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[stewarts at ix.netcom.com]

At 12:14 AM 12/01/1997 -0500, Robert A. Costner wrote:
>Best I can tell, the only reasonable good purpose for this is to create a
>persistent nym identity without a reply to capability.  

Actually, setting the reply to point to your nymserver address
is the one legitimate use I can see for it, though that
capability probably should be provided by the nymserver.
The reason for chaining through remailers is to gain anonymity.

>I would think the best way to put in a persistent nym capability would be
>to database the PGP key id's along with the persistent identity.  

But you don't need a special anonymity server to do that;
a keyserver plus either a personna certificate or some archiving mechanism is enough.
The certificate shows that you're the first+only person at that
certificate issuer to use the name you've chosen; the archive
shows that the first poster using the name <nym> used PGP Key <key>.
I have a PGP key I use for signing pseudonyms which performs
the personna certificate function - I'll verify uniqueness
of keys that I've signed.  

> This also keeps someone from stealing another's reputation capital.
The PGP signature key is enough to do that, and without the 
digital signature there's no way to prevent forgery.
(I've got mixed feelings about whether to sign a key for a 
name who has a known history without having the key attached.  
I've signed Black Unicorn's, but the other nyms I've signed have been 
for users who announced their key along with their initial use of the nym.)

				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, stewarts at ix.netcom.com
Regular Key PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639