Tim May <tcmay@got.net> writes:
Nope. I haven't claimed anything about an elite group trading amongst themselves.
Rather, those who use the technology will make more money, and save more of it, and will then be able to hire out those who failed to, and to buy stuff made by them.
How, exactly? We're not talking about computers as "the technology". We mean anonymous remailers, digital cash, Chaumian credentials, steganography, and other cypherpunk technologies. Who is using these technologies to make more money today? Almost no one. The reason is that the market is far too small. You can't put together a business plan and attract the investment needed if there are only a few hundred cypherpunks as customers.
We've been seeing this for a long time. Not a new concept. For example, those of us who used our skills and investment inclinations to make a lot of money are not condemned to "trading only with ourselves." We routinely trade with others.
Totally different. The point is not to trade, it is to do so anonymously and confidentially. You yourself are always whining about how you can't buy and sell your stocks privately, all your financial status being known to the state. Cypherpunk technologies are useless unless all parties to a transaction are using them. If even one party is subject to government or criminal surveillance then other participants will be forced to report the transaction as well. The only hope for these technologies is to spread the base of people using them. It doesn't do any good to use anonymous ecash if no one will accept it for payment. You can't make a living as a nym until there are enough people using these technologies that a business can succeed via anonymous contracting. It all depends on getting a critical mass of users.