From: Eric Hughes <hughes@soda.berkeley.edu>
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 93 12:44:52 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: more ideas on anonymity
In-Reply-To: <930227024147_74076.1041_DHJ57-1@CompuServe.COM>
Message-ID: <9302272041.AA05983@soda.berkeley.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Hal writes:
>For me, crypto anarchy is a way to oppose the constantly growing
>databases of information about each person, a way for individuals to
>take control of information about their own lives.

For many transactions, identity is not an issue fundamental to the
transaction.  If I pay cash to you for an item, I have not made any
implicit promise to pay you at a later date, as I have if I've paid
with credit (card or account).  Every obligation I might have to you I
have already fulfilled, fulfilled by paying cash.  My name is not
relevant here.

If I perform some service for you, and you acknowledge that the
service is complete as performed, then you have no need for my
identity.  (As far as the two of us are concerned.  Other parties
intrude on this interaction usually.)

Therefore, should not discrimination against anonymity when names are
not germane be considered (depending on one's ideology) unreasonable,
inefficient, coercive, intrusive, or illegal?

Eric