June 1993 - cypherpunks-legacy

Digital Cash$$$$
by Duncan Frissell 16 Jun '93

16 Jun '93

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- L;>INTERNET:cypherpunks@toad.com;Digital Cash$$$$ (J. Michael Diehl) >>>1. How does one start a digital cash economy?<<< A digital cash economy doesn't have to be separate from the regular economy. 1.) You mail cash/MO to First Digital Bank of Cyberspace (at an offshore maildrop) together with a public (unique if you like) key and anonymous email address (on Julf's remailer perhaps). 2.) The Bank opens an account denominated in the (traded) currency of your choice or a commodity (gold). There is no reason not to use existing monies to back digital cash. 3.) You request digital banknotes and the bank emails them to you as detailed in David Chaum's Scientific American article. 4.) You find someone to accept the digital cash. Initially it can be used for gambling and telecoms/storage fees, eventually buying digital goods (software, print, audio, video, VR) will be easy. Remember, within a few years 100 million homes in OECD countries will have 1.5 megabit lines into them. This is a huge market for digital entertainment. 5.) After a bit of development when the First Digital Bank of Cyberspace cuts a deal with a physical offshore bank, it can issue VISA debit cards and ATM cards in a Nome de Guerre. This is already done for large depositors, the nets make it possible to do it for all. You can then access your account from any streetcorner in the OECD. Remember money market funds are pseudo banks these days with VISA cards and check writing and all. 6.) If you want to close your account, and you can't find any way to spend your money as digital cash, you can have funds wired to a regular bank account you maintain in a Nome de Guerre, have it wired via Western Union with a code phrase because you've 'lost' your ID (for small amounts), have it wired to an out-of- country bank in your truename and go pick it up in person, arrange a gold purchase from a dealer somewhere and have the funds sent to him by wire or draft and take physical delivery of the gold. (There are many other techniques known to privacy experts). Eventually there will be plenty of moneychangers on the nets happy to take your digital cash. Most money is already digital. The digital cash technology just gives us a way to make easy financial transfers over public networks. If there is a demand for economic transactions over the nets, the money will be supplied. ****************************************************************************** * DUNCAN FRISSELL Attorney at Law, Writer, and Privacy * * CIS 76630,3577 Consultant since the Nixon * * Internet 76630.3577(a)compuserve.com Administration * * or frissell(a)panix.com * * Easylink 62853962 * * Attmail !dfrissell * * TLX: 402231 FRISSELL NYK * * * * * Privacy Checkup still only $29.95. Buy today before price * * * * controls force me to raise my prices. * * * * * "If Mohammed A. Salameh had seen me in January, he'd be * * vacationing in Tunisia today." * * * ******************************************************************************

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YAA (yet another article)
by fergp＠sytex.com 16 Jun '93

16 Jun '93

ComputerWorld June 14, 1993 Volume 27, Number 24 pages 73,74 Enterprise Networking Commentary All Eyes On Clipper by Gary H. Anthes If any conclusion can be drawn from the cacophony of conflicting views put forth at a recent public hearing on government-sponsored encryption technology, it is that the Clinton administration should slow down and take a closer look at Clipper. Clipper is the government's attempt to give law enforcers the ability to unscramble coded messages from suspected criminals while guaranteeing constitutional safeguards to legitimate users. To do that, a secret algorithm embedded in a chip will use encryption/decryption keys maintained "in escrow" by two government-approved agencies and subject to use in wiretaps only via court order. The first image brought to mind when presented with the key-escrow concept is that of a digital Big Brother, able to siphon off electronic secrets from anyone not in favor with the establishment. Stanford University Professor Martin E. Hellman says former Attorney General John Mitchell was in the habit of handing down blank but signed wiretap authorizations, 40 to 50 at a pop, rather than personally reviewing each request as required by law. "Two escrow authorities do little good if only one court order is required," Hellmman contends. The government has done little so far to put those fears to rest or to

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Re: Rude CryptoStacker Suggestion
by mlshew＠dixie.com 16 Jun '93

16 Jun '93

On Mon, 14 Jun 1993, RYAN Alan Porter wrote: >On Mon, 14 Jun 1993, Mark Shewmaker wrote: > >I don't consider us without options, I just have yet to see a program that >I would trust my data with. > >Besides, I wouldn't consider it a waste of effort even if there were such >a system out there (which I doubt) Well then I have doubts about your doubts: Even I've got a few ways of getting transparent compression or encryption on my own system (amiga), most of them simply device drivers or some other standalone sets of code one would then to use to mount a (virtual) partition, and there's also a more standardized compression/encryption modular system to do the same thing (sort of), just like you talk about later. That's why I keep thinking that for PC's and freely distributable source code for encrypting file systems, that by now someone *must* have already invented the wheel. (Although you could still invent the radial tire, so to speak, and make the original idea more usable.) >Anyway, thanks for the suggestion; I would be interested in any parallel >systems which anyone might happen to stumble upon. Seeing as you had previously said: >The sources for bare network redirectors and block device drivers are, >indeed, in wide supply. I guess I really should upload some of the amiga code then, even though a great deal of it will absolutely useless to you, (but I must admit it would be kinda cool if pc's and amigas could both access the same compressed/encrypted xpk files.) If it's really just the encryption part per se that you are missing, then they might be helpful to your project. I'll write up a description, plagiarizing the readme files somewhat, and upload a few of the archives to Eric's site. >The more people who know how to implement good encryption, the more >widespread other cypher code will become. Very true. (I'm always annoyed when I download a new "security" type program, only to find it lets you encrypt/decrypt with any of ten proprietary methods, numbered one through ten. Absolutely useless. And of course the scums never include the source. Grrr.) >(Oh also, have I come off lately as being incredibly overflamesensitive, >or are you just a very cautionary guy? I can understand it if I have >projected a flameshield attitude, but I'm really not that bruisable...) "Jane, you ignorant slut." (Implied smileys for the SNL-impaired.) Partly I'm cautionary, trying to be polite, tit for tat and all that, but also I don't like being the 100th person whining about your project, (especially knowing next to nothing about DOS systems), while people who think it's a neat idea keep quiet. Plus I overdid the cautiousness a bit. (And I've got this pet peeve about people re-introducing obvious ideas in sci.crypt, and similar places.) -Mark Shewmaker

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alt.whistleblowing
by J. Michael Diehl 16 Jun '93

16 Jun '93

I just started reading the alt.whistleblowing newsgroup. It would seem that it has already digressed into a flamefest. Could the person who created it please post a set of guidelines for the group! Also, people are using their REAL names! Appearantly, they don't know anything about the anon remailers....Could someone post a notice about that, too? Same thing goes WRT pgp. We helped create this group, we ought to help keep it worth reading. ;^) +-----------------------+-----------------------------+---------+ | J. Michael Diehl ;-) | I thought I was wrong once. | PGP KEY | | mdiehl(a)triton.unm.edu | But, I was mistaken. |available| | mike.diehl(a)fido.org | | Ask Me! | | (505) 299-2282 +-----------------------------+---------+ | | +------"I'm just looking for the opportunity to be -------------+ | Politically Incorrect!" <Me> | +-----If codes are outlawed, only criminals wil have codes.-----+ +----Is Big Brother in your phone? If you don't know, ask me---+

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Re: Timothy C. May:superhacker
by bear＠eagle.fsl.noaa.gov 16 Jun '93

16 Jun '93

Ben Byers writes: In-Reply-To: <01GZ6EDS7DHK003YG5(a)vax1.tcd.ie> >> Of course, requesting your own government file is likely to draw attention >> to yourself, so it's probably best not to do so unless you're sure that >> they already know that you know-that-they-know-something. > >Yes, acoording to a 2600 article (admittedly not the best source), >requesting a file on yourself causes one to be created if one does >not exist. Naturally they'll open a file on you to document the fact that you requested information under the FOIA and to file a copy of the information returned to you. Will they start an investigation on the basis of the fact that you requested information under the FOIA? How many people with rather, shall we say, unusual ideas do you think have pestered the CIA or NSA with FOIA requests? Of course, if you admit you learned about this on a cryptoanarchist e-mail list... :-) Bear Giles

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Re: Timothy C. May:superhacker
by bbyer＠BIX.com 16 Jun '93

16 Jun '93

In-Reply-To: <01GZ6EDS7DHK003YG5(a)vax1.tcd.ie> > Why doesn't Tim and anyone else who suspects that they have reached > the much-sought status of "superhacker on gov't files not just write > to their local friendly federal government office and ask for a copy > of their own records? > > Of course any interesting information they've got is likely to be classified, > but at least you'll find out whether any such information is stored on the > files. > > Of course, requesting your own government file is likely to draw attention > to yourself, so it's probably best not to do so unless you're sure that > they already know that you know-that-they-know-something. Yes, acoording to a 2600 article (admittedly not the best source), requesting a file on yoursself causes one to be created if one does not exist. Ben Byer <bbyer(a)bix.com>

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REMAIL: X-Discard header line added
by nowhere＠bsu-cs.bsu.edu 15 Jun '93

15 Jun '93

In an effort to make creating more traffic for the Cypherpunks remailers easier, I have added a feature to my remailer. Whenever it receives a message that would otherwise be remailed but contains a header line saying "X-Discard:" it will discard the message and act as though it got remailed. If all of the Cypherpunks remailers supported an automatic discard feature, we could setup cron jobs or whatever kind of software we want to send "junk mail" to the remailers that does not get forwarded on. An idea I just had was to make the X-Discard have a counter. If the number is greater than zero, decrement it and forward the message to another known remailer. If it is less than one or non-numeric, discard the message. Right now, it just discards whatever message has that header. Example Message: ==================================== From: nobody(a)no.com To: nowhere(a)bsu-cs.bsu.edu Subject: Test :: Request-Remailing-To: bob&tom(a)bit.bucket.net X-Discard: Please! Test Message ==================================== Chael -- Chael Hall nowhere(a)bsu-cs.bsu.edu, 00CCHALL(a)BSUVC.BSU.EDU, chall(a)bsu.edu (317) 776-4000 from 8 am - 5 pm CST

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REMAIL: X-TTL functional
by nowhere＠bsu-cs.bsu.edu 15 Jun '93

15 Jun '93

I should know by now that whenever I get an idea and send it to the list it ends up getting lots of addons and changes from other list members. So.... I added an X-TTL field to the header. It reads it, decrements it, and writes it. If it's in the message received, it will be decremented and passed on. If it isn't in the message, it will be set to one then later decremented (last stop). If it should be zero when it arrives, it will be swallowed up. Messages that get sent will have a header field of X-TTL with a value of zero or greater. Note that it shows up as X-Ttl in ELM, but doesn't matter in the software because it converts everything to lowercase then checks it against its keyword list. The X-TTL field can be either in the main header or in the pasted "::" header block. I suppose that if the TTL is greater than zero when it goes to send, the remailer should throw in another remailer's name at random and make up its own "::" header block, but that is for later... Chael -- Chael Hall nowhere(a)bsu-cs.bsu.edu, 00CCHALL(a)BSUVC.BSU.EDU, chall(a)bsu.edu (317) 776-4000 from 8 am - 5 pm CST

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MEDIA: Steven Levy on 91.7 re Cypherpunks (already happened)
by Henry Strickland 15 Jun '93

15 Jun '93

Steven Levy was interviewed on FM91.7 (san francisco public radio, I forget the call letters) this morning. My patch cable isnt working for some reason, or I would have caught it in a ulaw file. I don't know the name of the show, or if they will rebroadcast it, but if you're interested, you might try to track it down. As one might expect, he did a good job of introducing some hard-edge issues in fairly-mainstream-but-technical media... strick

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digcash
by falcor＠agora.rain.com 15 Jun '93

15 Jun '93

If anyone out there has a non-PS FAQ on digcash, I'd appreciate it. Thanx! -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Falcor, aka // InterNet: falcor(a)agora.rain.com // "Curiouser and // // Andy Burt // FidoNet: 1:105/354.0 // curiouser!"-Alice, // // // PGP2.2 PublicKey Avail On Request // Lewis Carroll // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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