From: Eric Murray <ericm@lne.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 03:59:28 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Nym use in the real world
In-Reply-To: <199601271414.JAA20590@thor.cs.umass.edu>
Message-ID: <199601271935.LAA15633@slack.lne.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Futplex writes:
> Eric Murray writes:
> > The other problem (tying the nym to RealName) for employers is
> > more severe.  A nym is only good when no one can tie it to your
> > real name.  If I have to tell everyone I do work for what my real
> > name and nym is, soon enough people will be able to tie the two that
> > the nym becomes nearly useless.
> 
> Maybe Lucky would be willing to share some wisdom from his experiences
> consulting for various companies. (I don't know how much his reputation as
> "Lucky Green" has come into play in securing those contracts, and of
> course perhaps he really is an Irishman whose parents (the Greens) named
> him "Lucky"....)

[..]

> >I'm still not sure whether it makes sense to have "reputation capital"
> denominated in an actual currency that can be traded, for the above reason.
> We might use something like a nym-independent(*) credential statement
> signed by a certifier and encrypted to the subject of the credential.
> Pseudonyms and verinyms belonging to various persons/agents/etc. could
> freely swap around these "rep rupees" with potentially very confusing results.
> 
> Since credentials need to be backed up by actual performance when it comes to
> a job, such a system might actually be acceptable. I could buy a lion taming
> credential with some e$, but everyone would realize that I wouldn't last long
> on the job if it didn't describe me fairly accurately. ;)  Presumably a
> trustable-with-enormous-sums-of-cash credential would command quite a high
> price on the open market.


This is all well and good, but highly theoretical.  It might
happen someday, but right now reputations don't work that way.
If I gave a reputation certificate to a prospective client
they'd just look at it and say "huh?".

Some groups do indeed deal well with nym's reputations.  If Emmanuel
Goldstein shows up at a hacker's convention, everyone knows who
he is and what he's done.

Alas, most regular businessmen don't want to deal with someone named
"Agent Steal"[*], at least not to the point of signing checks to him.

Perhaps a partial solution is to pick a nym that sounds like a real
name, like "Tim May" or "Jeff Weinstein".  There's still a problem
of proving that I am the same "Tim Weinstein" that the prospective
client has exchanged email with.  But to be honest, they don't know
if I'm the same "Eric Murray" they have been emailing either...



*- to pick a random hacker's nym. 

-- 
Eric Murray  ericm@lne.com  ericm@motorcycle.com  http://www.lne.com/ericm
PGP keyid:E03F65E5 fingerprint:50 B0 A2 4C 7D 86 FC 03  92 E8 AC E6 7E 27 29 AF