[I haven't received Cypherpunks list mail since Friday. I don't know if the list is down or if Netcom is simply not delivering mail...it's been having severe problems. So I'm sending this blind to the list, and copying Hugh Daniel and Eric Hughes, to make sure it at least gets to _somebody_.] Greetings Cypherpunks, The FAQ I've been working on for many months is now available by anonymous ftp, details below. Because there is no "official" Cypherpunks group, there shouldn't be an "official" Cypherpunks FAQ, as I see it. Thus, others can write their own FAQs as they see fit. Cypherpunks write FAQs? I've decided to give my FAQ a name, to prevent confusion. "THE CYPHERNOMICON" is what I call it. (If the reference is obscure, I can explain.) The main file is 1.3 MB. It takes about 12-15 minutes to transfer with a 14.4 modem, proportionately slower with a slower modem. And of course very fast if you're already on Netcom or on a T1 connection. (I may split the 20 chapters into pieces, later, but this could add unwelcome confusion. And I'm holding off on gzip compressing the file(s) right now, for similar reasons.) Yes, the FAQ is very long. Yes, it is not what others may have wanted (the MFAQ, described below, is the "short" version that newcomers can get, or have mailed to them if they lack anonymous ftp access). It is the FAQ I _wanted_ to write, which is reason enough for the form it's in. The CYPHERNOMICON is especially detailed in the areas that have gotten little coverage in existing books: crypto anarchy, reputations, black merkets, and the uses of digital cash. The crypto and PGP sections are fairly long, but not nearly as long as they could be, given the vast amount of material out there already. (I didn't see the need to cover these areas in great detail.) The "anonymity and remailers" chapter is also very long, and is the most disorganized, in my opinion. The plethora of sites, URLs, various remailers, features, ideas, issues, and miscellaneous cruft is just overwhelming....I hope I've made some order out of it. (The "Release-Notes" and "README" docs have more explanations of the form and rationale, including the meta-FAQ question of why this FAQ is not a Web doc.) Details: anonymous ftp site: ftp.netcom.com cd to pub/tcmay "get" the files in the standard anonymous ftp way (feel free to move it to other sites, but for now it may be best to leave it here; I think the files are all reasonably OK, with no fatal flaws (Harry Bartholomew helped test the access), but wider distribution should perhaps be slowed for several days, to make corrections of serious flaws easier to make) The following 6 files are included: Contents-Long (A detailed table of contents, about 10 KB) CP-FAQ (The complete CYPHERNOMICON, uncompressed for the time being, about 1.3 MB) Contents-Short (A brief table of contents) MFAQ (One of the chapters, the "Most Frequently Asked Questions") Release-Notes (Some comments on the FAQ.) README (Much more detailed comments, also included as the final chapter) Here is the Contents-Short: THE CYPHERNOMICON 1. Introduction 2. MFAQ--Most Frequently Asked Questions 3. Cypherpunks -- History, Organization, Agenda 4. Goals and Ideology -- Privacy, Freedom, New Approaches 5. Cryptology 6. The Need For Strong Crypto 7. PGP -- Pretty Good Privacy 8. Anonymity, Digital Mixes, and Remailers 9. Policy: Clipper,Key Escrow, and Digital Telephony 10. Legal Issues 11. Surveillance, Privacy, And Intelligence Agencies 12. Digital Cash and Net Commerce 13. Activism and Projects 14. Other Advanced Crypto Applications 15. Reputations and Credentials 16. Crypto Anarchy 17. The Future 18. Loose Ends and Miscellaneous Topics 19. Appendices 20. README Comments should be sent to me. Future releases will be coming. Enjoy. --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: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."