From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 94 10:24:11 PST
To: emw@ima.com (Ed Wilkinson)
Subject: Re: popularising digsigs
In-Reply-To: <9411301332.AA02657@ima.com>
Message-ID: <199411291822.KAA10153@netcom8.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Ed Wilkinson wrote:
> 
> Well, knowing the US, things will probably hobble along much the same,
> until there's a lawsuit. e.g. X sues Y because a post on the net
> 'apparently' from Y libelled X. Now *that* would get people to start using
> digsigs!
> 

Quite so. By analogy, the *safe* industry (vaults, not the modern
thing) evolved by _insurers_ charging higher rates for weaker safes.

This directly, in the present, incentivized a merchant to invest in a
better safe. He didn't need to be _persuaded_ by the 1894 "Safepunks"
mailing list that better safes were a good thing.

In other words, we're at an early, immature stage of crypto. Yes,
really. 

I agree that some well-publicized events could accelerate the use of
crypto, could galvanize improvements in user interface, etc.:

- a lawsuit such as Ed Wilkinson mentioned (a nit: from my
understanding of burdern of proof, the burden would lie on X to prove
that Y libelled him, not on Y to prove that he didn't write the
material).

- evidence of massive corporate espionage could accelerate a
conversion to an "encrypt everything" mode.

- a patent dispute that gets settled because of time-stamping of lab
notebooks...this would make "Electronic Lab Books" de rigeur. (Budding
entrepreneurs may want to keep this in mind.)

-- and so on.

Crypto is mostly about economics, as we often say (esp. Eric H.).
Costs of encryption, decryption, breaking of ciphers, deployment of
digital cash, etc. Right now there are few _good economic reasons_ to
use digital cash in lieu of real cash or Visa-type payments. Maybe
this'll change (I think it will, someday), but for now...

All of these things are related.

--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.
Cypherpunks list: majordomo@toad.com with body message of only: 
subscribe cypherpunks. FAQ available at ftp.netcom.com in pub/tcmay