4.11.1. The Crypto Anarchy Principle: Strong crypto permits
unbreakable encrypion, unforgeable signatures, untraceable
electronic messages, and unlinkable pseudonomous identities.
This ensures that some transactions and communications can be
entered into only voluntarily. External force, law, and
regulation cannot be applied. This is "anarchy," in the sense
of no outside rulers and laws. Voluntary arrangements, back-
stopped by voluntarily-arranged institutions like escrow
services, will be the only form of rule. This is "crypto
anarchy."
4.11.2. crypto allows a return to contracts that governments cannot
breach
- based on reputation, repeat business
- example: ordering illegal material untraceably and
anonymously,,,governments are powerless to do anything
- private spaces, with the privacy enforced via cryptographic
permissions (access credentials)
- escrows (bonds)
4.11.3. Technological solutions over legalistic regulations
+ Marc Ringuette summarized things nicely:
- "What we're after is some "community standards" for
cyberspace, and what I'm suggesting is the fairly
libertarian standard that goes like this:
" Prefer technological solutions and self-protection
solutions
over rule-making, where they are feasible.
"This is based on the notion that the more rules there
are, the more people will call for the "net police" to
enforce them. If we can encourage community standards
which emphasize a prudent level of self-protection, then
we'll be able to make do with fewer rules and a less
intrusive level of policing."[Marc Ringuette, 1993-03-14]
+ Hal Finney has made cogent arguments as to why we should
not become too complacent about the role of technology vis-
a-vis politics. He warns us not to grow to confident:
- "Fundamentally, I believe we will have the kind of
society that most people want. If we want freedom and
privacy, we must persuade others that these are worth
having. There are no shortcuts. Withdrawing into
technology is like pulling the blankets over your head.
It feels good for a while, until reality catches up. The
next Clipper or Digital Telephony proposal will provide a
rude awakening." [Hal Finney, POLI: Politics vs
Technology, 1994-01-02]
- "The idea here is that the ultimate solution to the low
signal-to-noise ratio on the nets is not a matter of
forcing people to "stand behind their words". People can
stand behind all kinds of idiotic ideas. Rather, there
will need to be developed better systems for filtering news
and mail, for developing "digital reputations" which can be
stamped on one's postings to pass through these smart
filters, and even applying these reputations to pseudonyms.
In such a system, the fact that someone is posting or
mailing pseudonymously is not a problem, since nuisance
posters won't be able to get through." [Hal Finney, 1993-
02-23]
4.11.4. Reputations
4.11.5. I have a moral outlook that many will find unacceptable or
repugnant. To cut to the chase: I support the killing of
those who break contracts, who steal in serious enough ways,
and who otherwise commit what I think of as crimes.
+ I don't mean this abstractly. Here's an example:
- Someone is carrying drugs. He knows what he's involved
in. He knows that theft is punishable by death. And yet
he steals some of the merchandise.
- Dealers understand that they cannot tolerate this, that
an example must be made, else all of their employees will
steal.
- Understand that I'm not talking about the state doing the
killing, nor would I do the killing. I'm just saying such
things are the natural enforcement mechanism for such
markets. Realpolitik.
- (A meta point: the drug laws makes things this way.
Legalize all drugs and the businesses would be more like
"ordinary" businesses.)
- In my highly personal opinion, many people, including most
Congressrodents, have committed crimes that earn them the
death penalty; I will not be sorry to see anonymous
assassination markets used to deal with them.
4.11.6. Increased espionage will help to destroy nation-state-empires
like the U.S., which has gotten far too bloated and far too
dependent on throwing its weight around; nuclear "terrorism"
may knock out a few cities, but this may be a small price to
pay to undermine totally the socialist welfare states that
have launched so many wars this century.
By Tim May, see README
HTML by Jonathan Rochkind