[14497] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Strong-Enough Pseudonymity as Functional Anonymity
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Zooko O'Whielacronx)
Sat Oct 4 14:54:02 2003
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
Date: 4 Oct 2003 07:43:34 -0400
From: "Zooko O'Whielacronx" <zooko@zooko.com>
To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
In-Reply-To: Message from "R. A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com>
of "Fri, 03 Oct 2003 16:06:51 EDT." <p060020acbba384098763@[66.149.49.6]>
I can think of three different goals one could have for "identifying" the
person behind a name. If goal A is possible, I say that the name was a
"verinym". If goal C is possible, I say that the name was a pseudonym. If
none of the goals are possible, the transaction was anonymous.
Unfortunately, there's no word for the kind of name where goal B is possible
but goal A isn't.
Suppose "Alice the Argulant" visited the tavern that you own and operate in a
virtual reality MUD world, and behaved badly and you had her thrown out.
Goal A: figure out the real human who operates the "Alice" persona, and break
his or her kneecaps, or at least threaten to do so, while making it clear that
you have the ability to make good on your threat.
Goal B: make sure that the real human who operates the "Alice" persona doesn't
come back the next day under a different name: "Bobo the Burbulant".
Goal C: make sure that the real human who operates the "Alice" persona suffers
a loss of reputation capital or escrowed gold pieces or something, thus
deterring him or her from behaving badly.
I imagine it might be nice to have Goal B achievable in a certain setting
where Goal A remains unachievable.
Regards,
Zooko the Zoogulant
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