[Cryptography] Cryptocurrency Exchange without a trusted third party

[Jerry Leichter]

>> has occurred in real life. One story:
>> 
>> A company
>> This company
> 
> Failing to name entities does not support independant research and
> verification of story. Are there facts, or are people so in fear of libel / suit
> pursuant to their wanton conjecture?
> Fear of tracing authorship of such (when posted non anon, lol)?
> Or that anonymization of entity really provides any more
> focus on concept expressed?
> Get real on all such things.
> Lest you develop habit of self squelching crypto weaknesses.
While I agree with the general principle, do note the second paragraph:  "Back in the 1960s...."  I don't know about you, but I doubt I would remember the name of a long-dead Hong Kong company I bought something from 40+ years ago.  And researching the story would be rather difficult in any case.  It doesn't sound like the kind of thing that the mainstream press would cover.  Likely there were stories in contemporary photo magazines - most of which are likely also long gone, and if any are still around, are unlikely to see much reason to have copies of such old issues available for research.  (Magazines like this live for their reviews and their ads - both of which are obsolete within a couple of years after publication.)

While I'm willing to believe that the story Bill recounts actually happened, proving it today would be difficult.  And ... keep in mind just what a different place the world was in the 1960's.  China was Maoist (as in Mao was still very much alive an in control) and a closed off mystery; Hong Kong was a British colony, very far away and very far out of the economic mainstream.  If you dealt with a Hong Kong company in those days - known only through an ad in the back of a magazine plus some word of mouth, entirely through letters that would take a week or more each way; when the whole point of the transaction was to skirt the law - would obviously have been a risky business.  I'm sure events such as the one Bill recounts happened multiple times.
                                                        -- Jerry