So, what would be a "cypherpunk" thing you could do with Java? I know I can use it to download little applets to my system to do animations. What can it do to enhance my privacy? What would be the Java equivalent of PGP?
How about the old-standbys: remailers. Mixmaster is definitely where the technology is at, but it requires a client to use... Of course, with Java, there is the potential that _any_ user from any platform could connect to the Mixmaster Web page, get the client software, and start using the remailer network. Without having to compile, know anything, etc... If a Mixmaster client were available in Java (and I'm pretty sure it can be done) then suddenly everyone who previously could only use the penet server can now also use Mixmaster. With more people using the remailer network, all of them with Java clients, the possibility of for-pay remailers could become reality (no promises that you'll get rich though). There are many crypto-anarchy applications as well: Key cracking. If you can write a key-cracker and keyspace fetcher in Java, then people can join key cracking efforts as easily looking up an URL. It may not be nearly as efficient as the highly optimized C versions used in the current RC4-40 efforts, but there's going to be millions of potential workers this way. If you were charging money to break keys (or you were looking for keys that are very valuable to you), you could set up the worker client to accept e-cash for in return for searching keyspace "Click here to earn money while you aren't using your machine..." Ensuring that workers are actually searching the keyspace and other implementation details is left as an exercise for the reader. e-instrument or information exchanges, with Java interfaces for bidding, buying, selling, etc... DataHavens, which would probably require complex (internally) software to use. I'm sure the online casino people are salivating over the prospects too... Basically any fancy crypto application that requires a custom client to operate... Since its platform independent, efforts will be put to better use as well. andrew