16.10.1. "What are some implications of crypto anarchy?"
+ A return to contracts
- whiners can't go outside contracts and complain
- relates to: workers, terms of employment, actions, hurt
feelings
- with untraceable communication, virtual networks....
+ Espionage
+ Spying is already changing dramatically.
+ Steele's (or Steeler?) "open sources"
- collecting info from thousands of Internet sources
- Well, this cuts both ways..
+ Will allow:
- BlackNet-type solicitations for military secrets ("Will
pay $300,000 for xxxx")
+ Digital Dead Drops
- totally secure, untraceable (pools, BlackNet mode)
- no Coke cans near the base of oak trees out on Route
42
- no chalk marks on mailboxes to signal a message is
ready
- no "burning" of spies by following them to dead drops
- No wonder the spooks are freaked out!
- Strong crypto will also have a major effect on NSA, CIA,
and FBI abilities to wiretap, to conduct surveillance,
and to do domestic and foreign counterintelligence
- This is not altogether a great thing, as there may be
_some_ counterintelligence work that is useful (I'm
perhaps betraying my lingering biases), but there's
really only one thing to say about it: get used to it.
Nothing short of a totalitarian police state (and
probably not even that, given the spread of strong
crypto) can stop these trends.
-
+ Bypassing sanctions and boycotts
- Just because Bill Clinton doesn't like the rulers of
Haiti is no reason for me to honor his "sanctions"
- Individual choice, made possible by strong crypto
(untraceable transactions, pseudonyms, black markets)
+ Information Markets and Data Havens
- medical
- scientific
- corporate knowledge
- dossiers
+ credit reports
- without the absurd rules limiting what people can store
on their computers (e.g., if Alice keeps records going
back more than 7 years, blah blah, can be thrown in
jail for violating the "Fair Credit Reporting Act")
- bypassing such laws
- true, governments can attempt to force disclosure of
"reasons" for all decisions (a popular trend, where
even one's maid cannot be dismissed without the
"reasons" being called into question!); this means that
anyone accessing such offshore (or in cyberspace...same
difference) data bases must find some acceptable reason
for the actions they take...shouldn't be too hard
- (as with so many of these ideas, the beauty is that the
using of such services is voluntary....)
+ Consulting
- increased liquidity of information
+ illegal transactions
+ untraceability and digital money means many "dark"
possibilities
- markets for assassinations
- stolen property
- copyright infringement
+ Espionage
- information markets (a la AMIX)
- "digital dead drops"
- Offshore accounts
- Money-laundering
+ Markets for Assassinations
- This is one of the more disturbing implications of crypto
anarchy. Actually, it arises immediately out of strong,
unbreakable and untraceable communication and some form
of untraceable digital cash. Distrurbing it may be, but
the implications are also interesting to consider...and
inevitable.
- And not all of the implications are wholly negative.
+ should put the fear of God into politicians
- "Day of the Jackal" made electronic
- any interest group that can (anonymously) gather money
can have a politician zapped. Positive and negative
implications, of course.
- The fact is, some people simply need killing. Shocking as
that may sound to many, surely everyone would agree that
Hitler deserved killing. The "rule of law" sounds noble,
but when despicable people control the law, other
measures are called for.
- Personally, I hold that anyone who threatens what I think
of as basic rights may need killing. I am held back by
the repercussions, the dangers. With liquid markets for
liquidations, things may change dramatically.
16.10.2. The Negative Side of Crypto Anarchy
+ Comment:
- There are some very real negative implications;
outweighed on the whole by the benefits. After all, free
speech has negatives. Poronography has negatives. (This
may not be very convincing to many....I can't do it here-
-the gestalt has to be absorbed and considered.)
+ Abhorrent markets
- contract killings
- can collect money anonymously to have someone
whacked...nearly anyone who is controversial can generate
enough "contributions"
- kidnapping, extortion
+ Contracts and assassinations
- "Will kill for $5000"
+ provides a more "liquid" market (pun intended)
- sellers and buyers more efficiently matched
- FBI stings (which are common in hiring hit men) are
made almost impossible
- the canonical "dark side" example--Eric Drexler, when
told of this in 1988, was aghast and claimed I was
immoral to even continue working on the implications of
crypto anarchy!
- made much easier by the inability to trace payments, the
lack of physical meetings, etc.
+ Potential for lawlessness
- bribery, abuse, blackmail
- cynicism about who can manipulate the system
+ Solicitation of Crimes
- untraceably, as we have seen
+ Bribery of Officials and Influencing of Elections
- and direct contact with officials is not even
needed...what if someone "lets it be known" that a
council vote in favor of some desired project will result
in campaign contributions?
+ Child molestors, pederasts, and rapists
- encrypting their diaries with PGP (a real case, says the
FBI)
- this raises the privacy issue in all its glory...privacy
protects illegality...it always has and it always will
+ Espionage is much easier
- from the guy watching ships leave a harbor to the actual
theft of defense secrets
- job of defending against spies becomes much more
difficult: and end to microdots and invisible ink, what
with the LSB method and the like that even hides the very
existence of encrypted messages!
+ Theft of information
- from corporations and individuals
- corporations as we know them today will have to change
- liquidity of information
- selling of corporate secrets, or personal information
+ Digilantes and Star Chambers
- a risk of justice running amok?
+ Some killers are not rehabilitated and need to be
disposed of through more direct means
+ Price, Rhode Island, 21, 4 brutal killings
- stabbings of children, mother, another
+ for animals like this, vigilantism...discreet
execution...is justified...
- or, at least some of us will consider it justified
- which I consider to be a good thing
- this relates to an important theme: untraceable
communication and markets means the ability to "opt
out" of conventional morality
+ Loss of trust
+ even in families, especially if the government offers
bounties and rewards
- recall Pavel Morozov in USSR, DARE-type programs
(informing on parents)
- more than 50% of all IRS suits involve one spouse
informing to the IRS
+ how will taxes be affected by the increased black market?
- a kind of Laffer curve, in which some threshold of
taxation triggers disgust and efforts to evade the taxes
- not clear how large the current underground economy
is....authorities are motivated to misstate the size
(depending on their agenda)
+ Tax Evasion (I'm not defending taxation, just pointing out
what most would call a dark side of CA)
+ By conducting business secretly, using barter systems,
alternative currencies or credit systems, etc.
- a la the lawyers who use AMIX-like systems to avoid
being taxed on mutual consultations
+ By doing it offshore
- so that the "products" are all offshore, even though
many or most of the workers are telecommuting or using
CA schemes
- recall that many musicians left Europe to avoid 90% tax
rates
+ the "nest egg" scam: drawing on a lump sum not reported
+ Scenario: Alice sells something very valuable-perhaps
the specs on a new product-to Bob. She deposits the
fee, which is, say, a million dollars, in a series of
accounts. This fee is not reported to the IRS or anyone
else.
- the fee could be in cash or in a "promise"
- in multiple accounts, or just one
+ regardless, the idea is that she is now paid, say,
$70,000 a year for the next 20 years (what with
interest) as a "consultant" to the company which
represents her funds
- this of course does not CA of any form, merely some
discreet lawyers
- and of course Alice reports the income to the
IRS-they never challenge the taxpayer to "justify"
work done (and would be incapable of "disallowing"
the work, as Alice could call it a "retainer," or
as pay for Board of Directors duties, or
whatever...in practice, it's easiest to call it
consulting)
+ these scams are closely related to similar scams for
laundering money, e.g., by selling company assets at
artificially low (or high) prices
- an owner, Charles, could sell assets to a foreign
company at low prices and then be rewarded in tax-
free, under the table, cash deposited in a foreign
account, and we're back to the situation above
+ Collusion already is common; crypto methods will make some
such collusions easier
- antique dealers at an auction
+ espionage and trading of national secrets (this has
positive aspects as well)
- "information markets" and anonymous digital cash
- (This realization, in late 1987, was the inspiration for
the ideas behind crypto anarchy.)
- mistrust
- widening gap between rich and poor, or those who can use
the tools of the age and those who can't
16.10.3. The Positive Side of Crypto Anarchy
- (other positive reasons are implicitly scattered throughout
this outline)
+ a pure kind of libertarianism
- those who are afraid of CA can stay away (not strictly
true, as the effects will ripple)
- a way to bypass the erosion of morals, contracts, and
committments (via the central role of reputations and the
exclusion of distorting governments)
- individual responsibility
- protecting privacy when using hypertext and cyberspace
services (many issues here)
- "it's neat" (the imp of the perverse that likes to see
radical ideas)
+ A return to 4th Amendment protections (or better)
- Under the current system, if the government suspects a
person of hiding assets, of conspiracy, of illegal acts,
of tax evasion, etc., they can easily seize bank
accounts, stock accounts, boats, cars, ec. In particular,
the owner has little opportunity to protect these assets.
- increased liquidity in markets
+ undermining of central states
- loss of tax revenues
- reduction of control
- freedom, personal liberty
- data havens, to bypass local restrictive laws
+ Anonymous markets for assassinations will have some good
aspects
- the liquidation of politicians and other thieves, the
killing of those who have assisted in the communalization
of private property
- a terrible swift sword
16.10.4. Will I be sad if anonymous methods allow untraceable markets
for assassinations? It depends. In many cases, people deserve
death--those who have escaped justice, those who have broken
solemn commitments, etc. Gun grabbing politicians, for
example should be killed out of hand. Anonymous rodent
removal services will be a tool of liberty. The BATF agents
who murdered Randy Weaver's wife and son should be shot. If
the courts won't do it, a market for hits will do it.
- (Imagine for a moment an "anonymous fund" to collect the
money for such a hit. Interesting possibilities.)
- "Crypto Star Chambers," or what might be called
"digilantes," may be formed on-line, and untraceably, to
mete out justice to those let off on technicalities. Not
altogether a bad thing.
16.10.5. on interference in business as justified by "society supports
you" arguments (and "opting out)
+ It has been traditionally argued that society/government
has a right to regulate businesses, impose rules of
behavior, etc., for a couple of reasons:
- "to promote the general welfare" (a nebulous reason)
+ because government builds the infrastructure that makes
business possible
- the roads, transportation systems, etc. (actually, most
are privately built...only the roads and canal are
publically built, and they certainly don't _have_ to
be)
- the police forces, courts, enforcement of contracts,
disputes, etc.
- protection from foreign countries, tariff negotiations,
etc., even to the *physical* protection against
invading countries
+ But with crypto anarchy, *all* of these reasons vanish!
- society isn't "enabling" the business being transacted
(after all, the parties don't even necessarily know what
countries the other is in!)
- no national or local courts are being used, so this set
of reasons goes out the window
- no threat of invasion...or if there is, it isn't
something governments can address
+ So, in addition to the basic unenforceability of outlawing
crypto anarchy--short of outlawing encryption--there is
also no viable argument for having governments interfere on
these traditional grounds.
- (The reasons for them to interfere based on fears for
their own future and fears about unsavory and abominable
markets being developed (body parts, assassinations,
trade secrets, tax evasion, etc.) are of course still
"valid," viewed from their perspective, but the other
reasons just aren't.)
By Tim May, see README
HTML by Jonathan Rochkind