Usenet and Re: extortion via digital cash

[Scott McGuire <svmcguir@syr.edu>]

"Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net> wrote:
> At 11:01 PM -0400 10/15/96, Rabid Wombat wrote:
> 
> >Also - in order to communicate back to the perpetrator, the victim needs
> >to communicate to the first step in the chain. The operator of that chain
> 
> BlackNet-type pools eliminate the chain. There is no "first step in the
> chain," only a message pool or Usenet group which is propagated to tens of
> thousands of sites around the world (and even available via one's satellite
> dish and local cable, a la DirectPC, @Home, etc.).
> 

I've been thinking about the use of Usenet as a message pool and this seems to
be a good place to bring up my thoughts.  As an already existing, widely
disseminated and easily used message pool, Usenet is very valuable to us.  I'm
concerned that it may not last though.  Many people now complain about how low
the signal to noise ratio is (even more than they complain about this list). 
I've heard people say that they have given up on newsgroups in favor of mailing
list, web-zines, etc.  So, if it gets too bad, might it just fade away?  Or, if
it remains but becomes unpopular, will it be easy to restrict if we use it for
anonymous messages?

Not long ago on this list some people discussed possible changes to Usenet
involving the elimination of newsgroups and their replacement with a searching
system (ie. show me all articles with "cypherpunks" as a keyword).  Has this
gone anywhere?  I was thinking that this could be done in a way as to be
compatible with current implementations.  A server could be written which would
act like an nntp server if connected to on the nntp port, but which would work
differently internally.  When an nntp client makes a request regarding some
news group, say alt.anonymous.messages, the server would search its single,
unsorted pool of articles for all with "alt.anonymous.messages" in the
newsgroup field of the header and respond to the request.  Clients written for
the new server would have access to its enhanced features (whatever they end up
being).

Although this does not have any direct crypto relevance, preserving Usenet as
an anonymous message pool seems like a good idea to me.  And to preserve it as
an anonymous message pool, it needs to be kept useful for its other uses. I'm
willing to work on this but I don't have the experience to lead an effort.  So,
is anyone interested or is anyone already working along these lines?

>
... stuff deleted ...
>
> --Tim May
> 
> "The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned
> IBM that the National Security Agency would try to twist their
> technology." [NYT, 1996-10-02]
> We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't
> allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
> Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
> tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
> W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
> Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
> "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
> 


--------------------
Scott V. McGuire <svmcguir@syr.edu>
PGP key available at http://web.syr.edu/~svmcguir
Key fingerprint = 86 B1 10 3F 4E 48 75 0E  96 9B 1E 52 8B B1 26 05