Jason S. said:
People are using anonymity in a different way than has practical value within cyberspace. Anonymity usually means that you can not match a physical realm person to a cyberspatial private key. But that doesn't mean you don't know anything about the entity. The skills of an entity without any reputation capital are absolutely worthless. But usually an anonymous entity will come around brandishing all sorts of certifications (reputation capital).
So, as it is usually used, anonymity does not mean zero knowledge. It means you lack knowledge that would enable you to match the key to the physical realm person it corresponds to. With this in mind, the coexistence of the aforementioned attributes ceases to be problematic.
I think most of us understand this is what "pseudonymity" means...we only use "anonymous" as shorthand for this. You can quibble about this, and I might agree that the more awkward "pseudonymous" is a better term, but no one is being misled into thinking that "anonymous" means truly anonymous, with no credentials, no reputation, no trail. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."