I think the major benefit of requiring signatures on the cypherpunks list is not the authentication it will give, but the new software which cypherpunks will be forced to develop to make adding signatures with mail readers automatic. After the user interface work has evolved enough to make signatures ubiquitous, we can then switch to some kind of trusted-key system and really authenticate list members if we want. I think the most important and needed software is yet to be developed: Offline mail readers which work from home over the serial port and which incorporate PGP abilities. I know there are lots of POP readers, but we need one which is in ANSI C, portable, and easily extendable to serve as a base for incorporation of crypto. Preferably, it should use curses, or an abstracted window model so it can be easily ported to Mac, Windows, AmigaDOS, X-Windows with little change. -Ray -- Ray Cromwell | Engineering is the implementation of science; -- -- EE/Math Student | politics is the implementation of faith. -- -- rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu | - Zetetic Commentaries --