From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Apr 94 08:03:31 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Pseudonyms and Reputations
Message-ID: <199404081504.IAA28300@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


From: greg@ideath.goldenbear.com (Greg Broiles)
> Hal Finney writes:
> 
> > The simple blinded signature model provides a pretty simple way to allow
> > only one pseudonym per True Name in a given forum, if you assume there is
> > some way to distinguish people in the real world.
> [...]
> Real-world application of this protocol still depends on folks not
> using the credentials of friends/family/dead people, especially where
> "real name" <-> credential mapping isn't available.

This is true, but the main purpose of this technology is to prevent users
from creating large numbers of pseudonymous accounts.  No technology can
stop people from cooperating in an on-line forum, and the use of friends'
or family members' accounts is also very hard to prevent.  So collusion at
some limited level will always be possible.  But at least it should be
possible to prevent the massive use of nyms.

Hal