Anarchy Eroded: Project Efnext

[Eric Cordian]

Jim Choate writes:

>> A typical citizen-unit will quickly trade a large amount of privacy for
>> a small amount of convenience.

> That begs the question and misrepresents reality to a good degree. People
> take the choices they think they have, usually those choices are made
> available by the party that is operating the service the consumer will
> use. So, there is usually very little say for the consumer other than
> yes/no. This is not the fault of the consumer, it's the fault of the
> producer. In their drive to gain a significant share of the market
> (something which goes against free market economy by the way) they will
> reduce the number of combinations they must offer (reduces cost).

I see some interesting science here.  Permit me to explain.

One of the unchallenged inerrant doctrines of crypto-anarchy has been that
highly redundant widely distributed services are immune to attack.  
Indeed, things like BlackNet are made possible because they can use such
services (eg alt.anonymous.message) as their underlying transport
mechanism.

Now we see a network of 33 servers being assimilated to a new way of doing
things.  How could this be?  Perhaps there are some flaws in our analysis
of highly redundant widely distributed networks.  Perhaps by looking at
Efnext, we might see what they are.

Flaw number one is that the servers in most networks are not equal.  Most
Networks are star networks, and most of the nodes are leaf nodes.  Leaf
nodes are at the mercy of their hubs.  Where the hubs go, the leaves will
follow.

Flaw number two is that it is far more prestigious to run a hub than a
leaf.  Given the choice of having ones own Enamelware Factory under the
new Reich, or being reduced to a delinked leaf, most server operators will
swallow their pride and go with the herd.

Flaw number three is that once the herd starts moving, it is very
difficult for individual sheep to make their views known, and almost
impossible for them to push the herd in a different direction.

Also, the trading of privacy and autonomy for convenience is a new threat
model we have not considered in the context of highly redundant widely
distributed networks. 

Here we have EFNet en masse giving up the old way of doing
things.  En masse.  "Voluntarily."  And what is their motivation?

Impending government legislation?
Janet Reno's tanks rolling on the locations of all 33 IRC Servers?
A court order, which threatens indefinite jailing for non-compliance?

No, it's none of these things.  It's some people who have gone off and
written some mods to ircd which make running a server less of a headache.

So the lesson here is that there is a "better software" attack on highly
redundant widely distributed server networks, and that entire networks
will trade control of their servers and allow changes to fundamental
protocols, in return for new "singing and dancing" code. 

Certainly, Usenet is also vulnerable to such an attack.  Most news admins
I know would give their left nut for a life free of spam.

> His argument is something like this:

> -	The organization is changing the way it operates through a
> 	process that is representative and doesn't require participation
> 	by any party against their will.

Much in the same sense that it is "voluntary" for an individual in the
top 1 percentile on IQ and Achievment Tests to get a high school diploma.

However, try being allowed to flip burgers without one, regardless of your
actual talent. 

Making people "part of the process" is one of the first things one learns
in management.  How to simultaneously make sure they have zero chance of
actually altering what you have planned for them is the second thing.

> They already are, and have been for years. Usenet is another service that
> could use some sort of p2p datahaven environment. This should be one of
> the Cypherpunk 'target projects'.

Uh, right.  Let us know when you have working code. 

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"