____________________________________________________________________ Before a larger group can see the virtue of an idea, a smaller group must first understand it. "Stranger Suns" George Zebrowski The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- -------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 17:26:13 -0800 (PST) From: Bram Cohen <bram@gawth.com> To: hal@finney.org Cc: Pete.Chown@skygate.co.uk, coderpunks@toad.com, crypt@bxa.doc.gov Subject: Re: Harvard mathematician creates 'provably unbreakable' code On Wed, 21 Feb 2001 hal@finney.org wrote:

for i = 1 to m do for j = 1 to n do if j is an element of s then R and S store alpha[j][i] end for j S and R set X[i] = xor of stored alpha[j][i] values (k of them) S sends M[i] xor X[i]; R recovers M[i] by xoring with X[i] end for i

Interesting. Something I came up with may be relevant - http://gawth.com/bram/essays/unrelated_xors.html I explained this to Ian Goldberg, who agreed that both conjectures are completely obvious, and also couldn't see a way of proving them. If anyone could forward this around I'd much appreciate it - it seems like worthwile work, but I haven't figured out how to even try to get it published anywhere - even the front outright ignores submissions from people with no academic affiliation. -Bram Cohen "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent" -- John Maynard Keynes