From: Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 10:02:02 +0800
To: cypherpunks@ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: NTY compression proposal
Message-ID: <199801190230.UAA19688@einstein.ssz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



Hi,

It has been proposed to compress the keys from 100 cypherpunks down to a 64
character add in the NYT. Let's consider the math a moment to determine if
this is realizable.

Each key will require some sort of identifier, to make it simple lets assume
8 characters to identify the cypherpunks and 8 bytes to represent their key
(64-bits). This mean that each line will contain 16 bytes. With a hundred
entries that is 1600 bytes or 12800 bits.

Now 64 characters of text in a newspaper represents approx. 64 6-bit
characters (we can't use a full 8-bit because the paper doesn't normaly
support that many characters in normal text). This provides us with
384 bits.

The proposal leads to a requirement for an algorithm with an average
compression factor of:

12800/384 or 33.33:1 with no data loss.

That's a pretty hefty compression factor for average responce.

Is there a loss-less algorithm which provides this level?


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