cryptoanarchy.wiki

Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!

1996-11-07 - Why is cryptoanarchy irreversible?

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From: ph@netcom.com (Peter Hendrickson)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: b25356297e7ff486f1eb183c67e15f7d8eeddd610f6f5f92375363b688eb020e
Message ID: <v02140b07aea7f1963f8c@[192.0.2.1]>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1996-11-07 20:23:06 UTC
Raw Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 12:23:06 -0800 (PST)

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From: ph@netcom.com (Peter Hendrickson)
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 12:23:06 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Why is cryptoanarchy irreversible?
Message-ID: <v02140b07aea7f1963f8c@[192.0.2.1]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


It appears to be widely believed that cryptoanarchy is irreversible.
Everybody believes that the race to deploy or forbid strong cryptography
will define the outcome for a long time.

I can't think of a reason why this should be so.

If the wide use of strong cryptography results in widely unpopular
activities such as sarin attacks and political assassinations, it
would not be all that hard to forbid it, even after deployment.

I am curious why many people believe this is not true.

Peter Hendrickson
ph@netcom.com

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