Dining Crypto -- An Introduction

[Duncan/Lois Frissell <71562.3445@CompuServe.COM>]

(Timothy May)

Thanks for your repost of your message from the "Dawn of Time" (August 
1992).  Your list of "What DC Nets are Good For" was not specific enough
for my taste.  What DC Nets (untraceable communications) are good for:

1)  Once voice/video/VR makes it to the nets and once we have enough 
bandwidth/speed even realtime communications can be untraceable:

It's December 2000 and President Elect Clinton (Hilary) calls me for advice.
The call goes to my "Virtual Communications Server" located "Somewhere on the
Nets".  The packets are forwarded to me after being split up and sent their
various ways through anonymous remailers.  My half of the conversation travels
back the same way.  The packets pay the anonymous remailers for their
services with digital cash attached to their address headers.  We notice 
no time lag because the nets are fast and the packets carry a "realtime"
priority.

With the proper setup, the President of the US will be talking to me without
knowing (or being able to find out) where (or who) I am.

2)  This means markets freed from even the theoretical possibility of regulation.
Anything that can be digitized can be sold with no restraints save the absence
of a willing buyer.  Books, movies, VR epics, financial products, and all
non-physical services can be traded without coercion (and without taxation).
Remember too that "non-physical services" includes almost all management and
professional services.  The technique of "anonymous credentials" can be
used to check out those you deal with.

3)  The lack of regulation in the "spiritual realm" will distort market
transactions in the still controlled "physical realm."  People will tend
to "unbundle" the non-physical aspects of their services and sell them on
the nets even if it is less convenient to do so because of the *tax* savings.

4)  The reduction is government "revenue" as economic activity transfers
to the nets will induce a beneficial downward spiral in the authority and
power of government.

5)  People who become used to freedom in one part of their lives (their
work and play on the nets) will not enjoy the coercion they suffer in the
remainder of their lives (the place they sleep).  They will have 
the motivation and the tools to liberate their whole lives.  All without
the Libertarian Party converting a single person.  Freedom is a powerful
recruiter.

Duncan Frissell