From: pjm@gasco.com (Patrick J. May)
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 94 12:57:03 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: End of HIT MEN thread
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.87.9409220411.A22996-0100000@crl2.crl.com>
Message-ID: <m0qnu59-0003q2C@ionia.gasco.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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     (I just want to see how long a thread with the subject "End of ...
thread" can keep going.)

Jeff Barber writes:
 > After considerable struggle, I have finally succeeded in coming up with
 > a mechanism through which the hiring party and the murderer-for-hire
 > can make a contract through the escrow service in such a way that the
 > escrow service doesn't know that the contract is for murder.

     I'm interested in your solution.  Mine is to set up the escrow
payment seperately from the verification.  The escrow agent would
release the funds when instructed to do so by a specified verification
agent.  This eliminates the risk of the escrow agent keeping the money
without losing reputation.

     Now, the verification agent knows that it is certifying that a
murder took place and could collude with the escrow agent to split the
money, or with the victim's insurer to get a reward, etc.  This agent
would have to be paid by both the contractor and contractee,
regardless of outcome, to remove incentive to collude with the person
paying the fee.

     Therefore, the profit from collusion must be less than the cost
of the loss of reputation.  If one makes the assumption that such
agencies will not care about reputation, such arrangements are
impossible.  I question this assumption.

     Also, escrow agents will not deal with known hit verifiers, so
the entity that runs such a service must also run a legitimate
verification service or have a method for funneling verifications
through a legitimate service.

 > This much I will say: I believe that *IF* there is a way to prove to
 > the satisfaction of an unbiased third party that the intended victim is
 > in fact dead [I'm not at all sure of this -- and this is where my
 > additional assumptions come in], *THEN* the contract can be structured
 > in such a way that the knowledge of the contract details are hidden
 > from the escrow service who's overseeing the performance of the contract.

     I agree (please punch holes in my proposed scenario).  I don't
know how to provide such a proof.  The hit verification agent will
have to attend a lot of autopsies and funerals.

Regards,

Patrick May
pjm@gasco.com

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