[117382] in Cypherpunks
SSZ CDR Homepage
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Choate)
Wed Sep 1 21:17:03 1999
From: Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
Message-Id: <199909020101.UAA06764@einstein.ssz.com>
To: cypherpunks@EINSTEIN.ssz.com
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 20:01:26 -0500 (CDT)
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Reply-To: Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
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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. At one point in 1997 John Gilmore began to
become concerned over the traffic and range of topics that were
bouncing around the mailing list. As a result of this he sent the
following email,
Sent: Sun Jan 19 22:27:31 1997
Subject:THIS IS THE LAST UNMODERATED MESSAGE TO CYPHERPUNKS
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 19:06:54 -0800
From: John Gilmore
OK, I think we're finally ready to go live with a moderated cypherpunks
list (modulo glitches). Operators (well, Sandy) are standing by!
John Gilmore
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
it was to be permanently closed and something had to be done. At that
point Igor Chudov and James Choate created the Cypherpunks Distributed
Remailer (CDR). The idea was 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. 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.
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), krypto@thur.de
(for Germany), or aucrypto@suburbia.net (Australia/NZ).
- 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. This does not
effect the operation of the SSZ node of the CDR.
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
