/posts
All my old Steem content can also be found on Hive.


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![image.png](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/apshamilton/4lJttojO-image.png)

One of the reasons I left Australia and moved to Israel is because Australia had become a police nanny state where basic personal freedoms that most people in the West have taken for granted since the Magna Carta have absolutely no legal protection.
Indeed in the crypto & encryption space there are lots of prominent Aussie ex-pats, including Steemians @skycorridors, @tarazkp and famous Aussies such as Julian Assange & perhaps Satoshi Nakamoto (if he is Craig Wright). All have chosen to leave Australia to make a difference in the world.

Now the Australian government has gone even further down the police state route by [banning citizens from keeping their data and communications secure.](https://www.extremetech.com/internet/281991-australia-becomes-first-western-nation-to-ban-secure-encryption)

The method used is forcing tech companies to fundamentally weaken the security of their products in order to ensure that the Australian government can break encryption or otherwise intercept private communications, without a warrant or any judicial oversight.

**Sounds like Iran or China doesn't it!**

Apparently there were 346 submissions against the anti-encryption legislation (mine was one) and only one supporting it (from a non-citizen). 
The government just ignored everyone and passed the legislation in a pre-Christmas session when they figured the public was already in holiday mode.
That's Australian democracy in action!

You can find out more details [here](https://thejuicemedia.com/honest-government-ad-ass-access-anti-encryption-law/)

## What's next
This law has broader implications that just Australia, because it will prevent companies which supply technology hardware, software and services from supplying properly secure products in the Australian market. Everything will have to have some mechanism for the government to break in and undermine the security of the product.

If companies comply with this Australian law, they will fundamentally compromise the security of and trust in those same products and services provided elsewhere in the world. Any hack, backdoor or security weakness or private key store they create or make available for Australian cops will also become available to all the bad actors in the world. I can see that there will be a lot of Chinese spies working in Aussie police forces and big tech company offices stealing or discovering the legally mandated encryption breaking mechanisms.

I look forward with interest to what companies like Apple, which appear to take their customer's security seriously, will do.
Obviously Facebook & Google will have no problem with treating the Aussie government as yet another customer for their privacy destroying services.

However Apple went head to head with the US Justice Dept over unlocking a terrorist iPhone. So it will be interesting to see what they will do.
It they really cared about the security and privacy of their customers in the rest of the world they would announce a complete exit of the Australian market.
Only if Aussies were deprived of their iPhones would the public wake up and take notice of how their freedom is being destroyed.

Perhaps someone should pose the question at an Apple shareholders meeting or investor call as to how Apple will ensure that the security of non-Australian users will not be compromised by their compliance with Australian law.

Unless Apple and others make very clear public commitments in this regard, everyone should consider all future software updates and new product lines that are sold in Australia to be suspect.

The real solution is to replace all the centralised tech service companies that are vulnerable to such laws with decentralised, open source solutions where there is no one to compel to provide back doors and where all security weaknesses will be exposed and rectified by the open source community.

Indeed, laws that cause businesses to act against the interests of their customers, will eventually destroy those businesses via loss of customer trust.
Banks are already suffering because of such laws (eg KYC &AML) and big tech will suffer the same downfall.

## The alternative Israeli approach
You might be wondering how Israel fits into all this, given that it actually faces far greater threats of terrorism than Australia. 
Well, Israel doesn't have any anti-encryption laws and is the world leader in cyber security. Citizens have a right to privacy guaranteed by the Supreme Court.

Israel manages to intercept terrorist communications without breaking the security and privacy of law abiding citizens.
Indeed it was an Israeli company that unlocked the terrorist iPhone which Apple refused to.

There is a huge difference between finding existing security weaknesses and exploiting them and forcing companies to create weaknesses or reveal private keys that undermines everyone's security.

The Australian approach is lazy, stupid, dangerous to law abiding citizens and will be easily avoided by terrorists. 
They are using a nuclear weapon to target a mouse.
Israeli, by contrast, uses a sniper to target a terrorist tiger. Only the terrorists are targeted and regular citizens have more freedom than any other country.


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