2.13.4. “What effect will crypto have on governments?”
- A huge topic, one I’ve been thinking about since late 1987 when it dawned on me that public key crypto and anonymous digital cash systems, information markets, etc. meant the end of governments as we know them. (I called this development “crypto anarchy.” Not everyone is a fan of it. But it’s coming, and fast.)
- “Putting the NSA out of business,” as the NYT article put it
- Espionage is changing. To pick one example, “digital dead drops.” Any message can be sent through an untraceable path with remailers…and then posted in encrypted form in a newsgroup readable in most countries, including the Former Soviet Union. This means the old stand by of the microfilm in a Coke can left by a certain tree on a rural road—a method fraught with delays, dangers, and hassles—is now passe. The same message can be send from the comfort of one’s home securely and untraceably. Even with a a digital signature to prevent spoofing and disinformation. This spy can be a Lockheed worker on the Aurora program, a SIGINT officer at Woomera, or a disgruntled chip designer at Motorola. (Yes, a countermeasure is to limit access to personal computers, to run only standard software that has no such crypto capability. Such embargoes may already apply to some in sensitive positions, and may someday be a condition of employment.)
- Money-laundering
- Tax collection. International consultants. Perpetual tourists. Virtual corporations.
- Terrorism, assassination, crime, Triads, Yakuza, Jamaicans, Russian Mafia…virtual networks… Aryan Nation gone digital
