December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

distributed virtual bank
by Adam Back 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

An application I have put a bit of thought into is the idea of creating a distributed banking system. That is not offline, but not a single centralised trusted bank either. Ideally it is a system where all nodes are equivalent, and k of n of those nodes have to collude before they can compromise the operation of the bank. This is related to the encrypted computation idea where I can ask you to perform a computation for me, but you won't know the operands, and I can recover the answer with a final transformation. There are a few such protocols around to compute certain functions. This would be a distributed system, the nodes in the network would be able to simulate a virtual CPU by exchanging messages and computing encrypted functions. The program you run on the virtual CPU is the bank software. One approach would be to simulate the CPU by using the exchange of encrypted communications to simulate circuit functions in the CPU. Hopefully there would be more efficient methods of performing this securely distributed computation. People would trust the bank by virtue of their belief that it would be too difficult for an attacker to compromise or acheive sufficent collusion to overcome the n of k threshold. The bank would live in the network in this virtual CPU. Individual nodes may come and go, yet the secured software entity which is the bank and it's account information would live on. Comments on how feasible it would be to design such a system with current crypto techniques? Adam -- Have *you* exported RSA today? --> http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/ print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<> )]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`

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need confirmation of DVD/CSS crack in China ...
by Ernest Hua 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Is this true? Does anyone have confirmation of this crack? Or is C/NET being a bit liberal on word choice? Ern > full article: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,13651,00.html > > Hundreds of films come to DVD > By Michael Kanellos > August 22, 1997, 4:35 p.m. PT > > UPDATE A raft of new DVD movies from major Hollywood studios could provide a > boost to the fledgling digital video disc industry, which has been in dire > need of more titles. > > < lines deleted > > > Third, the entertainment industry giants will have to improve and agree on > an encryption technology. The current 40-bit encryption standard used on DVD > discs, which is supposed to stop copyright pirates, has already been cracked > in China. Stronger encryption, however, forces PCs and players to run at a > crawl. Partially as a result, Fox, Paramount, and Disney have not committed > to producing materials on DVD, Burdon noted. > > < lines deleted >

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Collection of persona
by damion.furi＠the-matrix.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

BU|In fact it's not difficult. It's quite simple to estlablish new identity |for the individual willing to risk the charges and consequences of |exposure. The basic impediment is time. Good credit doesn't come |overnight. The second impediment is tax evasion- which is less than |justifiable in the United States on the grounds of privacy. If you're |willing to be patient, and pay taxes on more than one name, its easy to |maintain several identities. A lot of "ifs" there. Not to mention the expense. BU|> If it were possible to have an alias in real |> life, as easy as it is to get one on the 'net that is, then I would most |> certainly do so.. BU|Which tells me how serious you really are about your privacy. You have |made a decision here about how much trouble privacy is worth to you, |which is "not much." And how many "real names" do you have off the net? BU|I hear people bitch about privacy endlessly. Privacy helps those who |help themselves to privacy. I think Mr. May was precisely correct in saying |that it is so much easier and simpler for one to rely on self privacy |insurance rather than government privacy insurance. Certainly. That doesn't mean that we're all going to jump up and maintain several aliases. Particularly when our beloved Uncle Sam is quite capable of deciding that it's for fraudulent purposes -- which makes it a felony. It would be simpler and easier to start another revolutionary war than follow your logic. :----------:----------:----------:----------:----------:----------:----- : furi(a)the-matrix.com | pgp-public-key(a)demon.co.uk | LIVE LION ALERT : 2.6.2 1024/C1225CE1 | 38 11 7C 59 FB F3 7C C0 F7 E9 67 1F AF B8 2D 94 PGP: When it's none of their damned business. -- SPEED 1.40 [NR]: Evaluation day 133...

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Re: Socio-Economic Cults (Re: Cypherpunk Cults)
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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ULC Online
by Jaeson.M.Engle＠dronf.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Just in case anyone else wants to go ahead and get ordains in the ULC, http://ybi.com/ulc/ordain.html Online form for getting ordained. Jaeson -- Jaeson M. Engle http://www.dronf.org Coordinator of the Jourvian Group PGP Mail Encouraged -> jme.pub.key(a)dronf.org Project List -> programs(a)dronf.org

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Re: FCPUNX:Jurisdiction Shopping
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:06 AM 8/26/97 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote: > Another popular reason is privacy in general. US domestic accounts can be > examined by any federal, state, or local government employee who can sign his > name to a subpeona. Any lawyer can also examine account records in the > course of discovery proceedings. There are some limits to the above powers > but not very substantial limits. For all we know, FINCEN has a nice Win32- > based point and click browser that can tiptoe through every bank and > brokerage account in America. If they don't have one yet, I'm sure they are > trying to get one. > > If domestic lawyers or governments want the same sort of access to accounts > in other jurisdictions, they have to spend many thousands of dollars and > months or years of personnel time. Cuts down on their capabilities. This is true to a greater or lesser extent of almost any foriegn jurisdiction. Even both countries are hostile to financial privacy and have cosy relationships with each other, it is still a lot more work for investigators in one country to get information from another. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: Collection of personal info
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:49 AM 9/7/95, Mac Norton wrote: >Tim and I have corresponded about this previously, >and again he neglects the distinction between >collection and storage, on the one hand, and >retrival and dissemination, on the other. If you >do the latter, your content better be accurate. > >That's the difference in Tim and TRW. So far.:) I don't really disagree with Mac, at least practically speaking. (At a much deeper level, much deeper in terms of philosophy, I'm not even sure _disseminators_ of information have any real necessity to be correct. This is the issue of truth, reputation, etc. that we discuss so often. But, I admit that the legal system does not support my anarcho-capitalist extreme position, which is why I say I don't disagree with Mac, "practically speaking.") However, even if I were to start distributing the results of "Tim's BlackNet Dossier Service," I don't think there's any justification for people insisting that they have a right to "inspect" my records. I think the current U.S. law is not too far from my own views. The credit reporting agencies have an obvious interest in having accurate information--except for the folks in the Witness program--and will eventually correct errors. (Not everyone is happy with the speed, but this is life in a world of finite resources; and I acknowledge that there are pathological cases of incorrect identity, etc.) I still favor free market alternatives to top-down government "protection." And, lest anyone think I'm lapsing in my basic beliefs, I lean toward throwing out _all_ laws about libel, slander, and false information. After all, "what is truth?," to coin a phrase. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Collection of persona
by damion.furi＠the-matrix.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

DM|Depends on the counter people. The local RS here the clerks don't care |much about it and will enter a random number. I wish they would do that here. I've just about yanked a manager over the counter over it. |A local Service Merchandise |does the same thing, but they're pesky, so I make up silly names to test |the wits of impatient teenage mutant cashiers. (They also used to have |a computer where you enter your telno. and place orders to pick up at |the desk... I don't think the system bills you automatically but the |employees probably won't like it when you have them get 10 wieght sets |out...) <chuckle> I love it when the system has a flaw I can take a crowbar to. :----------:----------:----------:----------:----------:----------:----- : furi(a)the-matrix.com | pgp-public-key(a)demon.co.uk | LIVE LION ALERT : 2.6.2 1024/C1225CE1 | 38 11 7C 59 FB F3 7C C0 F7 E9 67 1F AF B8 2D 94 PGP: When it's none of their damned business. -- SPEED 1.40 [NR]: Evaluation day 134...

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Diskreet Disk Help Needed
by msprague＠owens.ridgecrest.ca.us 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

One of my Diskreet Disks has refused to open but will change size and password. Any suggestions??

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SF Bay Area D-H patent party?
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Who in the SF Bay Area plans to throw a party in honor of the upcoming expiration of the Diffie-Hellman patent? Several people had mentioned in the past they might do so. [Some of your are bcc'ed]. The patent will expire just a few weeks from now. Anybody? Thanks, --Lucky Green <shamrock(a)netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred. DES is dead! Please join in breaking RC5-56. http://rc5.distributed.net/

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