:Jim Miller asks for an example: : : :> > - prepaid mailers, good for sending a packet to a :> > destination. With the final address nested insided a :> > series of encrypted packets, no mix along the way can :> > identify Bob without extensive collusion with other :> > mixes. :... :> I understand how you can do 2-way anonymous communication via message :> pools and Penet-style systems, but I don't "get" prepaid mailers. Could :> you post an example showing how two people can converse anonymously via :> prepaid mailers. : :I'll use Lisp-like notation to encapsulate the sending of a packet to :a remailer "Bob." If Alice wishes to send a packet to Bob, she creates :this packet: : :(Bob (more stuff)) : :I'm assuming encryption, which several remailers support and which all :users and all remailers should be using. : :Bob gets this packet, decrypts with his private key and recovers the :"more stuff." He may discover "more stuff" contains some digital money :for his troubles, instructions on how much latency (number of :messages, for example) to use, and where to send the resulting packet. :All kinds of stuff can fit in here. But that's not the point. : :If Alice wanted to send a message to Zeke, through a bunch of :remailers, she might create this initial message: : :(Bob (Charles (Doris (Ed (........ (Zeke (final stuff))))....))) [Lots of stuff removed] : :Well, enough for now. There could be some fatal flaws, but this is the :direction I've been thinking about. Eric Messick and Hugh Daniel had :some ideas about "onions" about a year ago, but I never fully grokked :--Tim May : : : :-- :.......................................................................... :Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, This will not work if Yancy is not trustworthy. She could then send the message through a chain of compromised remailers, to create the prepaid mailer packet. This would also happen, though less harmfully, any time the chain hit a bad node. Letting the nodes choose the other nodes is fatal. ---------------------------------------------------------- Lance Cottrell who does not speak for CASS/UCSD loki@nately.ucsd.edu PGP 2.3 key available by finger or server. "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. Suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night the ice weasels come." --Nietzsche ----------------------------------------------------------