Re: Cypherpunk Elitism and Spam Filters

[Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com>]

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                          SANDY SANDFORT
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C'punks,

On Thu, 2 Jan 1997, Alan Olsen wrote:

[Excellent analysis of the "elite vs. masses" dichotomy, elided.]

> Netscape is a good example of "transparent" crypto.  It has problems
> though.  How many sites do you connect to that use SSL?  Damn few I will
> bet.  How many encrypt everything, not just the "important stuff".  Next to
> none.  Why?  Getting a secure server costs a fair chunk of change.  It is
> possible to get one for "non-commercial use", but it is still going to cost
> you a bit for the certificate needed to run the server. ($295 bucks and the
> list of hoop to jump through.  Verisign usually wants you to be a corporate
> entity.)  Any chance of a CPunk CA coming into existence any time soon?

We at C2Net bundle a Thawte certificate with our Stronghold 
secure server for only US$545.  Stronghold is available free for
non-commercial use and a stand-alone Thawte certificate is just
US$100.  A hundred bucks plus home-grown code tweaking is a low 
hurdle to entry for non-commercial users.  For commercial users, 
of course, the cost of a secure server and certificate is self-
liquidating.


 S a n d y

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