-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Anonymous wrote:

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- Everyone a remailer. Remailers only accept messages from other remailers. To use remailers you must run a remailer.

I don't grow my own wheat, grind it up, and then make my own bread. I also prefer not to run a remailer.

You don't have to. You pay someone to bake your bread for you, and you can pay someone to run your remailer for you.

This idea has been around since remailers began. The basic premise is that a group of remailers are set up which only accept mail from other remailers. A pinging system can be set up to verify that all the remailers are operating correctly.

The catch is that in practice each remailer is only required to accept mail from other remailers, but can actually accept mail from anybody the operator wants to. So if you don't want to run a remailer, just pay someone to run a remailer on your behalf, and then you can send anonymous messages through that person's site.

Thus forwarding within the remailer network is free, but it costs money to insert new messages. This scheme is a little more flexible than attaching ecash to each message because you can arrange any type of fee schedule you like, such as a flat rate per month.

This is interesting. One nice feature is that there doesn't need to be a standardized payment arrangement with all remailers, just the one you use for your entry point. And, there's nothing that prevents many remailer networks from overlapping. (Actually, the geometry could create some neat problems.) This would be fairly easy to set up, not even really needing client software modifications. However, it does have a "commons" problem. No remailer operator has an incentive to provide really good service. They are all encouraged to provide the bare minimum remailer service and take advantage of the other remailers in the network. For example, what would encourage somebody to have a 24 x 7 remailer service with continuous staffing? This would be desirable because when the bad guys kick down the door, there is somebody awake to pull the plug. There are a zillion other features which won't happen if there isn't a proper incentive. Monty Cantsin Editor in Chief Smile Magazine http://www.neoism.org/squares/smile_index.html http://www.neoism.org/squares/cantsin_10.html -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBNDR4w5aWtjSmRH/5AQEG4gf+M/7L0iR3qLoXB1jhLkCyuq2iasP+7dO8 nv3QkA3LcTk6gcIMvJKYAfGUlsqISOFOhIfB2G37bLIQ9PjPeP99x48lBklwZ61A 64JeiD187qEkS0bXy5Q5OLNnoQ1jhsQOF9dSqDgA7c3n6kDVv0fsIZ3gdCimFNqR 53qBcUQG14NcPIsYURmNUfX8p68T01yc+8rQUkh3xmmXCr89cgodCFoFpwKUojYp tumpPTdDYMZkjflAm2ZQxOgfrKryvtI/ESjy5R2xFxEcxB4nvJ1qZ2fVhhy/dQbS 9EdjT1WSG99rfOKRkJNd/ANeB3HU5ynq1WdrBq95TCRb+/znnguyaw== =HbZJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----