Re: Crypto Exports, Europe, and Conspiracy Theories

[jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>]

At 01:06 PM 1/26/96 -0600, Alex Strasheim wrote:
>
>Digicash is probably the first significant crypto product to be exported
>to America.  It's not very popular yet, but I think that most of us here
>agree that it is, in potential at least, as significant as
>Mosaic/Netscape.  It's important to note that this extremely important
>product couldn't have been produced here, patents aside.  Transaction
>systems need to be international, and our rules make America an unsuitable
>place from which to launch tranaction software.
>
>Will the NSA be able to stand up against growing economic pressures?  I 
>don't know.  But it does seem pretty clear that those pressures are 
>building all the time, and that the problem of supressing crypto in 1996 
>is a much tougher one than it was in 1986.
>
>In general, it's myopic and ill advised to focus on one factor -- 
>economics, politcs, the national security establishment -- when trying to 
>predict what will happen.  I've probably been guilty of placing too much 
>emphasis on money, and not enough on the NSA.
>
>We do seem to be winning, though.

Agreed.  However, we will all REALLY win when
anonymous-payer/anonymous-payee digital cash appears and is in common usage.
(or Digicash can be "munged" to make payee-anonymity possible, if not the norm.