Anonymous accusations not worth much

[Timothy C. May]

> The following anon msg sent to the cpunks list contained your account
> (ebrandt at jarthur.cs.hmc.edu) as the reply to:

> Date: Thu Apr 28 00:36:57 PDT 1994 
> From: nobody at jarthur.cs.hmc.edu 
> Reply to: ebrandt at jarthur.cs.hmc.edu 
> To: cypherpunks at toad.com 
> Subject: spooks on cypherpunks 
> 
> NetSurfer <jdwilson at gold.chem.hawaii.edu>
> Robert Mathews <mathews at gold.chem.hawaii.edu> be aware
> 
...
> 
> Are you the sender?  Do you know who the sender is?  Why exactly is this
> person defaming my name with this outrageous accusation?

Cheer up, NetSurfer, as nobody takes anonymous accusations too
seriously...at least not anyboy with any common sense.

Reputations matter, and anonymous entities who provide no verifiable
info (not that many of us want to see such info, or would bother to
investigate it) have almost zero reputation. The calculus of
reputations thus means that anonymous accusations carry little weight.

There's a lot more to be said here. This issue lies close to the heart
of how crypto anarchy works.

--Tim May


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay at 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.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."