Re: Broadcasts and the Rendezvous Problem

[jrochkin@cs.oberlin.edu (Jonathan Rochkind)]

At 5:48 PM 12/11/94, L. Todd Masco wrote:
>This is where my train of thought dovetails with the newsgroup question:
>bringing a new remailer on line could be achieved by broadcasting a message
>through a newsgroup specifying the location and type of the remailer.  If
>necessary, one or more pseudonymous automatic testing agents could pick up
>the message and put the remailer through a barrage of tests, broadcasting
>a "remailer certification" with a certain duration.  "Premail++" and
>remailers could find their next hop by examining current certifications
>and choosing one with desired characteristics, scoring by trusted testing
>agents and other criteria (including the passage of time since the last
>certification).  If an exit-remailer is chosen early in the game, multiple
>paths to the exit-remailer can be used to improve reliability (exit-
>remailers would also probably have a shorter cycle of certification).

I tried to discuss a very similar plan several months ago (maybe as long
ago as a year, I don't remember). No one seemed interested in it.  Many
people seemed to think that a newsgroup for this sort of a thing was a
waste of bandwith.  I don't really agree, and think that the bandwith is
neccesary for a distributed method of making the remailer net more robust
to remailers popping into and out of existence.

I still think it's a good idea though. shrug. maybe people will like it
better this time around.