Re: "Cypherpunks Write Code" as a Putdown

["Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>]

Timothy C. May writes:
> In my posting on why I think Netscape and related operating environments
> represent the likeliest targets for widespread crypto use (the "big win" I
> used in my title), I did not whine that others ought to write code for me.
> I said that this is where users were going in massive numbers.
> 
> Take it or leave it, as an analysis, but the "try writing some code" is a
> meaningless insult.

Some of us have spent the last several days not getting sleep and
going to meetings here in Stockholm -- defining security standards,
talking to Microsoft people about IPSP integration into Win '95 and
Windows NT, recruiting people to work on the project we have to make
sure that the IETF meeting in Dallas in a few months will have IPSP
security. We hope to have the whole infrastructure of the internet
encrypted within a year or two. I believe that between IPSP for the
links and MOSS (and SHTTP using MOSS for document security) we should
have the whole thing wrapped up in a couple of years. Problems still
to solve include security for the internet's routing protocols,
protection against denial of service attacks, etc.

Remailers and the like are still worthwhile areas for effort, of
course, but I think of those of applications of the secure
infrastructure.

Those people who would rather work than talk are invited to start
reading the internet drafts (some of which are soon to be RFCs) and
help out with the effort. I suspect that a big push from about 25
people could manage to implment just about everything we want and then
we could go on and live the rest of our lives.

There is a lot of real hard work to do in the next year or two and I
invite members of the community to quit waiting for the CryptoRapture
in which the X-Ists bring down the cypher systems of the future, and
help us actually do the job so that we'll see this stuff in our
lifetime.

Perry