On 10-Nov-08 2:04, Darren New wrote:
> andrel wrote:
>> The only interesting way you could use such a technique to make your 
>> world a little safer might be to use it to disconnect a group of 
>> trusted  machines from the rest of the net. Then again, such 
>> techniques might not be completely new.
> 
> I think you want exactly the opposite of anonymity-enforcement for that.

My initial though was that you could use something like this to have a 
part of the internet transparently only accessible to people you trust. 
  Then again, if the group is large enough someone is going to misuse it 
and then you want to know who it was. So you're right this won't work.
But I can think of at least two groups that do want to have a separate 
part of the internet without knowing ones true identity. One will make 
the world a less safe place and the other will make it a less happy place.
In conclusion: AFAIAC this leaves the set of useful and desirable 
applications of this protocol empty. So I guess somebody will implement 
something like this.

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andrel wrote:
 > My initial though was that you could use something like this to have 
a part of the internet transparently only accessible to people you trust.

That's what a VPN is for. :-) And PKI certificates.

 > In conclusion: AFAIAC this leaves the set of useful and desirable 
applications of this protocol empty. So I guess somebody will implement 
something like this.

Heh heh. Sadly true.

Note that in my "this is cool" statement, I meant the techniques and 
technology, and not the particular applications. For example, the idea 
that you can get anonymity because the guy you're directly connected to 
can't tell if you're the endpoint or not is cool.

Of course, given enough laws, even this breaks down, if you can (for 
example) confiscate the entire chain of machines one at a time without 
any of them going offline long enough to alert the quarry.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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