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List:       cypherpunks
Subject:    time-delayed release of information
From:       Julian Assange <proff () suburbia ! net>
Date:       2002-03-23 5:23:09
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> Specifically how do you keep others from cheating and saying that an event
> happened in the past when it actually happened in the present?

You need a trusted time-notary who will sign or publish hashes of the event
in a manner which is hard to undo (e.g in a major news-paper). This is a
known art.

A related but harder problem is time-delayed release of information.

If you can predict the future cost/CPU speed then you can create
a problem which can't be solved with current technology at a reasonable price.
The future isn't predictable enough to do this over the longer term.

If you have a large enough transmitter/receiver, you can transmit
they key to distant astral bodies and wait for the reflection.
However if this became routine, spy sats might intercept the transmissions.

You can launch a pair of notary space probes and have them bounce
an encrypted key stream between them with lasers for a specified
period of time (using space as a storage device) before sending
decrypts back. If the sats were moving away from earth at significant
speed due to VEEGA like alignment windows, it might be a long time before
these sats could ever be destroyed.

--
 Julian Assange        |If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people
                       |together to collect wood or assign them tasks and
 proff@iq.org          |work, but rather teach them to long for the endless
 proff@gnu.ai.mit.edu  |immensity of the sea. -- Antoine de Saint Exupery

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