From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 14:33:13 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Digital Postage
In-Reply-To: <199709270356.WAA14725@einstein.ssz.com>
Message-ID: <v03102805b05253ad86ca@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 8:56 PM -0700 9/26/97, Jim Choate wrote:


>I'll grant you mentioned digital postage. This simply is not robust enough
>to handle the world of a commercial remailer operator. We'll just have to
>agree to disagree here because the standard digital postage argument simply
>doesn't sway me to support it.

That's OK, you don't have to.

And the person who earlier today said that remailers should _not_ be
commercialized, he doesn't have to support it either.

The point is that some remailers will remail for free. Some will remail for
some form of digital postage. Some will charge too little, some too much.
Some will adjust their prices based on market/customer reactions. And so on.

What _others_ think is not really too important.

It seems fairly obvious that some form of metered service--remailing for a
fee--is likely to evolve. Charityware remailers will work for a while, so
long as the usage is low and the expectations are even lower. But
eventually those with an actual need for anonymous communication will pay
for the service. How much, and when, and in what form, all this remains to
emerge.

I call this metered usage "digital postage" because that's what it is. It
has to be untraceable, obviously, and so some form of blinded cash, or
blinded token (e.g., "use once tokens") has to be used.

--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."