[e12e]

I recall there was a proposal to use "chaffing" as an alternative to encryption; partly motivated by cryptographic signatures not being export controlled.

The basic idea is to split a message into very small pieces, say individual bytes or even bits. And the sign each bit, and iirc add a sequence number. Then you end up with a triple: sequence number, data, signature. Then you generate random triplets - and distribute the lot: the recipient orders by sequence number and keeps the bits with valid signatures.

I'm not sure about how ordering was achieved, but it was a clever idea.

Ah, here's Wired's coverage of the Ronald Rivest's idea in 98:

https://www.wired.com/1998/03/a-work-around-for-crypto-expor...

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs.html#Riv98a