<HTML><BODY>
<div>
<pre><b>Bryan Alexander Ford wrote:</b><br>
<br>
> I just posted the following short (1900-word) article that might be of interest<br>
> here, although it is not about how to cast and count ballots but rather about<br>
> how we might enforce the "one person, one vote" principle in online<br>
> deliberative forums and prevent ballot stuffing while protecting users' privacy<br>
> and anonymity.<br>
> Sybil Parties: An <span class="correction" id="">Offline</span> Foundation for Online Accountability<br>
> <a href="http://www.brynosaurus.com/log/2006/0924-SybilParties.html">http://www.brynosaurus.com/log/2006/0924-SybilParties.html</a><br>
><br>
> In short, the only way to have legitimate online deliberation without the risk<br>
> of people creating many virtual online <span class="correction" id="">personas</span> with which to stuff ballot<br>
> boxes (<span class="correction" id="">sybil</span> attacks) is to create some form of strong "one person, one<br>
> persona" relationship between real users <span class="correction" id="">offline</span> and their <span class="correction" id="">personas</span> online.<br>
> The only I see way to do this, in turn, without requiring everybody to use<br>
> government-issued ID for everything or sign on to a massive centralized <span class="correction" id="">PKI</span><br>
> scheme that destroys everyone's privacy rights is... well, read the article if<br>
> it's not obvious already. :) Feedback welcome of course.<br>
> Thanks,<br>
> Bryan</pre>
<pre><tt>This is an interesting problem. My (online) solution would be to require <br>
say 50-100 </tt><span class="rss:item"></span><a name="000395"><span class="correction" id="">captchas</span> to be completed by the person (once a year or so).<br>
<br>
However, I would never have thought of using porn as incentive to get people<br>
to solve them for a hacker (what will they think of next). This problem <span class="correction" id="">sorta</span><br>
still applies here. You could create a porn site and require that people login.<br>
However, what would actually be happening is that the hacker bridges your<br>
login so that as you create an account on his site, you are actually creating an <br>
account (for him) on to the site he wants the free account on. If there was <br>
no way to link ID between 2 sites anyway, maybe people would "pay" for porn <br>
by creating a <span class="correction" id="">yahoo</span> email address for a hacker.<br>
<br>
One thing with your system is that it would allow geographic information to be<br>
encoded into the confirmation. This would allow <span class="correction" id="">websites</span> to provide different<br>
services based on location. This could be bad (restricting content like is done<br>
with <span class="correction" id="">DVDs</span>) and good (things like opinion polls could give a breakdown based on<br>
region).<br>
<br>
Another problem is keeping corruption to a minimum. A requirement that any<br>
gathering must allow oversight is not a very strict ruling. Also, I am not<br>
sure 1st world citizens would want to have ink put on their fingers.<br>
<br>
What about trying to get the governments of (at least) the developed world to<br>
mail a code to every resident. Movement in that direction could be achieved by<br>
creating a standard way to create and authenticate the codes. One option would<br>
be that you login to a government site and enter the 10 digit code they sent you<br>
and then, your computer and the government's computer handles the transfer of <br>
the more complex and secure (and blinded) codes.<br>
<br>
Once authentication has <span class="correction" id="">occurred</span>, I would try to manage it using some <br>
kind of encryption rather than having a central account on the Sybil <span class="correction" id="">web site</span>.<br>
<br>
Digital cash, for example, allows a bank to issue digital "coins" so that it <br>
can confirm that a "coin" is valid without being able to tell who's "coin" it <br>
is. A similar trick could be used here. Each person on authentication could <br>
be given a "coin" that certifies that they are a real person. The double <br>
spending protection, inherent in the digital cash system, could be used to <br>
ensure that the person can't use the "coin" more than once. I am not sure if <br>
this system can be extended so that the protection only works if you "spend" <br>
the coin more than once at the same <span class="correction" id="">web site</span>.<br>
<br>
---------------------------<br>
<br>
Unrelated to the above, has anyone else noticed that posts seem to appear on the <br>
web archive before they are mailed ? This really slows down replying to <span class="correction" id="">emails</span>.<br>
<br>
---------------------------<br>
<br>
<span style="font-family: "verdana";"></span></a></pre>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;"><span class="correction" id="">Raphfrk</span><br>
--------------------<br>
Interesting site<br>
"what if anyone could modify the laws"<br>
<br>
www.<span class="correction" id="">wikocracy</span>.com</div>
<!-- end of AOLMsgPart_0_351874aa-b8bd-419e-91f1-08a438eb0452 -->
<div class="AOLPromoFooter">
<hr style="margin-top:10px;" />
<a href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100122638x1081283466x1074645346/aol?redir=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaim%2Ecom%2Ffun%2Fmail%2F" target="_blank"><b>Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail</b></a> -- 2 GB of storage and industry-leading spam and email virus protection.<br />
</div>
</BODY></HTML>