From: Anonymous <nobody@REPLAY.COM>
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 00:39:20 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Freemen and Serfs
Message-ID: <199712011615.RAA06313@basement.replay.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Tim May <tcmay@got.net> writes:

> Nope. I haven't claimed anything about an elite group trading amongst
> themselves.
> 
> Rather, those who use the technology will make more money, and save more of
> it, and will then be able to hire out those who failed to, and to buy stuff
> made by them.

How, exactly?  We're not talking about computers as "the technology".
We mean anonymous remailers, digital cash, Chaumian credentials,
steganography, and other cypherpunk technologies.  Who is using these
technologies to make more money today?  Almost no one.  The reason is
that the market is far too small.  You can't put together a business
plan and attract the investment needed if there are only a few hundred
cypherpunks as customers.

> We've been seeing this for a long time. Not a new concept. For example,
> those of us who used our skills and investment inclinations to make a lot
> of money are not condemned to "trading only with ourselves." We routinely
> trade with others.

Totally different.  The point is not to trade, it is to do so anonymously
and confidentially.  You yourself are always whining about how you can't
buy and sell your stocks privately, all your financial status being
known to the state.  Cypherpunk technologies are useless unless all
parties to a transaction are using them.  If even one party is subject
to government or criminal surveillance then other participants will be
forced to report the transaction as well.

The only hope for these technologies is to spread the base of people using
them.  It doesn't do any good to use anonymous ecash if no one will accept
it for payment.  You can't make a living as a nym until there are enough
people using these technologies that a business can succeed via anonymous
contracting.  It all depends on getting a critical mass of users.