On Thu, 14 Nov 2002, Keith Ray wrote: > It's been a number of years since
Jim Bell wrote his infamous > "Assassination Politics" essay. If someone
were to try to implement > the system today and not share Jim Bell's fate,
they would need > absolute anonymity and security. The technical
requirements for > implementing the system are: > > 1. Anonymous and secure
communication between the organization and the > contributors and
guessors. > > 2. Anonymous payment system. > > 3. Anonymous public presense
of the organization to solicit > contributions and display bounties to
potential assassins. > > At the time AP was written, only the first
requirement could have been > met using the mixmaster remailer network. The
last two requirements > were not yet available. Not true. Usenet is a fine
forum for anonymous discussion. See Blacknet. > However, two new systems,
DMT and Freenet, > could be used to meet the anonymous payment and
anonymous public > presense requirements. Freenet is irrelevant. As for the
DMT Rand, and assuming it is a viable currency, the question should be
"will there be a large enough anonymity set to make this practical." That
has always been a problem with this scheme. Even if anonymous digital cash
is available, if the number of users is below a threshold limit there will
be no actual anonymity gained. (Oh, and there is still the messy issue of
the wetwork involved. Someone still needs to get out there and whack the
poor git.) > If someone did want to implement AP, would DMT/Yodel, Freenet,
and > Mixmaster be good enough to keep the TLA's from shutting the system >
down? That is an entirely different question. The answer is no -- if
Mixmaster were regularly used as a key component in an assassination
market, running Mixmaster would become illegal. Those remailer operators
who would persist in running Mixmaster would be jailed or disappeared. Or
the Rand could be attacked, and use of non-government currency could be
made illegal. If you are reduced to an anonymity set of "fellow criminals",
it doesn't matter if your individual crime is not known. If use or
possession of the Rand is a crime, you're shit out of luck. AP as presented
is unworkable. It is amusing that the IRS so got its panties bunched over
such an impractical scheme. (Oh, btw -- expect an audit, Keith, if you are
unfortunate enough to be a US taxpayer.) If one wanted to do a cyberspace
assassination market, it could be done without anonymous digital cash,
assuming there was some degree of financial trust between the players.
(Negotiation of price and target can be done using Mixmaster, PGP
encryption, and Usenet. Payment can be rendered via an anonymous numbered
offshore bank account accessible by anyone who has the number/password
combination. The buyer provides this information to the seller after the
hit, or perhaps splits the payment across two accounts and does a "half
now, half on delivery" system. Insert standard reputation capital system
ideas here, wherein certain buyers and sellers are known to be reliable,
and have persistent nyms because of PGP signatures. This is nothing new --
Blacknet demonstrated this could be done with information. It is a small
step to extend the black market brokering to meatspace deeds. -MW-
Thanks for that.
While closely associated with the APster meme here and elsewhere,I now see
that the conditions for its widespread uptake are so favorable that I now
wish to totally dis-associate myself from the project.I want to thank the
rebel alliance and also, in a bizzaro way,the evil empire, as well,for a
bang up job.
I have a great law suit underway,good looks,virility and a marvelous future
ahead of me.
As the local US puppet government issues another terror alert,I leave you
now with my congratulations and best wishes for the crypto-anarchic
millennium.We won.
It was a famous victory.
PS.I may still use the place as a blog if no one objects.It's a great
format as files are associated with dates AND Mongo mnemetics.Who says he
is useless!
It's been real.
