***Please circulate to all interested parties*** Announcing the first meeting of 2001 of Cypherpunks-Seattle. When: April 14, 2001 12:30 - 4:00 p.m. Where: Bellevue Las Margaritas 437 - 108th Avenue N. E., downtown Bellevue Space is limited, please RSVP to seacypherpunks@ix.netcom.com Agenda - Introductions and Open Discussion E-Gold and other Alternative Currency Systems Problems and Tradeoffs in Public Key Infrastructures E-Gold and other Alternative Currency Systems E-gold has enjoyed increasing success as the first viable free-market electronic currency. It is privately backed, and does not rely on any particular government's political stability to retain its value. Vince Callaway, who wears hats as both an independent in- and out-exchange provider for e-gold and Norfed and a software engineer, will discuss the background of free-market currencies, some of the current operating paradigms, and will touch on some of the future prospects for these currencies. Vince has the distinction of having been an early BBS sysop, moving into becoming Tacoma's first internet provider in 1991. He has been involved both in getting Washington State's leginfo site created, and was instrumental in getting a digital signature law passed in Washington. Vince also operates a PGP key server. Problems and Tradeoffs in Public Key Infrastructures This could hardly come at a better time, after the announcement that Verisign issued a Class 3 Digital Certificate to someone who purported to be from Microsoft, but wasn't. This certificate can be used to code-sign things like ActiveX controls, macros, and applications. Anyone in possession of that certificate could present malicious code to an unsuspecting user and fool that user into accepting it into his computer. ("After all, it said it was from Microsoft.") Albert Yang will discuss what PKI--Public Key Infrastructures--can and cannot do. He will briefly cover the basics of how PKI works, where it fails, and when and how certificates can be trusted--and defeated. In addition, Albert has promised to give a glimpse of some of the new PKI developments on the horizon. Albert is currently a security architect and PKI consultant with Baltimore Technology. Previously, he was a consultant with RSA. He has several years of background in Linux, BSD, and web site design and programming. The cypherpunks meeting is an Open Meeting on US Soil and it is free for anyone to attend.