From: Andrew Loewenstern <andrew_loewenstern@il.us.swissbank.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 95 13:37:47 PDT
To: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Subject: Re: Java (was Netscape: the big win)
Message-ID: <9507212034.AA00995@ch1d157nwk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>  So, what would be a "cypherpunk" thing you could do with Java?  I
>  know I can use it to download little applets to my system to do
>  animations.  What can it do to enhance my privacy?  What would be
>  the Java equivalent of PGP?

How about the old-standbys:  remailers.  Mixmaster is definitely where the  
technology is at, but it requires a client to use...  Of course, with Java,  
there is the potential that _any_ user from any platform could connect to the  
Mixmaster Web page, get the client software, and start using the remailer  
network.  Without having to compile, know anything, etc...

If a Mixmaster client were available in Java (and I'm pretty sure it can be  
done) then suddenly everyone who previously could only use the penet server  
can now also use Mixmaster.  With more people using the remailer network, all  
of them with Java clients, the possibility of for-pay remailers could become  
reality (no promises that you'll get rich though).

There are many crypto-anarchy applications as well:

Key cracking.  If you can write a key-cracker and keyspace fetcher in Java,  
then people can join key cracking efforts as easily looking up an URL.  It  
may not be nearly as efficient as the highly optimized C versions used in the  
current RC4-40 efforts, but there's going to be millions of potential workers  
this way.  If you were charging money to break keys (or you were looking for  
keys that are very valuable to you), you could set up the worker client to  
accept e-cash for in return for searching keyspace "Click here to earn money  
while you aren't using your machine..."   Ensuring that workers are actually  
searching the keyspace and other implementation details is left as an  
exercise for the reader.

e-instrument or information exchanges, with Java interfaces for bidding,  
buying, selling, etc...

DataHavens, which would probably require complex (internally) software to use.

I'm sure the online casino people are salivating over the prospects too...

Basically any fancy crypto application that requires a custom client to  
operate...  Since its platform independent, efforts will be put to better use  
as well.


andrew