Interesting reply, Duncan. Since you've addressed many of the points, I'll just add a few short points. Duncan Frissell wrote: | The Future of Cryptography | | Dorothy E. Denning | Georgetown University | | Revised January 6, 1996 | | [Responses by Duncan Frissell in square brackets] | A growing number of people are attracted to the market liberalism envisioned | by Jefferson, Hayek, and many others, but not to anarchy. Thus, the crypto | anarchists' claims come close to asserting that the technology will take us | to an outcome that most of us would not choose. | | [Still up for negotiation is how liberal a market we will want. The growing | power of markets and (traditional) liberal ideas is the result of the The term "crypto anarchy" is a label for a new, and still evolving school of thought. To take it to soley encompass anarchy as a result would be as false as assuming that Utilitarians only take utility in its restired sense, and not pleasure into thier calculations. Mill, in the first paragraph of chapter II of 'Utilitarianism' discusses the idea, that an idea, through its simple label, is dismissed. | This is the claim that I want to address here. I do not accept crypto | anarchy as the inevitable outcome. A new paradigm of cryptography, key | escrow, is emerging and gaining acceptance in industry. I would argue that it lacks industry acceptance, and the only acceptance is that of the lesser of evils, not a warm embrace. Futher, the idea that unfettered cryptography will lead to the end of the nation state, while embraced by both Denning and Frissel, is not obvious. There are many aspects of police work which will be continued, and continue to address many of the crimes that worry Dr. Denning. Undercover cops can partake in a grey or black market more easily when the tools of anonymity are available to all. If the market is for physical items, those items must be delivered. Adam -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume