Re: Anonymity: A Modest Proposal

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How open is the protocol? Is there and API for it? Does anyone know how big
the coins are? There will have to be room for one per header in Mixmaster.
Do they vary in size, or are all coins identical? There is so much stuff to
try to keep track of all at once! :/

        -Lance (going down in a blaze of questions) Cottrell


At 5:20 PM 10/23/95, sameer wrote:
>        With the release of digicash I hope that we can soon make this
>stuff for-pay and much of the spam problem will be fixed. (Not all of
>it, of course.)
>        (I am rather hesitatnt to setup an account with Mark Twain
>though.. $2,500 min balance and not FDIC insured?)
>
>
<SNIP>

        -Lance
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----------------------------------------------------------
Lance Cottrell   loki@obscura.com
PGP 2.6 key available by finger or server.
Mixmaster, the next generation remailer, is now available!
http://obscura.com/~loki/Welcome.html or FTP to obscura.com

"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra.  Suddenly
it flips over, pinning you underneath.  At night the ice
weasels come."
                        --Nietzsche
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Lance Cottrell wrote:

| How open is the protocol? Is there and API for it? Does anyone know how big
| the coins are? There will have to be room for one per header in Mixmaster.
| Do they vary in size, or are all coins identical? There is so much stuff to
| try to keep track of all at once! :/

	If the coin is bigger than a Mix header has room for, does it
have room for an arbitrary token?

	I send a message to the mixmaster I'd like to use, containing
a coin and a large arbitrary number.  I then put that number in a list
I maintain of the tokens I can spend with that mixmaster.

	The mixmaster cashes the coin at once[1], and puts my number
into a list of 'paid' tokens it will accept.

	When I want to spend the token, I put that in the message
header block.   Since its smaller than the coin, its easier to put in
the header than the coin.

	This scheme also reduces mapability between the coin and the
message, since they are not strongly correlated in time as they would
be if they were included in the message.  This seems to be a stronger
win than the size benefit that caused me to suggest this.

	[1] Other than the time mapping win, I could also see spending
a few bucks at the start of each month to be able to use any
mixmaster.  The mixmasters would, by cashing my coins early, win on
the float between the time they get my money and the time they provide
service.  Icing on the cake.

Adam

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume

Heh. See suggestion #1 in the Hack Digicash
promotion. "Reverse-engineer the protocol." The protocol is unknown, I
don't even know the format of the coins. I am sending in my account
application tomorrow.
	(i should sub to that nyms list.. majordomo?)

-- 
sameer						Voice:   510-601-9777
Community ConneXion				FAX:     510-601-9734
The Internet Privacy Provider			Dialin:  510-658-6376
http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest")			sameer@c2.org