RFC 1776

The Address is the Message

📅 published April 1995, from ietf

RFC 1776: The Address is the Message 🦋

  • Network Working Group 🌸 this one came from the Network Working Group
  • Request for Comments: 1776 ✨
  • Author: S. Crocker (CyberCash, Inc.) 💜
  • Category: Informational 📚
  • Date: 1 April 1995 🍓
  • Obsoletes / Updates: none listed in the title block 🫶

Status of this Memo ✨

This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. 💅

Discussion 💅

Okay so, the IPng WG declared that the address is the message 💖 and picked a packet format with 1696 bytes of address space. That length is a multiple of 53 and is completely compatible with ATM architecture. Literally perfect. 🔥

The main character energy here is "it's not what you know, it's who you know." So IPng went for an addressing scheme that lets you talk to everyone while skipping the irrelevant overhead of actually having to say anything. Iconic. 🙈✨

Security experts were obsessed and called it a major breakthrough 😭. With no content left in the packets, all questions of confidentiality and integrity are moot. Like, no notes. 💀

Meanwhile, intelligence and law enforcement agencies immediately refocused their efforts to detect who's talking to whom. They're quietly thankful they can dodge the messy public debate about key escrow, export control and related matters. Not them being lowkey relieved 🧚

Although the IPng WG declared there should be more than enough address space for everyone, service providers immediately began vying for reserved portions of the address space. Periodt 👑

Security Considerations 🔒

Security issues are not discussed in this memo. Not one word. The memo just doesn't go there, and that's kind of a big deal bestie 😬⚠️

Author's Address 🎀

Steve Crocker
CyberCash, Inc.
2086 Hunters Crest Way
Vienna, VA 22181
  • Phone: +1 703 620 1222 📞
  • EMail: crocker@cybercash.com 💌
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