[116650] in Cypherpunks
[updated] Cypherpunks & ssz.com
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Choate)
Tue Aug 17 09:10:56 1999
From: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
Message-Id: <199908171256.HAA26964@einstein.ssz.com>
To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 07:56:06 -0500 (CDT)
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Reply-To: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
Welcome to the Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer.
THIS IS A VERY HIGH TRAFFIC INTERNATIONAL MAILING LIST
The orginal Cypherpunks mailing list was started in 1992 by Eric
Hughes, Tim May, and Hugh Daniel. John Gilmore hosted the mailing list
on his machine toad.com. It grew at a very good rate over the years
and garnered much mention in the popular and underground press. Many
of its members are the leaders in cryptography, civil liberty
litigation, and economics. In 1996 Eric and some second party
(according to Tim May) began to become unsettled by the traffic and
range of topics that were bouncing around the mailing list. There was
some speculation that commercial and legal interests had intruded on
the cypherpunk world. As a means to better regulate the mailing list they
instituted moderation and multiple lists. This went over like a lead
baloon. The results of this policy change effectively killed the list and
it became apparent with Eric's and accomplices announcement that he was
closing the list permanently that something had to be done. At that point
Igor Chudov and James Choate created the Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer
(CDR). The idea as to have multiple remailers, usualy using majordomo and
procmail, that members could subscribe to and individual remailer
operators could impose just about whatever type of moderation policy
they desired. Which has never been succesfuly implimented. Seems even
crypto-anarchists like limiting others freedom. The weekend before toad.com
was supposed to go down once and for all remailers began operating on
algebra.com and ssz.com. Since that time the number of remailer operators
and satellite lists have grown slowly but surely. The architecture has
proven to be quite robust providing continous traffic dispersal even when
one or more of the core nodes have gone down. If uninterrupted service is
desired it is suggested that subscriptions to multiple hosts be made and
use some sort of duplicate filtering to regulate the mail volume. toad.com
is still operating but it is strongly advised to avoid subscribing to it
as no clear policy regarding its future operation has been made since the
closure announcement.
Hub CDR Hosts (cypherpunks@):
ssz.com
algebra.com
cyberpass.net (aka infonex.com)
htp.org (Japan)
minder.net
cypherpunks@openpgp.net (subscribe via listproc@openpgp.net)
Moderated CDR Hosts:
sunder@sunder.net
Related Crypto Resources:
Coderpunks (coderpunks@toad.com, subscribe via majordomo@toad.com)
Distributed Net (key cracking)
A new mailing list, eucrypto@fitug.de, has been established. It's
intended for discussions of crypto politics with a focus on the
European Union.
Topics include:
- Announcements and discussions on common European issues concerning
availability, use, legal framework and politics of cryptographic
techniques.
- Announcements and discussions on common issues concerning
communications interception and related topics, e.g.
state-sponsored hacking of communication end points.
- Announcements and brief discussions on national issues which may
be of interest abroad. Extensive and in-depth discussions on such
topics should be performed on respective national mailing lists
such as ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk (for the UK), or krypto@thur.de
(for Germany).
- Announcements and discussions on joint initiatives and campaigns
concerning any of the abovementioned topics.
To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail containing the words
"subscribe eucrypto" to majordomo@fitug.de.
If you have particular questions about either the Austin Cypherpunks
or the CDR please contact list@ssz.com. For sites on hosts other than
SSZ you should contact the appropriate operator.
There are various Cypherpunks groups around the country who hold
meetings at various times. The general proceedure is to announce such
activity about a week prior to the actual event. If you participate in
an activity that may be of some interest to list members then please
announce the event.
History of the Austin Cypherpunks
Cryptography - Civil Liberties - Economics
The impact of technology and the expanding role of government in our
lives is the latest incarnation of the conflict between the civil
duties of social institutions and the civil liberties of the
individual. Not only does technology provide an ever expanding suite
of tools for invasive government it also provides unbreakable tools
for the protection of personal privacy. With the expanding role of the
Internet as well as pervasive personal computing the speed of this
conflict has reached unheard of rates of change. This conflict has
also impacted the various monetary systems in a variety of ways. Since
these systems are critical to both the individual as well as social
institutions this conflict is destined to have a pivotal role in the
future of the American democratic experiment.
The Cypherpunks started as a small mailing list intended to explore
technical issues related to cryptography, civil liberty, and
economics. Since that humble beginning over 7 years ago it has become
an international movement with members providing a variety of
products, events, and varied discussions in the local, national, and
international community. The Austin Cypherpunks are approximately 5
years old. We have a local mailing list as well as hosting the
international Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer project. Our activities
range from regularly scheduled meetings to building radioactive based
random number generators.
As of Nov. 1, 1998 the Austin Cypherpunks are no longer active and
their mailing list and other resources are retired.
Suggested Cryptography Resources:
Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C
Bruce Schneier
ISBN 0-471-11709-9
Disappearing Cryptography
Peter Wayner
ISBN 0-12-738671-8
Internet Cryptography
Richard E. Smith
ISBN 0-201-92480-3
Decrypted Secrets: Methods and Maxims of Cryptology
F.L. Bauer
ISBN 3-540-60418-9
An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers
G.H. Hardy, E.M. Wright
ISBN 0-19-853171-0
Exploring Number Theory with Microcomputers
Donald D. Spencer
ISBN 0-89218-113-3
(note that the ISBN is not reliable, if you order it use the title)
Related sites of note:
Austin Cypherpunks
Soda Cypherpunks - Original site
Cypherpunks Archive
Distributed Computing - Key cracking project
The Dead Economists Society
The New Australian
Interesting Text Files:
Lessig's View of The Constitution
