Re: Stego Cash?

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 3:38 PM -0800 5/8/97, kqb@planet.net wrote:
>Previous Subject: Re: Clinton Admin. to announce new Crypto regs
>
>Rick Smith <smith@securecomputing.com> said:
>> These "new" regulations "to be issued" are scrambling to catch up with
>> previous and current practices. It doesn't change things at all.
>>   . . .
>> Export permission for strong crypto that only encrypts financial data is
>> clearly a variant of this tradition.
>
>This raises an intriguing possibility that I am sure is _not_
>intended by the regulators.  If the cash is cheap enough, perhaps
>it could be an economical carrier of encrypted messages.  What I have
>in mind is somewhat analogous to papering your wall with dollar bills,
>which clearly is uneconomical unless the dollar bills are really cheap.
>
>What does it take to set up an offshore "remailer bank"?  Of course,
>the digital cash it uses must be very INefficient, chock full of bit
>bloat that hosts plenty of not-so-subliminal channels. 8-)

You hit the nail on the head with your last line: subliminal channels.

Even financial software, ostensibly with no export controls, will still
have to be vetted for export, as any system usable for financial
cryptography is almost certainly usable for "other purposes."

I suppose that in past generations of "banking software" this was less
obviously the case, as SWIFT and whatever the systems were used DES and
variants. But as banking software moves to public key approaches, the
possibilities drastically multiply.

Wanna bet that if a Cypherpunk sets up a digital cash system using
extremely strong crypto that it won't be an easy matter to get export
approval, no matter what the new rules supposedly are?

--Tim May

There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
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: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."