[1341] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
An invitation to join the e$lab list
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Sun Aug 17 23:06:32 1997
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:39:06 -0400
To: ;@"Recipient.List.Suppressed"
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Hello everyone.
I'm announcing the formation of a new list, e$lab@vmeng.com, to talk about
e$lab, the financial cryptography incubator idea I've been kicking around
lately.
Here's a copy of the first message that went to the list. To subscribe to
it, use the following mailto URL:
<mailto:requests@vmeng.com?subject=subscribe%20e$lab>. Translated for those
who don't have advanced mailto capability, send a message with "subscribe
e$lab" in the *subject* to requests@vmeng.com .
Thanks for your interest in e$lab. Hope to see you on the list. Some of you
have already expressed interest in e$lab or are now working on it already,
and have already been subscribed to e$lab already by myself and Vinnie. My
apologies, then, if this message is duplicative.
Cheers,
Bob Hettinga
--- begin forwarded text
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 09:23:29 -0400
To: e$lab@vmeng.com
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Subject: Welcome to e$lab
Cc:
Bcc:
X-Attachments:
Hello, everyone.
First of all, here's how you subscribe and unsubscribe to this list:
List-Unsubscribe:
<mailto:requests@vmeng.com?subject=unsubscribe%20e$lab>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:requests@vmeng.com?subject=subscribe%20e$lab>
Vinnie Moscaritolo has offered to host this list, which is composed at the
moment of about 34 people around the world who sent me mail expressing a
strong interest the e$lab project over the last few months.
The purpose of this list is to talk about the e$lab idea, issues in the
external environment which may effect making it happen, and, of course,
making e$lab happen to begin with. :-).
When I sent out the original posting about e$lab, I got about 34 or so
immediate responses, which was very encouraging. Since then, Paul Harrison,
Nick Szabo and Duncan Frissell, and now John Muller have been banging away
on a white paper, the current version of which can be found at:
<http://people.delphi.com/ptharrison/Overview-v2.htm>
Please look at this and comment on it, preferrably to this list, as it
represents a lot of work on Paul's part. Big chunks of it are taken from my
various rants on e$lab and financial cryptography in general, but they're
there as prima facie placeholders and should taken in that spirit.
The ultimate purpose of the white paper is to have all the relevant
information that a business plan would need as backup, sans the proposed
management of e$lab and, of course, an actual solicitation of funds.
The reason that we didn't just up and write a business plan is that
business plans are supposed to be written by the actual management of an
enterprise, and we clearly haven't gotten that done yet. :-).
Finally, of course, business plans are confidential, restricted circulation
documents. Clearly that's not what we want to do with a white paper.
However, we anticipate that if you know what's in the white paper, you'll
know pretty much what we're going to do with e$lab.
I'd like to say that, because we need as much mental traction on the
problem of getting e$lab up and running as possible, please keep
back-channel discussion to a minimum and make sure your replies to messages
are to the list as a whole. That way all of us can talk about them. The
truth is never going to hurt e$lab, and, frankly, no one here can say
anything worse than what potential investors will say when they first hear
us pitch the idea to them. :-).
Anyway, here's a list to talk about e$lab with, and, so, let's talk about
e$lab, shall we?
Cheers,
Robert Hettinga
--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 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 e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/
