Re: A problem with anonymity

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 2:06 AM 9/1/95, Mac Norton wrote:
>On Thu, 31 Aug 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:
>
>> You don't have to look to death and inheritance for this problem to crop
>> up. Similar situations arise when:
>
>But these are problems of fraud that the criminal and civil
>justice systems already comprehend.  I think what is posited
>is something a bit more unique.

The guy who takes in money and vanishes, or skips to Rio, out of the reach
of extradition treaties, is not all that different from the posited
situation of a nym dematerializing.

The "law" can't really touch either situation, efficiently, and so other
mechanisms are generally used (or recommended, though many con victims have
fail to do so).

I've not claimed the scenarios are identical, only that the issue of agents
taking in money or promising services and then vanishing is as old as
history. That such things will happen with digital pseudonyms is assured.
Fortunately, countermeasures appear practical.

...
>> - this is also a well-known problem with any services that handle money,
>> valuables, etc. For example, the money courier who vanishes to Rio de
>> Janeiro.
>
>I don't think bonding is applicable in this posit, given the
>assumed established creditworthiness of the original anonym.
>Perhaps he originally posted a bond, but the market would
>probably have dispensed with that condition as an unnecessary
>formality at some point in his glowing credit history.
>
>MacN

If the "market" (actually, some players in the market) chose to dispense
with bonding and then got burned, so be it. Later iterations of the market,
and the players, will thus likely _not_ dispense with bonding and other
such measures.

Think of it as evolution in action.

--Tim May

(P.S. Could people try not to include all of the post they are responding
to in their replies?)

---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
Corralitos, CA              | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839      | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."