At 10:51 AM 11/18/95, Daniel 'genius' Charpentier wrote:
I didn't want to see this initiative die. I am a new commer to cryptography and I know I shouldn't be posting yet but that is what I thought cypherpunk postings was supposed to be in the first place ( program code, protocols, and algorithms ). Please don't ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The list is about several things, some of which overlap the topics routinely discussed in sci.crypt and sci.crypt.research. Algorithms, code, etc. _does_ get discussed a lot, as you'll surely see as you peruse the archives. Volume-wise, it is a drop in the bucket. But this is not surprising, as primarily mathematical questions and answers tend to be brief. (You'll see this in the many one-line answwers to questions about cryptographic algorithms....) Also, technical questions tend to have precise answers, usually with answers in the various crypto texts and proceedings of the Crypto and EuroCrypt conferences. And technical questions which _don't_ have simple answers in the texts tend of course to be _research_ questions, and the dynamics mitigate against lively discussion until some progress is made. The social, political, and economic aspects are seldom discussed adequately elsewhere, and one thing the Cypherpunks group has really led in is the discussion of digital money, anonymous systems, pseudonyms, reputation, markets, and a host of other such topics. These topics can border on pure politics if people are not careful, but are generally close to the topics discussed at the first meeting over three years ago, before there was even a mailing list.
flame me to badly for this message. I am doing everything I am supposed to before posting ( reading the FAQ's, the entire cypherpunk archive, and APPLIED CRYPTOGRAPHY by Bruce Schneier ) but I could not let this slip by. Let's talk more about the cryptographic algorithms, program code, and chips than politics.
So, go ahead and talk. I mean this seriously, not sarcastically. No one will chastise you or anyone else for discussing technical cryptography. There are obviously folks interested in this. Experts, even. Published experts, even. --Tim May Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."