why "penny black" etc. are not very useful (could crypto stop spam??)

[john saylor]

hi

Amir Herzberg wrote:
> E-mail (at least from new 
> correspondents) must be signed by an `anti-spam mail certification 
> authority (ASMCA)` - often the ISP of the sender. Recipient's mail 
> client (or server) will reject mail (from new correspondents) not 
> certified by a trustworthy ASMCA.

ok, but is it a 'web of trust' model [pgp] with many decentralized 
ASMCAs [or whatever they're called], or a 'pay to play' model where an 
authority [verisign] decides which mail gets the bits or not.

the technology exists, and would work. the problem [as is often the 
case], comes with the human interface to the technology. i am very 
skeptical of how much better things would be in a 'pay to play' 
scenario. we'd just get different kinds of spam without lessening the flow.

> - ASMCA's have strong incentive not to approve spam.

if they can make more money by approving it, they will. i wish it were 
otherwise.

-- 
\js	! VTABE NAPRV FFGER ATGU

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