From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 94 19:38:24 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Nym server?
In-Reply-To: <199408160002.RAA10904@kaiwan.kaiwan.com>
Message-ID: <199408160238.TAA26591@netcom15.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



One of the Diogenes entities wrote:

> So now do we need a Cypherpunks Nym Server?  I notice that somebody
> else is using my alias... ah, well.
> 
> For the record, the Diogenes who just got active on Cypherpunks isn't
> me, and, as you can tell by checking corresponding signatures, I'm

Which is why name collision, or nym collision, is not a pressing
problem. Better to decentralize the process to local machines, to the
people who care, than to any kind of Cypherpunks Nym Server.

> It shouldn't come as a surprise: as with everything else in cyberspace,
> Vernor Vinge predicted it in True Names a decade or so ago, when he
> noted in passing that the protagonist Mr. Slippery downloaded a massive
> chunk of bulletin board to his home machine and scanned through it for
> messages to him, tossing (manually, I think) messages to the several
> other Mr. Slipperys.

Wouldn't have happened with real crypto, of course. A point Vernor
cheerfully conceded recently.

"True Nyms" will be the sequel.


--Tim May


-- 
..........................................................................
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: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."