we've accomplished a great deal as cypherpunks so far, but major obstacles are in place of our ambitious goals. here are some critical factors: * it is extremely difficult find sites willing to donate computer cycles, space, and management despite that it is rather abundant in the world. virtually every cypherpunk idea requires some cycles & space somewhere. building up all these things on student accounts is commendable but a foundation of quicksand in the long run. rumor has it even soda.berkeley.edu ftp site (perhaps the most critical cypherpunk element other than the mailing list) is being run off a student account. ideally a list of volunteering sites could be created and individual cypherpunks could contact the sites independently. * the internet itself is very hostile in general to most cypherpunk ideas, including digital cash, anonymous remailing, etc. because of nonuniform policies and general resentment and taboos on anything commercial. to some degree only prototypes can be created in this atmosphere, but even prototypes of our most critical ideas are lacking. great attention should be placed on identifying and cultivating emerging networks where commercialism is officially sanctioned and encouraged. * the `i thought you were doing that' factor. with no organization and coordination, the effort and energy of the group is needlessly dissipated and tragically wasted. in fact, many cypherpunks have philosophies that are exceedingly antagonistic toward and distrustful of any oversight or coordination, and frequently assume that others are making progress in some area when in fact no one is. * to a large degree, despite the commandment `cypherpunks write code', the `cypherpunks' have always gained their cohesion more from political ideology than implementing tangible systems. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.