On Mon, 25 Mar 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In all the discussion concerning turnips in the past few days, I >haven't seen any discussion about a subject I would think most would be >interested in---secure and/or anonymous physical transactions.
Hansen did it, for a few years anyway. > Is it really the case that a provably secure physical transaction is >simply impossible? I've searched for references on this and have found >almost nothing. In particular, it seems that the best anyone has to >offer for anonymity is dropping a letter in a mailbox on the sending end, >and having a p.o. box arranged anonymously on the receiving end. Neither >of these are all that great. As far as security, it seems like keeping >someone from snooping in the box you're sending involves tamper sensors >that destroy the contents. It's possible, it's just not glamourous. Trash bags in the park work pretty well. But Hansen could have used better hardware :-) > The sort of security and anonymity I'm interested in would allow, for >example, an anonymous version of EBay where "illegal items" could be >bought or sold. Examples include firearms, controlled substances, and >even organs. Assuming that anonymous digital cash &c are available, the >only remaining problem is transferring the goods physically. (Granted, >the assumptions about digital cash are a bit of a stretch, but I'd argue >that their problems are dwarfed in comparison to the problem of physical >transfers.) The markets are already in place, as are the transportation systems. If you know where to look. Why do they need to go online? they already have more customers than they know what to do with, and an electronic record makes it easier to be caught. > Is this just a pipe dream? Is it provably impossible? Or have people >actually been thinking hard about this and producing results? Making a trusted signal transfering system that leaves no records is basicly impossible. Moving black markets online directly doesn't make sense. What does make sense is to use the online com link to help the market that's already in place. I'm quite sure the people who are shipping weapons to Al-Qida are online, but they don't really want you to know about it :-) Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike
