From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 93 01:16:53 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Handling Abuses of Remailers
Message-ID: <9303030915.AA21640@netcom.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>In article <CypherPunksList.0606@arcticus.UUCP> tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C.
>May) writes:
>> * To handle _abusive volumes_ through remailers, charge for remailing.
>> Short term, this may be a problem, but this is the long term market
>> solution.
>
>  Quick but relevant question: Assuming a commercial anonymous remailer
>were set up tomorrow, with (don't ask me how this would be done, it's
>hypothetical...) provable anonymity -- what should it charge per message,
>or per kilobyte of message?
>
>> -Tim May
>> tcmay@netcom.com        | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
>
>Chris - Xenon

I don't know. That's for the market to decide.

This is not a glib answer. There is no "real" price for any service or
commodity, only a complicated emergent market price that typically evolves
and changes.

An anonymous remailer (the "Mom and Pop" remailer I like to cite) may
initially charge some price and find it is being undercut by others, or
others are not matching its price. Prices will change, evolve.

It is, however, that remailing prices will be much below a few pennies per
1 KB message, nor much above $2.00. I often use the crude estimate of $0.50
per remailing, suggesting that a 5-hop mailing will then cost about $2.50.

(But once the infrastructure for remailer hops is in place, then even a
single hop is basically enough--this may sound paradoxical, but think about
it.)

-Tim

--
Timothy C. May               | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com        | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409               | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA       | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: MailSafe and PGP available.