Michael Reusch, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, writes: > A couple of months ago, someone (unfortunately, I don't recall the name > or date) wrote to the New York Times, suggesting that all political > contributions be made anonymously. > > Given the continuous contention that the issue of political contributions > causes in the US, I was intrigued by the idea and have thought about it, > off-and-on, since even though connected people snort derisively at the > idea and I assume it has the political viability of the Caesar cipher at > the NSA. Nevertheless, I wonder whether a suitable protocol has already > been invented. One way to approach protocol design for such problems is to first specify how the system would be done if there were a trusted third party (TTP). The TTP is perfectly trustworthy, honest, and reliable. Define the behavior he would have which would solve your problem, then look for a crypto protocol which accomplishes the same thing. Generally, any TTP protocol can be turned into a crypto protocol by straightforward techniques, but the resulting crypto protocols will generally not be efficient. You can then look for shortcuts or approximations to produce efficient crypto protocols to accomplish the same thing. Maybe you could try to clarify how the TTP would behave in order to accomplish what you desire with regard to anonymous contributions. What information would the TTP have? What kinds of interactions would it have to have with the participants? Expressing this in detail would be a good first step in looking to see whether a crypto protocol could be designed to do the same thing.
