This Virtual City project does have an interesting conceptual link to cypherpunk philosophy. Many of us have been influenced by the fiction of Vernor Vinge, particularly his "True Names". In this story we find many elements of our cypherpunks mythology introduced: digital pseudonyms, anonymous mail, untraceable identities. The heroes of the story are hackers, powerful on the net, but with their real identies unknown. Having your true name discovered was the worst disaster that could occur, as it made you vulnerable to many kinds of attacks, both from other hackers and from the government. In Vinge's story, people online interact in virtual environments. This Virtual City and the other projects like it are trying to move towards an online virtual environment similar to that described in Vinge's story (and cyberpunk fiction). It would be nice if they had crypto anonymity and digital pseudonyms built in from the beginning. Unfortunately, although they talk it up, the author of the FAQ doesn't seem to really understand PK crypto:
Send email to "vcreg@virtual.net" with pertinent info: your name, your requested character name, and a short blurb which will become your initial description. Oh yes, and your Public Key.
Don't have one? Tsk, tsk, they're a good thing to have in general; go out and connect to a public key server and get yourself a key-- we'll send out your initial password encrypted to you, and you can decipher it with our public key. Fun, eh? If you're a sufficiently enthusiastic cyberspace denizen to pre-reg, you probably already have a public key...
This is not how keys work: you don't need to connect to a public key server to get yourself a key; and if they send something encrypted "to you" then you wouldn't decipher it with their public key, but rather with your private key. Also, they should say whether they are using PGP, RIPEM, PEM, or some new system for the public keys. My guess is that they haven't gotten that far yet. Still, it might make sense for someone from this list to give them some help on the crypto aspects. This could be a safe and fun environment in which people could be introduced to crypto, and it could even expand eventually to include cryptographically protected business relationships. Tim May has suggested that strong crypto could be initially deployed as part of a game, and this could be a beginning. Hal hfinney@shell.portal.com