Fwd: [Cryptography] A possible alternative to TOR and PrivaTegrity without backdoors

[David Bernier]

Very interesting, grarpamp.

On 01/10/2016 04:38 PM, grarpamp wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Bill Cox <waywardgeek at gmail.com>
> Date: Sun, Jan 10, 2016 at 9:38 AM
> Subject: [Cryptography] A possible alternative to TOR and PrivaTegrity
> without backdoors
> To: "cryptography at metzdowd.com" <cryptography at metzdowd.com>
> 
> 
> This is an old idea, but perhaps now there might be more reason to
> consider it.  I currently call this idea Alias.  Here's my dumb
> data-dump on it.  Thoughts?
> 
> Alias is a concept for a TOR-like Internet protocol supporting free
> speech and user privacy, but without encouraging the worst evil
> behaviors.  Exit Nodes are replaced with Public Gateways, which
> sponsor users.  The definition of evil behavior is defined by the
> Public Gateways and operators of routing nodes.  Users would be
> encouraged to use good behavior, as their public alias would develop a
> reputation over time.  Anonymity would be protected, but a user's
> Public Gateway and any routing node could refuse to route data for
> aliases with poor reputations.
> 
> TOR was created with a lofty goal: to support free speech.
> Unfortunately, TOR has drawn attention from governments and law
> enforcement, as it could be used to protect some of the worst
> activities, such as contract killing, and the slave trade.  TOR Exit
> Node operators generally follow a strict policy of never looking at
> traffic, because simply observing this traffic would require Exit Node
> operators in most countries to regularly contact law enforcement to
> report crimes.  PrivaTegrity is an alternative protocol to TOR, which
> aims to find a balance between protecting free speech and protecting
> the world from the worst behavior.  Unfortunately, the PrivaTegrity
> inserts encryption backdoors.
> 
> Alias Design:
> 
> This is very much a dumb idea in the half-baked stage.  Feedback and
> ideas are welcome.
> 
> Alias would be a fork of TOR, and route Internet traffic from a user's
> machine through a couple of Routing Nodes, to a Public Gateway, which
> replaces the Exit Node.  The Public Gateway would have an account for
> the user, under a pseudonym used on Alias network by the user, called
> his alias.  The Public Gateway should keep an email contact address
> for the user, similar to regular accounts on various web sites.
> 
> In Alias, user aliases would have trackable reputations, and the
> reputations of user aliases would be combined into a reputation for a
> Public Gateway.  At a minimum, incident reports would be used to
> compute user reputations.  Exactly how this works is TBD, but the goal
> is to cause gateways with very poor reputations to be effectively
> blacklisted by routing nodes, and for users with poor reputations to
> be dropped by reputable gateways.  Users could move their alias from
> one gateway to another when needed, but they could not erase what
> their previous gateway knows about there identity.  The Gateway would
> not know a user's location, and in many cases will know nothing other
> than the user's reputation and email address.  When requested by a
> government authority, at a minimum, a gateway can drop support for a
> user alias, causing that alias to try to find a new gateway that will
> agree to sponsor it.

[...]

Just today, I read a Forbes story from late 2013 where an
anonymous had set up a web-site featuring Bounties in
bitcoins for assassination of named public figures, which
goes with the Crypto Anarchy "credo" (sometimes).

Source:

Nov 18, 2013 @ 08:30 AM
Meet The 'Assassination Market' Creator Who's Crowdfunding Murder With
Bitcoins

Link:

<
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/11/18/meet-the-assassination-market-creator-whos-crowdfunding-murder-with-bitcoins/#2715e4857a0b50146e921ac1
> .

David