
Attention Shoppers: Internet Is Open (1994) - sjcsjc
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/12/business/attention-shoppers-internet-is-open.html
======
creamyhorror
So where's the CEO of NetMarket, Daniel Kohn, now?

[https://www.linkedin.com/in/dankohn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dankohn)

* CTO of Spreemo, a healthcare marketplace

* previously the #2 person at the Linux Foundation

* dankohn1 on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dankohn1](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dankohn1)

Nice to see where pioneers end up.

~~~
yeukhon
Is there a problem? I am not sure if I am supposed to read between the lines.

~~~
jws
Sometimes the space between the lines is just there so you can read the text.

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beams_of_light
""Even if the N.S.A. was listening in, they couldn't get his credit card
number," said Daniel M. Kohn"

Oh boy.

~~~
wmt
"Mr. Kohn was referring to the National Security Agency, the arm of the
Pentagon that develops and breaks the complex algorithms that are used to keep
the most secret electronic secrets secret"

Funny how this needed explaining back then. The story was also accidentally
right, the NSA was indeed breaking those "complex algorithms" already during
development!

~~~
asveikau
I found it funny how much of _everything_ in this article needed explaining.
Cryptography and NSA sure. But also the very concept of online retail,
computer operating systems, the word "algorithm", a web browser, the web
itself, etc., etc. So startling when so much of this is now so pervasive among
regular people. Today's general public NYT readership might need some brief
explanation of the finer points, but could be assumed to have some passing
familiarity with all of it. Hell, that might have even been largely the case
five years after this article.

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gregrata
"Experts have long seen such iron-clad security as a necessary first step
before commercial transactions can become common on the Internet, the global
computer network." \- "Even if the N.S.A. was listening in, they couldn't get
his credit card number"

Huh. Guess this necessity didn't really pan out. Yeah, need to at least feel
somewhat secure giving a CC - but, with all the government snooping and
massive data hacks that have going on, I wouldn't call it "Iron Clad". Yet
will still shop on-line

~~~
jacquesm
That's because critical mass has been achieved so now you have little choice.

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hyperrail
This part seems eerily prescient, doesn't it?

> "I think it's an important step in pioneering this work, but later on we'll
> probably see more exciting things in the way of digital cash," said Philip
> R. Zimmermann, a computer security consultant in Boulder, Colo., who created
> the PGP program.

> Digital cash, Mr. Zimmermann explained, is "a combination of cryptographic
> protocols that behave the way real dollars behave but are untraceable."

> In other words, they are packets of worth that have value in cyberspace, the
> same way dollars have value in the real world, except that they have the
> properties of anonymity, privacy and untraceability. Many details remain to
> be worked out, Mr. Zimmermann said.

~~~
lambda
Not really prescient. Cryptographic cash has been something that people have
been talking about for a while, and there have even been startups trying to
commercialize it. Chaum's ecash was invented in 1983, and he was in the
process of trying to commercialize it when this was written
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash)).

Bitcoin is just the first cryptocurrency that has actually managed to take
off, but it's been a problem that cryptographers, and in particular
cypherpunks
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk)),
have been working on for a while.

Basically, what's happened is that this stuff that was kind of fringe and
crazy back in the day, but people who were into it were really sure was the
future, has actually made a major impact on the world.

~~~
mirimir
Without mixing, Bitcoin is neither untraceable nor anonymous.

~~~
nabla9
Bitcoin without mixing is nice open ledger where everyone can follow
transactions. Openness might be good or bad thing.

Bitcoin with mixing is subject to many laws against money laundering (anti-
smurfing laws for example). Mixing is not new innovation that came with
cryptocurrency.

~~~
mirimir
Laws that compromise privacy are irrelevant.

------
aji
This article is so charming! I get the same feeling reading this as I do
watching a puppy waddle around.

------
dankohn1
Hi, I'm the Dan Kohn from the article. I'm not quite sure what inspired the
post (since we already passed the 20 year anniversary), but please AMA.

~~~
fit2rule
What would you do differently if you could go back and give yourself a clue
from the future?

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Russell91
Wow. The difference in quality between the NYT 20 years ago and today is
simply astonishing. It seems that this prescient article ironically also
marked the beginning of the end for the New York Times.

