-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/09/2042224 While I understand the rubber-hose vote-coercion problem, My own opinion still remains that we need to solve the voting problem for *business* reasons, and that's how we'll get to use it first. You need secure voting protocols in order to control equity, after all, and, frankly, I'm not nearly as skeptical as others are about it. Without any reasons for my intuition here, I think that some of the problems some cryptographic experts have about internet voting are mostly bugbears, like "perfect" kidnapping scenarios for digital cash itself, for instance. And, of course, I think that the "problem" of selling votes is more one of attitude adjustment. After all we sell votes in corporations all the time, and, sooner or later, we're going to treat our force-control structures as non-monopolistic businesses instead of monopolistic nation-states. In the same way that religious freedom gave us religious denominations with democratic governance, sooner or later economic freedom will give us force-control that can be sold just like any other asset. Voteauction.com is a pointer to that, frankly. So, workable solutions for voting will happen first in *corporate* governance, in shareholder voting, proxies and so on. After we solve the problem of voting about *money*, mere politics will be a piece of cake. Financial cryptography is the only cryptography that matters. Political cryptography is a mere sideshow by comparison. Cheers, RAH -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.8 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> iQEVAwUBOhE8HcUCGwxmWcHhAQG2HQf/UkPSaY6lwgIzuA4VOydZb+EpYX0kCnDn oCiG+zPq+0ktJ2Ykum3EFUANldxlAB/tVfDHCIuRiAskrQWNdEEDSFpLA2cjusqo hjfrZFLnmHiYsNONvngSU6AZBYWk/ctZOBNK2YKssZtjksk3810PU3SH+0fhCIAw vMW6wZOTMBa/V0LOwR3gJFM8N8WJfUqZ2pcrLG8eO2axqiYfkXCKcDCKxcumWHrA vpnP3wvRyKBdqFOf60Q0H+DEAeUpZb1kuJ4sKvzniri66lk/W15ImM0FKyAxvSVx ocHaJ09ZdBHUJuBC7hHv6zVwpUNCscwz8tO07Fg4XDTrXUn88EcAUg== =qoOX -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
