Adam Shostack writes:

The anonymous nature of the funds & contract negotiation will make finding this person more difficult, not impossible.

A number of people have raised this idea in one form or another when confronted with these notions. However, the point I think needs to be stressed is that: To the extent that evidence can be found, the goals of crypto anarchy have failed. It is certainly true that police can search for a motive, can point at the usual suspects, etc. Adam claims:

The tracing of the money from payer to assassin might be difficult, but there will probably be a large, unaccounted for withdrawal from some back account.

To the extent that this is true, then it is also true that people are not able to keep their financial status and records completely secret, and the state can continue to enforce the collection of taxes. Strong crypto has the potential to completely remove these things... what if no one knows what secret bank accounts the suspect uses? The status of the suspect's funds and all cash transactions can be completely private, with no way to find them (even with all the court orders in the world). There are, indeed, many weaknesses to such a scheme in the real world *today*, but it is the aim of crypto anarchy to remove all such weaknesses. Doug ___________________________________________________________________ Doug Cutrell General Partner doug@OpenMind.com Open Mind, Santa Cruz ===================================================================