It seems that pyramid scheme spamming has increased of late (if that is possible!). In my lifetime, I can only remember a single snail-mail instance of a pyramid scheme - over the net it is an entirely different story (although the number of instances is probably proportional to the number of lists I subsribe to). With fully anonymous digital cash will come the ability to develop untraceable pyramid schemes. As a staunch believer in the free market, I find laws against these schemes distasteful, quite hypocrytical (i.e. Social Security), and soon to be unenforceable. Pyramid schemes could be a growth market in a crypto-anarchic world. It is yet another market such as gambling, or the lottery, that could be conducted with anonymity. And it appears to be much more widespread on the internet currently, even without anonymity. And unlike gambling or the lottery, the payoffs could increase greatly should anonymity be available. Now, what is the point of this discussion of pyramid schemes? It is to bring to light yet another area that will be untouchable by governments. And I think that it will help continue the development and proliferation of some of our pet projects, specifically fully anonymous digital cash and remailers. Remailer operators could even fund their operations through pyramid schemes (directly, or indirectly through digital postage stamps). I am not, however, advocating spam. I simply see it as a natural extension of current practice, that may actually provide tangible benefits in the near future. Clay ******************************************************* Clay Olbon clay.olbon@dynetics.com engineer, programmer, statistitian, etc. Dynetics, Inc. **********************************************tanstaafl