I share many of these same concerns. Ultimately, it's an arms race. One thing is clear: the ways around restrictions lower bandwidth. Examples: steganography and covert channels are low-bandwidth. By analogy, successive transfers of small amounts of money gets around the reporting to the "Benevolent Caretaker" is also a lowering of bandwidth. However, it should be remembered that authorities attempted to outlaw the printing press after its invention. I'm not sure how long that lasted, but since the Soviet Union kept tabs on all copiers, in some sense, such repression lasted a long time. (And in the U.S., it has been said that color copiers are tracked, but this sounds like a bluff to me since a color scanner+color printer is sufficient to duplicate that capability. Is it possible to buy a color copier anonymously?) Given this, it *is* possible that freedom of expression is going to win eventually. Anonymous digital cash is more likely to be compromised since, as you note, even the Swiss have been pressured into opening up their records of anonymous bank accounts. Paul E. Baclace peb@procase.com P.S.: Prodigy is not yet profitable, last I heard. ``Is that a real network or is that a Sears network?'' --Frank Zappa paraphased.