Lets call all the "Spoon-E"s you buy at one time, using one ID number, a roll. If the "Spoon-E" issuer, and the first remailer in one of your chains, collude they can identify all of your messages using any stamps from that roll. Method: The issuer keeps a log of all ID numbers and "Spoon-E" numbers. A remailer sends the address of each sender, along with the "SpoonE" number of the message. Now any message with a stamp from the same roll can be assumed to be from the same person. Unless you are sending many messages through the bramble at the same time, you are providing wonderful traffic analysis to the issuer. He will know when and approximately when each of your hops was. This almost collapses you chain to the security of a single hop. A solution to this would be to use a different roll for each hop (not each remailer), and one for each destination. You would have one "first hop" roll, which would be easy to identify with you. Several rolls would be for intermediate hops (no roll used twice in one chain). You would also keep one roll per final destination, which could be easily identified with the recipient, but not with you. -------------------------------------------------- Lance Cottrell who does not speak for CASS/UCSD loki@nately.ucsd.edu PGP 2.6 key available by finger or server. Encrypted mail welcome. Home page http://nately.ucsd.edu/~loki/ Home of "chain" the remailer chaining script. For anon remailer info, mail remailer@nately.ucsd.edu Subject: remailer-help "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. Suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night the ice weasels come." --Nietzsche