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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:18:05
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
Mon, 25 Jan 1999 10:13:43 -0500
At 2:23 AM -0500 on 1/25/99, Missouri FreeNet Administration wrote:
> I am curious about those crypto persons in those positions not *directly*
> under DoD contract. Like att research. Lots of good work coming out of
> those folks: is that *also* an SCI environment? I.e., does the nature of
> the work require SCI clearance, even if not "actively" doing DoD work?
Now you see where I'm going. I expect that there are more and more
Americans who have to write business and *financial* cryptography code for
a living. And, of course, they have unique problems that most other
programmers, especially those in other countries, don't have to worry
about. Lost market share, their horrible inability to compete with
programmers from such emergent cryptographic powerhouse nations as
Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland, Anguilla,
;-), and all that stuff.
So, I figure, if you had a meeting, a conference, to tip my hand a little,
for American financial cryptographic engineers, with foriegn nationals
excluded, and *only* because the law says they have to be for some things,
I think that would be a good thing to do. Good, meaning profitable, of
course. :-). The scorpion stings itself, and all that.
Again, of *course* the American laws on cryptographic control are stupid.
So, what else is new? There are lots of stupid laws about alcohol and
tobacco in this country, too. Doesn't keep us from drinking and smoking.
Even a constitutional prohibition against alcohol couldn't withstand market
forces for much more than a decade. I expect our current attempt at tobacco
prohibition will go through the same death throes sooner or later, along
with our policies against other psychochemicals.
Nonetheless, strong crypto is different. It's not a recreational substance.
For some people, anyway. :-).
It's a business *necessity*. Even if you obey those stupid American crypto
laws, the business necessity for strong cryptography is still there. And,
as I've said before, many times, you simply can't do financial
cryptography, and thus digital commerce, without financial cryptography.
And, financial cryptography, also of necessity, is strong cryptography.
Even if you obey the law, you make money, and the *less* law there is
controlling American cryptography, the more money everybody, including
government, makes.
So I think this is a real good idea, and it's been bugging me for more than
a week now. More on it as I hatch it a little more. Talking about it here
has helped a bunch.
Any other comments?
Cheers,
Robert Hettinga
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.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'
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:18:05