13.5.1. "What are the likely attitudes toward mainstream Cypherpunks
projects, such as remailers, encryption, etc.?"
- Reaction has already been largely favorable. Journalists
such as Steven Levy, Kevin Kelly, John Markoff, and Julian
Dibbell have written favorably. Reaction of people I have
talked to has also been mostly favorable.
13.5.2. "What are the likely attitudes toward the more outre
projects, such as digital money, crypto anarchy, data havens,
and the like?"
- Consternation is often met. People are frightened.
- The journalists who have written about these things (those
mentioned above) have gotten beyond the initial reaction
and seem genuinely intrigued by the changes that are
coming.
13.5.3. "What kinds of _attacks_ can we expect?"
+ Depends on the projects, but some general sorts of attacks
are likely. Some have already occurred. Examples:
+ flooding of remailers, denial of service attacks--to
swamp systems and force remailers to reconsider
operations
- this is fixed (mostly) with "digital postage" (if
postage covers costs, and generates a profit, then the
more the better)
+ deliberately illegal or malicicious messages, such as
death threats
- designed to put legal and sysop pressures on the
remailer operator
- several remailers have been attacked this way, or at
least have had these messages
- source-blocking sometimes works, though not of course
if another remailer is first used (many issues here)
+ prosecution for content of posts
+ copyright violations
- e.g., forwarding ClariNet articles through Hal
Finney's remailer got Brad Templeton to write warning
letters to Hal
- pornography
- ITAR violations, Trading with the Enemy Act
- espionage, sedition, treason
- corporate secrets,
- These attacks will test the commitment and courage of
remailer or anonymizing service operators
By Tim May, see README
HTML by Jonathan Rochkind