From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 1997 10:36:45 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: NoneRe: Remailers and ecash
In-Reply-To: <5e155060a3b43cba398de593edc98bd6@anon.efga.org>
Message-ID: <199710030205.EAA01934@basement.replay.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Monty Cantsin wrote:

> > - Everyone a remailer.  Remailers only accept messages from other
> >   remailers.  To use remailers you must run a remailer.
> 
> I don't grow my own wheat, grind it up, and then make my own bread.  I
> also prefer not to run a remailer.

You don't have to.  You pay someone to bake your bread for you, and you can
pay someone to run your remailer for you.

This idea has been around since remailers began.  The basic premise is that
a group of remailers are set up which only accept mail from other remailers.
A pinging system can be set up to verify that all the remailers are
operating correctly.

The catch is that in practice each remailer is only required to accept mail
from other remailers, but can actually accept mail from anybody the operator
wants to.  So if you don't want to run a remailer, just pay someone to run a
remailer on your behalf, and then you can send anonymous messages through
that person's site.

Thus forwarding within the remailer network is free, but it costs money to
insert new messages.  This scheme is a little more flexible than attaching
ecash to each message because you can arrange any type of fee schedule you
like, such as a flat rate per month.

There's also the reverse of this, where remailers accept from anyone, but
only send to other remailers.  Thus you have to pay to get your messages
out of the remailer network.  This is more restrictive because the payment
must be anonymous.


> > - Pay for access to an anonymous message pool
> 
> Interesting!

Sign up with an ISP that offers alt.anonymous.messages.  This one is a
no-brainer. (and profitable for the ISP)

This results in a system where sending messages is essentially free (since
free remailers exist) but it costs money to receive them.  So far it seems
to be successful, at least for those who pay a flat fee for usenet access.