A Golden Opportunity
Cypherpunks, It seems to me that we have a golden opportunity to apply our crypto know-how, and our special perspective, to truly important issues. In recent days we have seen on our own list commments from folks from Netscape--surely a major players in whatever's coming--and from attendees at the recent IETF meeting (that stuff is Acronym City to me, so I stay out of the debate). And contributions from Phil Zimmermann, Bruce Schneier, Steven Levy, and the like. "Can't we all just get along?" is a much-laughed-at slogan, but it seems to apply here. We have a golden opportunity to influence the Net of the future, surely a good thing. (And I haven't even mentioned the Cypherpunks connections to digital cash of various flavors.) I understand that this list is no substitute for things like the recently-occurring IETF conference (or whatever it was), but it seems unproductive to be arguing here. (Argument can be good, of course. Amanda Walker _started_ the argument, but the resulting debate has been illuminating, so I think the outcome of the argument has been generally good.) I suppose what I'm suggesting is that we treat the confluence of influntial people here as a good opportunity to debate the future. We probably can't debate fine points in great detail--the list just can't support the passing of detailed specs back and forth--but I think many of us are willing to put up with some acronyms in exchange for you putting up with our non-IETF comments (:-}). The future Net is now being architected. What better time for Cypherpunks to apply their various views? --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. Cypherpunks list: majordomo@toad.com with body message of only: subscribe cypherpunks. FAQ available at ftp.netcom.com in pub/tc/tcmay
Timothy C. May writes
In recent days we have seen on our own list commments from folks from Netscape--surely a major players in whatever's coming--and from attendees at the recent IETF meeting (that stuff is Acronym City to me, so I stay out of the debate). And contributions from Phil Zimmermann, Bruce Schneier, Steven Levy, and the like.
"Can't we all just get along?" is a much-laughed-at slogan, but it seems to apply here. We have a golden opportunity to influence the Net of the future, surely a good thing. (And I haven't even mentioned the Cypherpunks connections to digital cash of various flavors.)
It seems that Perry and other are flaming Netscape for doing things their own way. Yes, Netscape have made a lot fuckups. But they are out there bringing really cool crypto to the masses. First guy on the block always does a lot of dumb fuckups. That is what version 2.0 is for. Yes, and all the blunders that appear in version 0.99 are really gross incredibly stupid blunders. We should know. Our prerelease versions of everything we have created have always been full of incredibly stupid blunders. That is the nature of programming. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we James A. Donald are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. jamesd@netcom.com
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