On Thu, 12 Oct 1995, Jiri Baum wrote:
You'd still need an MD5 necktie.
Actually, you don't - you just don't get signatures without it. However, authentication AFAIK was never a problem to export, so there's no need to bother.
True, but there's still a licencing requirment in the states (might be different up here). So an authentication necktie (as opposed to cryptographic shorts and shirts) would be on the principle that one should not need a licence to write software.
Hmm, just like Monopoly money, I guess.
Nobody's been busted yet for printing that, have they. They don't care, too easy to counterfeit. Inflation through photocopying would make monopoly currency as worthless as the funny money it is now.
OTOH, if you threw in strong two-way anon digicash onto a networked version, you'd basically have a gambling setup masquarading as a MUD. See how long that would last unscathed? It would be a nice way to introduce the masses to the concepts though. Make the code available and you might see servers springing up faster than the present digicash casinos. And since any of the parties involved might be tempted to cheat ("upgrading" the server in the sysadmin's favor, ganging up ...) some authentication might be needed. Which means even more education for Joe Gambler. Since doing this for real money, even real digicash, is already illegal in many places, it would finally drive home the need for anon security and crypto to the eager gambler (of which there are many more than eager pgp users). If you make it look loony enough, the authorities might find it beneath them to do anything. Given any success you could launch some additional for-pay services based on the same platform. It's only a game, right?