Actually, um, kiddies, the more "corruption", the better. Corruption
meaning "greed". Profit, in other words.
I say buy the bastards off. Literally.
Make so much money with financial cryptography, with economic
cryptography, with crypto-economics, that state actors -- like Reno,
and Aaron, and the Chinese Communist Party, and erst-KGBs everywhere
-- have to go play in the other room or they'll piss their
constituents off.
The reason Wassenaar, et. al., is going to fail, *is* failing, has
nothing to do with politics. It has nothing to do with "human rights"
as defined in any political sense. It certainly has nothing to do
with morals. In fact, the more politics, and even appeals to
morality, that they use to try to get what they want, the better I
like it. It'll be like watching someone apply the "power" of prayer,
or positive thinking, or moral suasion, to gravity -- then stepping
off a cliff.
It has *everything* to do with economics, however, and that's what
makes their job completely impossible, and mine so emotionally
satisfying.
The more money people make with internet commerce, the fewer legs
totalitarians will have to stand on when they call for the
criminalization of strong cryptography.
By creating cypherspace out of cyberspace, internet cryptography
protects the execution, and someday clearing and settlement, of
internet transactions, and as a result, internet *business*. Internet
business is much more important than meatspace *government* is, much
less its military or police. After all, if there is no business,
there is nobody to extort economic economic rent from. Obviously, the
economics of financial cryptography will someday ensure that
nation-sates are not going to *have* anyone to extort economic rent
from. But nation-states certainly don't understand that, and, even if
they did, they couldn't stop it anyway, because, again, people will
save, will *earn*, too much money, too much *profit*, when they use
strong cryptography on the internet to conduct their business.
And, fortunately for those of us who are making the geodesic economy
a reality, states are so focused on repressing their populations,
using the *politics* of cryptography, that they don't see the
invisible hand of the market eventually squashing them like bug.
So, again, financial cryptography -- economic cryptography -- is the
only cryptography that matters.
Political cryptography, as practiced by states, *or* their enemies,
no matter how august they are or pure their intention, is almost as
useless as cryptopolitics.
In fact, the more state actors practice cryptopolitics and political
cryptography, the better I'm beginning to like it.
Here's hoping that the cryptography community concentrates on where
the money is. So, of course, they can give erstwhile totalitarians a
fat tip detailing the car so nice.
Cheers,
RAH
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
