Doomsaying, development, and deployment

["Amanda Walker" <amanda@intercon.com>]

A number of people have been saying things that amount to "imminent death of 
the Cypherpunks mailing list predicted, film at 11."  Well, folks, if it dies, 
it will be the fault of those who just pick up their toys and go home.

There's been a fair amount of discontent here in the the last year.  I don't 
think it's a matter of any one flameful discussion (of which many have gone by 
recently).  Rather, I think it's a matter of frustration.  PGP has acheived a 
fair amount of recognition in the user community at large, and lately even in 
the mainstream press.  However, beyond PGP and some anonymous remailers, 
there's not a lot else out there.

There won't *be* anything unless we build it.  No one's going to come riding 
in on his white horse to hand us crypto-security.

We all agree we need better tools, and that everyone else needs better tools
before they'll start adopting the technology we so fiercely believe can save 
us from the erosion of our civil liberty and personal privacy.

So let's build those tools.  Strange as it may seem, I actually have to weigh 
in on the side of Netscape in some of the arguments that have come by in the 
last week or so.  They are building stuff, after all.  That's better than most 
of the people on this list, from what I can tell.

To put my money where my mouth is, I'll shut up completely until I can post an 
announcement of some useful crypto tool.  It might be commercial, but it might 
be free--my employer does occasionally agree to give stuff away for the good 
of the Internet.



Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation