A Golden Opportunity

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Cypherpunks,

It seems to me that we have a golden opportunity to apply our crypto
know-how, and our special perspective, to truly important issues.

In recent days we have seen on our own list commments from folks from
Netscape--surely a major players in whatever's coming--and from
attendees at the recent IETF meeting (that stuff is Acronym City to
me, so I stay out of the debate). And contributions from Phil
Zimmermann, Bruce Schneier, Steven Levy, and the like.


"Can't we all just get along?" is a much-laughed-at slogan, but it
seems to apply here. We have a golden opportunity to influence the
Net of the future, surely a good thing. (And I haven't even mentioned
the Cypherpunks connections to digital cash of various flavors.)

I understand that this list is no substitute for things like the
recently-occurring IETF conference (or whatever it was), but it seems
unproductive to be arguing here. (Argument can be good, of course.
Amanda Walker _started_ the argument, but the resulting debate has
been illuminating, so I think the outcome of the argument has been
generally good.)

I suppose what I'm suggesting is that we treat the confluence of
influntial people here as a good opportunity to debate the future. We
probably can't debate fine points in great detail--the list just can't
support the passing of detailed specs back and forth--but I think many
of us are willing to put up with some acronyms in exchange for you
putting up with our non-IETF comments (:-}).

The future Net is now being architected. What better time for
Cypherpunks to apply their various views?

--Tim May


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
Cypherpunks list: majordomo@toad.com with body message of only: 
subscribe cypherpunks. FAQ available at ftp.netcom.com in pub/tc/tcmay