Jim Miller writes:
One of the main unsolved problems with anonymous remailer networks is that, somewhere, there has to be a remailer that knows the mapping from your anonymous identity to your real identity (or at least your real e-mail address). This means that you will have to trust the person running the remailer.
This is not so, and we have discussed this many, many times. Chaum's 1981 CACM paper, referred to again by Hal Finney recently, describes how a series of remailers (or mixes, in his terminology) can prevent this mapping from "real identity" to "anonymous identity." This mapping is currently known to remailer in "Julf-style" remailers, such as the one S. Boxx used. But what if, to pick a simple example, someone first used an encrypted Cyperpunks remailer to mail to the Julf site? Unless Julf and the Cypherpunks remailer owner get together (collude), neither of them can construct the mapping. With N remailers and use of encryption at each node, all any of the N nodes can deduce is the mapping between inputs and outputs, neither of which are necessariy either the "real name" or the "anonymous name." Jim goes on to describe his ideas for a "message depot" system, which bears close resemblance to Chaum's mixes, the basis for our existing encrypted remailers, and Myron Cuperman's "pool" idea, first deployed about a year ago. My own "BlackNet" example of a month or so ago (and developed in 1988, conceptually) used both encryption and pools: the messages I picked up and decrypted, using the BlackNet private key, were readable only by me, and neither I nor the senders had any way of knowing who the other person was. I know some will call me an old fogey, or an old-timer who won't help newcomers, or even a parasitic nym (or somesuch, says G. Toal :-}) intent on devouring the initiative of the creative talents here, but I have to call 'em as I see 'em. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it.