Making the Agora Vanish | OSINT distributed haven (Intellagora)

[Aimee Farr]

Even though I'm PLUNKED, and he is currently on a lawyer-hate rampage...

Tim May said:
> For those of you who don't fully appreciate what I am getting at,
> being newcomers, let me move away from such banalities as "kiddie
> porn" market--though this is a real market which any truly
> untraceable tools will facilitate, obviously--and focus instead on
> the "credit rating market."

Ah, yes. The (illicit) "credit rating market."

Thank you for the "Dick & Jane" version. I may not be the smartest kid in
the class, but I am going to skip a grade, and address the value proposition
Mr. May is *really* talking about, although with a twist of legitimacy:


Found in my inbox:
========================
	> 1. MERCHANT INFORMATION BANKING - "Open Source Intelligence Haven"
	> STEELE:
	http://www.oss.net/infoMerchantBank.html

We already have an OSINT prototype community.

	> The world intelligence market is going private and adopting a distributed
	> model, most relevant intelligence information is human, IS NOT ONLINE,
not
	> SIGINT, and is trapped in the private sector. IT'S NOT SECRET, EITHER.
	> The problem is old
	> notions of
the	> intelligence (COLD WAR) keep private||government apart.
"credit   > The private
rating    > intelligence market
market"---> is $300 billion. China, Israel, Germany, the Netherlands,
Norway, Russia,
	> South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom are already
	> privatizing adopting OSINT tactics, according to Steele.

Steele, March 23 Letter to President:
http://www.oss.net/Papers/white/LettertothePresident.doc)

>Making the agora disappear into cyberspace, whether by sheer numbers
>of sellers and buyers (peer-to-peer) or by robust encryption (a la
>BlackNet) is an important goal.

Agora, hm.

	> The problem with open source intelligence havens
	> is that the information has to be of strategic relevance and time
	> actionable. If you give me the secret recipe to KFC, I'm still nothing
	> without the red-and-white-bucket.

	> I have to be able to tap the source.

	> : critical mass and critical trust.

	> : analysis/value

> So, what's the solution?

> The solution is that the technology clearly exists to allow entities
> to reside in cyberspace. What is lacking, as always, is the means to
> collect untraceable digital cash.

I find open source information banking/trading/merchant (whatever) systems
problematic propositions, beyond anonymous cash, especially viewed in light
of this hypothetical on a distributed open source intelligence
haven-brokerage.

	i.e. How do you set yourself up as an anonymous, neutral, info-Switzerland?
...How will you 	obtain critical mass and critical trust? ...Where is your
back-door, infosec accountability 	if you are nothing but digital wind?
...How do you set up a buy-sell marketplace for 	intelligence -- the value
of which cannot be determined prior to analysis, even where there 	is a
robust reputation capital metric in place? ...How do you enforce polycentric
merchant 	society rules in the context of an anonymous transactional system?
...Requirements for	admission?  ...Quality control? Reputational
systems?...What is your post-transactional 	enforcement mechanism? ...MUST
you have anon cash? (Just lotsa questions.)

On the other hand, take Steele's concept, turn it into an distributed ghosty
"INTELLAGORA" (?) to facilitate and tap these new public-private and
private-private transcontinental intelligence flows, attain critical mass,
and you would have an exceptional value proposition.

Nothing happens without a value proposition, and there is only one lucrative
"live" information market: the intelligence habit. Whoever gets in the
middle of this public<-->private intelligence collision stands to make
serious bank. There is no legacy system, so, if doable, it's load and
lock-in. In comparison, the likes of ZKS and MojoNation seem small
footsteps -- not just in terms of the potential market, but also in terms of
the opportunity for the mass incorporation of cypherpunk concepts.

(This is not "subversive" hypothetical. Western/Allied intelligence
communities would be the primary benefactors and contractors.)

~Aimee