December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Ad Hoc Bay Area Cypherpunks Thing--Sat., 24 Aug, 3 pm, Menlo Park
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:45 AM 8/17/96, aba(a)atlas.ex.ac.uk wrote: >Living in the UK, I really don't have that much idea where the people >on the list I've gotten to know over the years live. > >I will be over in the San Francisco / Redwood City area next Saturday >(24th), if anyone I know would like to meet, exchange keys, have a >chat about crypto/cypherpunks stuff, mail me. > >Also if there is any regular cpunks meeting in this area which >coincides, let me know! (I passed this message by Adam Back, and he can make this schedule. So, here it is. Unless serious objections are raised--e.g., a conflict with another party--I suggest we do this.) There is no Cypherpunks event scheduled for that Saturday, but we can have an ad hoc gathering, informally arranged. I suggest meeting at 3 p.m. at Cody's Bookstore, on El Camino Real in Menlo Park (hard to miss). Or at the coffee shop next to it...either should be sufficient Schelling points to nucleate a group. >From there we can adjourn to someplace for food. This should be close enough (a few miles) from Redwood City...a lot closer for Adam that the 50 miles for me. But I always need good excuses to visit the Valley. --Tim Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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distribution Digest - V01 #02
by distribution-request＠sevenlocks.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

distribution Digest Fri, 16 Aug 1996 00:01:50 Eastern Daylight Time V01 #02 Today's topics: 'new security information available' 'new security information available' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 21:19:11 Eastern Daylight Time From: "Dstang" <dstang(a)sevenlocks.com> Subject: new security information available Dear Security Colleague: I would like to invite you to subscribe to SecurityDigest, a new, free bi-monthly electronic newsletter, devoted to security news, issues and trends. Every issue of SecurityDigest is delivered to your desktop (or laptop) with the latest security news and information you need, in a clear and concise e-mail format. Subscribe now by sending an e-mail message to listserver(a)sevenlocks.com containing the string "subscribe securitydigest." Or view the charter issue of SecurityDigest on Safe@Home, Seven Locks Software's Web site (http://www.sevenlocks.com/SecurityDigest.htm) where you can also secure your free subscription. Sincerely, David J. Stang President and CEO Seven Locks Software, Inc. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 21:19:26 Eastern Daylight Time From: "Dstang" <dstang(a)sevenlocks.com> Subject: new security information available Dear Security Colleague: I would like to invite you to subscribe to SecurityDigest, a new, free bi-monthly electronic newsletter, devoted to security news, issues and trends. Every issue of SecurityDigest is delivered to your desktop (or laptop) with the latest security news and information you need, in a clear and concise e-mail format. Subscribe now by sending an e-mail message to listserver(a)sevenlocks.com containing the string "subscribe securitydigest." Or view the charter issue of SecurityDigest on Safe@Home, Seven Locks Software's Web site (http://www.sevenlocks.com/SecurityDigest.htm) where you can also secure your free subscription. Sincerely, David J. Stang President and CEO Seven Locks Software, Inc. ------------------------------ End of distribution Digest V01 #02 **********************************

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Anguilla
by Vincent Cate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

First I think Tim's summary of my situation is very accurate and fair at this point. One nit of a detail: >I surmise, given the size of Anguilla and the non-constitutional basis of >its government, etc., that it _might_ be a lot easier for a bureaucrat or >the Governor-General, or whomever, to seriously disrupt any business by a >few phone calls. I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect it to be >true. Anguilla does have a constitution. It would be hard for any bureaucrat to seriously disrupt an Anguillian's business. There just are not any regulations that they can arbitrarily invoke to harras people. However, x-pats are here as guests and they have to get a work permit, or visa, or something from time to time. So if x-pats do something that wears out their welcome, they have to leave. Tim: >Contrast this with a small data haven (a new >industry) in a small country, with operating margins that are razor-thin >(given the pricing structure Vince announced, I doubt Taxbomber and other >customers were paying enough to ensure a flow of payoffs to the Ruling >Families of Anguilla and the various officials that need to look the other >way). Nope, no bribes to government. However, in doing business here a lot of people have learned more about the Internet and computers. And I and another x-pat have started a weekly computer club. So there are good reasons that Anguilla should like having me here. For the record, the only bribe I have paid while I was here was (indirectly) to someone at the phone company to try to get a phone installed faster. It did not help, still took a year to get the phone. Cable and Wireless, and their high prices, is the worst thing about Anguilla. The current Anguilla government seems to be very clean. The rumor is that Cable and Wireless bribed the previous government with things like a free loan of a bulldozer worth $500/day for a couple weeks to get their 30 year monopoly contract. Given that CandW is making millions each year, seems they got off cheap, if true. Claim is that the UK does not mind their companies bribing officials, and CandW does it alot all around the world. -- Vince ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vincent Cate vince(a)offshore.com.ai http://www.offshore.com.ai/vince/ Offshore Information Services http://www.offshore.com.ai/

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signoff cypherpunks
by Greg Nygren 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Return-Path: <cypherpunks-errors(a)toad.com> >Received: from toad.com by tor-srs2.netcom.ca (8.7.5/SMI-4.1/Netcom) > id TAA12781; Fri, 16 Aug 1996 19:38:39 -0400 (EDT) >Received: (from majordom@localhost) by toad.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id KAA07516 for cypherpunks-outgoing; Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:30:44 -0700 (PDT) >Received: from soleil.mnet.fr (root(a)soleil.mnet.fr [194.51.151.1]) by toad.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id KAA07511 for <cypherpunks(a)toad.com>; Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:30:35 -0700 (PDT) >Received: from linux (ppp03.mnet.fr [194.51.151.26]) by soleil.mnet.fr (8.6.11/8.6.9) with SMTP id TAA21252 for <cypherpunks(a)toad.com>; Fri, 16 Aug 1996 19:29:49 +0100 >Message-ID: <3214BCA6.6ED8124F(a)mnet.fr> >Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 13:23:34 -0500 >From: Arnauld Dravet <scraver(a)mnet.fr> >X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b6 (X11; I; Linux 2.0.0 i586) >MIME-Version: 1.0 >To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com >Subject: signoff cypherpunks >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com >Precedence: bulk > >signoff cypherpunks > >

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Re: Anguilla - A DataHaven?
by Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The problem with the debatre on datahavens is that it is failing to account fo the fact that without the infrastructure of law business is not possible. What taxbomber offers is false identification papers. He does not simply offer fake passports but a whole raft of fake credentials. If I am offering free services to accredited journalists and someone comes along with a taxbomber supplied illegitimate press card and obtains free services that is fraud. Just because a policy for supplying credentials is not fully effective does not make it legitimate for an individual to make a business out of helping people to criminally exploit its flaws. Similarly libertarian wet dreams about oil rigs chock full of commandos armed to the teeth with machine guns will remain dreams. Fact is that under international law an oil rig is regarded as a ship and as such has to be acredited by some recognised nation. Diplomatic recoginition is not a trivial matter. Countries only provide recoginition if it is in their interests and critically it is _governments_ that are recognised. A declaration of independence by the inhabitants of an oil rig would be treated in a similar fashion to the Montana freemen. If the intention was to make international fraud easier then definitely expect the same treatment. Phill

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Re: Greetings from Whore.com
by Charley Sparks 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Well, it was getting a bit "stiff" in here.... but I guess 'ya never can tell.. I haven't checked it out.. has anybody ?

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Credit enforcement
by szabo＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Steve Omohundro writes on alt-inst: > I'm intrigued by the notion that in a digital economy > contracts might be enforced by design rather than by the good faith of > the participants. I have been intrigued by this possibility as well. See my essay at "http://www.best.com/~szabo/smart.contracts.html". Steve has put his finger on one of the basic outstanding problems in this area, namely the enforcement of credit. Currently there are several partially effective processes: * Reputation (especially credit reports): often effective, but only to a point, as it is often hard for the debtor to accurately judge the future reputational effects of an action (eg failure to pay a bill, taking out too large a loan, etc.) that has clear, local, beneficial effects today. This is more imbalance in knowledge between current and distant consequences among individual consumers, but even among large organizations with high credit ratings it is not an irrelevant factor. * Secured transactions: liens, etc. * Garnishment of future income * Law enforcement, especially to enforce transfer of control over liened assets, garnishment, etc. These processes have a fundamental property in common -- they violate the privity of credit transactions -- they bring in third parties to track reputations or enforce repayment. Credit transactions seem to entail a fundamental imbalance in incentives that can only be redressed by bringing in third parties. Secured credit need not violate privity if the physical control over the securing property can be shared. So that, for example, automobile credit can be secured as long as reposession is possible. The trick is to make repossession by the creditor easy but theft by third parties difficult. I have proposed "smart liens" along these lines, electronic security measures strong against third parties but with a "back door" for creditors. This well-specified, shared control over "smart property" more accurately reflects the agreement involving that property, so that there is less need for third parties. To even more accurately reflect the contract, we need a mechanism to eliminate the creditor control once the auto loan has been payed off. Alas, there is less incentive to provide these kinds of contractual process improvements in a market where government subsidizes the enforcement of contracts. Similar mechanisms might be possible for other kinds of security (houses, escrow accounts, etc.), but many valuable kinds of credit are unsecured, and we run into privity problems when it comes to garnishment of future income. Here, we are invoking third parties, namely the debtor's future contract counterparties. Any mechanism seemingly needs to involve them, but both principals have an incentive to enter a private, ungarnished contract in preference to one involving the creditor. (ie, the amount of garnishment is a surplus to be divided between principals who can route around it). A way to a solution, if it were feasible, would be to give the creditor shared control over the entire scope of of the debtor's income capabilities - or, a bit closer to practicality, over the entire scope of his digital income capabilities. A secondary solution is some combination of wide scope and limited compromise of privity. After all, money itself is a compromise of privity, since the contract parties rely on third parties to clear and maintain the value of the currency. Money's compromise of privity is well-defined, however, not an open-ended release of information and physical control, even over one's own person, as often occurs with credit reports and law enforcement respectively. Our challenge is to find privity compromises with such well-defined limits to enforce credit transactions. One possibility here is a "garnishable currency". All banks have an interest in enforcing credit, so they can make deals with each other to enforce credit via the garnishment of debtor bank account deposits at any participating bank. However, substantial amounts of garnishment (and if it provides a lower cost way of enforcing credit the amounts will be substantial) gives rise to an incentive for banks to fail to participate. Here the need to commonly clear a currency between banks can be used as a barrier to entry for such defectors. The currency is simply declared garnishable, and any banks who wish to deal in the currency must participate in the garnishing process. This currency wins against competitor currencies in a free-banking market because it provides a better means to enforce credit, allowing greater credit expansion at lower isk. On the other hand, traditional coin and currency transfers, and some kinds of digital cash transfers, need not involve deposits to bank accounts linked (usually by True Name, but a "debtor nym" could also work) to one's unsecured debts, and given that there is a market for these kinds of transfers for other reasons, its existence allows banks to defeat auditing of garnishment by other banks participating in that currency. Abuses of financial auditing for the purposes of extortion, inside information, etc. will likely maintain a major market for the non-deposit payment methods. Steve proposes "interval money" that would expire. A similar idea has been proposed by Tim May, a "time release" form of money that becomes good only after a certain date. These can probably be implemented by a digital mint expiring or activating special issues of digital cash, or by a third party issuing escrowed keys at specific times (since these keys are encrypted against the escrow agent, and that agent doesn't know what they will be used for, the escrow agent has no incentive to cheat). A technical issue here is whether the digital signature space is large enough to encompass one unique signature per unique credit transaction deadline into the indefinite future. While these protocols are intriguing, and potential building blocks for a solution, the institutions using them proposed so far seem to still rely on a solution to the deposit garnishment problem as discussed above, that is the problem of sufficiently disincentivizing the debtor from using non-garnishable alternatives while maintaining the privity of payments to those who are not unsecured debtors (the ability for these people to use non-deposit payment methods). Nick Szabo szabo(a)netcom.com http://www.best.com/~szabo/

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Re: Schlafly on crypto
by Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If we are having a Schlafy bash then i think it fair to bring up her "Con-Con" paranoia. She has published a series of articles predicting that there will be a "Constitutional Convention" - that is not one of your ordinary constitutional ammendment sessions but a wholesale rewritting of the US constitution by a cabal as happened when it was first written. A typical rant:- >They adopted a plan to plunge America into a Constitutional >Convention. Article V of the U.S. Constitution requires that "on the >Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, >[Congress] shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments." This >method has never been used; all 27 Amendments now in the Constitution >were adopted in the traditional way (passage by a two-thirds majority in >each House of Congress followed by ratification by three-fourths of the >states). http://www.eagleforum.org/users/eagle/public_html/psr/1996/may96/psrmay96.h… In fact despite Schlafy having predicted such a conference many times over the past years (I have seen more than 10) her claims are entirely false, not to say fraudulent. She uses the usual tricks of citing fraudulent references and making up quotes. In short she is a fraud hoping to get people to join her foundation to stop a Con con that nobody is proposing. I don't think that Schlafy is a usefull aly any more than Bob Dole basically its just opportunist politicians latching onto the rhetoric of debates without engaging in the argument. Dole senses that the mood of the country is pro crypto so he supports that, he senses that it is anti porn so he will support that. Basically Schlafy is playing the same game. She is saying things that she knows will curry favour so she can get people to join her Wacko club. Phill

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Re: MD5 completely broken!
by David F. Ogren 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Sun Aug 18 02:56:44 1996 > > >Atfer much scientific research, I have finally found a way to restore > >any message given only its MD5 checksum. > > uhm, congratulations <g> > > > maybe next time when you break a code and want to make > some $$$, sell your solution in secret > to the people who patented it!! > Not to mention that this is complete nonsense and a troll. No matter how weak the MD5 algorithm may or may not be, there are an infinite number of possible messages for each checksum. And thus the original message could NEVER be restored. Its as secure as a OTP. That's why its called a 'one-way' hash function. Not to mention the fact that he misspelled both 'entropy' and 'after'. P.S. But imagine if it was true! MD5 would become the ultimate compression algorithm. Any message could be reduced to a 128 bit archive. - -- David F. Ogren | ogren(a)concentric.net | "A man without religion is like a fish PGP Key ID: 0x6458EB29 | without a bicycle" - ------------------------------|---------------------------------------- Don't know what PGP is? | Need my public key? It's available Send a message to me with the | by server or by sending me a message subject GETPGPINFO | with the subject GETPGPKEY -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBMha+reSLhCBkWOspAQFvkQf+PE2+p8gLJ5Fcg64fKogAaad1v0KUAm6N PDWKqOF87hr4GK7Je0TnflQ5640w11CbqnhQeTeuMZ1vypJ+OMod7riY+okd4VQL tLaAA91EuzDLUnSnh3VT16MmN152RTWWS0fufASdJPw2aknhC5NA8kp+0ryQUo+f zICE619/4I0Hjz6qwIzuEYD7tMW1OEz5KGRpyLnZaiOFXObxLHQ4/QwUuJVfLrY0 GrKxNrmtIMiFyHqksbmg22G8f9SsziKa8TjoHDrq2UIL7ForTneC/C20HTOVh9iS 6+C9u2Wij+AFEgPQSZMyxP0Wb8m20DcoeOpnzbBLBVw9BfiqNApvUQ== =Nu+T -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Orbiting Datahavens
by Ross Wright 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Or About 2 Jul 96, 17:06, Brian Lane wrote: > to have a backup satellite in case of a disaster. Once the Delta > Clipper is functional They did have that big wreck a couple of weeks ago. I am not sure of the salvage status. Ross Wright King Media: Bulk Sales of Software Media and Duplication Services http://www.slip.net/~cdr/kingmedia Voice: 415-206-9906

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