-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, This is a belated reply to the issues raised by Tim May about digital banking. Also, I would like to have Tim clarify some of the statements/assumptions he made. Tim wrote: . . . how much I put [in a digital bank] would be dependent on the degree of "Swiss"-type services. Probably not many such services, I am surmising . . . Actually, we will begin operation with a basic set of Swiss-type services, and will bring a wide range of others on board as soon as practical. . . . if I remained in U.S., no protection. If I left U.S., no _need_ for your bank. I think this is incorrect on both counts. If Tim remains in the US, he absolutely needs the protection an offshore bank (digital or otherwise) can provide. Without one, there is no way he can keep his assets from being at risk. Having some of his money out of the States is an insurance policy against extortion and/or seizure. If Tim leaves the US, he will still have to live *someplace*, and *someplace* might want to grab his money every bit as much as the US government (or litigious thieves) would. In addition, Tim will still need a simple, quick and secure way to transact business in the US and elsewhere. . . . You can't be a real digital money bank, in the long-range sense we've talked about. (Total anonymity, Liechtenstein "anstalt"-type anonymity, digitally mediated.) I don't see what is to stop us. Perhaps Tim will elucidate. Tim went on to say that Cypherpunks would not be enough to financially support our bank and that "high rollers" would not be interested. True (though largely irrelevant) and false. The 700 Cypherpunks are a drop in the 20 mega-user Internet. We only have to get a small fraction of that market to make our nut. Without false modesty, I can safely say, I have met and dealt with far more "high rollers" (and real tax avoiders, for that matter) than Tim will ever know. I know what they want. We have what they want. We will get their business. Period. As for the Feds, privacy, regulations, etc., see my previous few posts. S a n d y Unencrypted e-mail to sandfort@crl.com PGP encrypted to ssandfort@attmail.com Nothing to my CompuServe acct., please ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLWUZ+k5ULTXct1IzAQGQ/wP9Gu20UBt54bIY0gr2dEnPYjANNxLUwTqg 34V/ABC8tD8ydVK89khzimVShPfEDoJdKyheSB1qgIzKL/O/zutJZH7GGmdWURaV FiYv+1bM6GlhZMNRvlpFKOYS3DRkknBMvjyWLjkUVvtLo0k6/XRakevye3hSahbK lIotJjv/6Jw= =cmGf -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----