Anonymous authenticated communications

1. A method of performing electronic communications between members of a group wherein the communications are authenticated as being from a member of the group and have not been altered, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a plurality of random numbers;

distributing in a digital medium the plurality of random numbers to the members of the group;

publishing a hash value of contents of the digital medium;

distributing to the members of the group public-key-encrypted messages each containing a same token comprising a random number; and

encrypting a message with a key generated from the token and the plurality of random numbers;

wherein the step of distributing a token comprises distributing a verification message comprising an element for each user, each element comprising the token encrypted with the corresponding user's public key, and the method additionally comprises the step of publishing a hash value of the verification message.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating step comprises generating at least approximately 20,000 random numbers.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the generating step comprises generating 256-bit random numbers.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of distributing in a digital medium comprises distributing in a removable digital medium.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the step of distributing in a digital medium comprises distributing in a medium selected from the group consisting of CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the steps of publishing a hash value comprises employing a Secure Hash Algorithm.

7. The method of claim 1 , additionally comprising the step of rejecting a digital medium received by a user if a hash value of contents of the received digital medium does not equal the published hash value of the contents of the distributed digital medium.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of distributing a token is performed daily.

9. The method of claim 1 , additionally comprising the step of rejecting a token received by a user if a hash value of a received verification message does not equal the published hash value of the distributed verification message.

10. The method of claim 9 , additionally comprising the step of rejecting a token received by a user if every element of the verification message does not equal the received token encrypted with the corresponding users public key.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encrypting step comprises employing symmetric key encryption.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encrypting step comprises choosing randomly one of the plurality of random numbers.

13. The method of claim 12 , additionally comprising the step of sending the encrypted message with an index to the randomly chosen number and a timestamp sufficient to enable a recipient to determine a proper decryption token.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the group is a domain.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more members of the group is a domain.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein anonymity of a sender of the message is maintained.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method provides absolute anonymity for communications between the members.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the method provides anonymity as to authorship of the communications and as to electronic mail routing of the communications.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method provides anonymity for communications between the members by not providing for communications between members of the group within a same domain.

20. A method of performing electronic communications between members of a group wherein the communications are authenticated as being from a member of the group and have not been altered, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a plurality of random numbers;

distributing in a digital medium the plurality of random numbers to the members of the group;

publishing a hash value of contents of the digital medium;

distributing to the members of the group public-key-encrypted messages each containing a same token comprising a random number; and

encrypting a message with a key generated from the token and the plurality of random numbers;

wherein anonymity of a sender of the message is maintained; and

additionally comprising the step causing the encrypted message to be transmitted over a network such that a recipient of the encrypted message receives no data concerning network routing of the encrypted message.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the step causing the encrypted message to be transmitted over a network comprises employing onion routers.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein employing onion routers comprises encrypting messages received by the onion routers with a public key of the recipient.

23. A method of performing electronic communications between members of a group wherein the communications are authenticated as being from a member of the group and have not been altered, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a plurality of random numbers;

distributing in a digital medium the plurality of random numbers to the members of the group;

publishing a hash value of contents of the digital medium;

distributing to the members of the group public-key-encrypted messages each containing a same token comprising a random number; and

encrypting a message with a key generated from the token and the plurality of random numbers;

wherein the method provides relative anonymity for communications between the members; and

wherein anonymity is not provided for communications between members of the group within a same domain.

24. The method of claim 23 , comprising the steps of:

generating a plurality of random numbers;

distributing in a digital medium the plurality of random numbers to the members of the group; and

encrypting a message with a key generated from a token and the plurality of random numbers while maintaining anonymity of authorship of the message.

25. The method of claim 23 , comprising the steps of:

generating a plurality of random numbers;

distributing in a digital medium the plurality of random numbers to the members of the group;

encrypting a message with a key generated from a token and the plurality of random numbers; and

permitting revocation of the message by a revocation authority comprising one or more of the members.

26. The method of claim 25 , wherein the permitting step maintains anonymity of authorship of the message.