Mixmaster 3.0

"The packets go in. The packets come out. You can't explain that."
— every Cypherpunk remailer operator, circa 1999

Anonymous remailer software from the golden age of the Cypherpunk mailing list — preserved here as a GitHub easter egg. Same era as Bitcoin: privacy infrastructure and peer-to-peer money share the same Cypherpunk DNA.

2026 modernization — MODERNIZATION.md · CHANGES-2026.txt (every touched file) · search: grep -rE 'MODERNIZED-2026|NEW-2026' .

---

What is this?

Mixmaster 3.0 is classic Type II (Mixmaster) anonymous remailer software:

Component	What it does
Client	Sends anonymous mail through Cypherpunk and Mixmaster remailers. OpenPGP-compatible (PGP 2, PGP 5+, GnuPG). Menu UI or CLI.
Remailer	Runs a mix node: accepts encrypted packets, batches, remixes, forwards. Abuse handling included.
mixremailer	Dedicated server binary (re-architected pipeline in Src/remailer/).

Born from the Cypherpunk movement — the same culture that gave us PGP, remailer chains, and the idea that privacy is something you build, not something you beg for.

See HISTORY for the original upstream changelog.

What we changed (2026 modernization)

Start here: MODERNIZATION.md — full list of edited vs vintage files.

Quick find in the tree:

# Every file we touched (markers in source):
grep -rE 'MODERNIZED-2026|NEW-2026' .

# Or open the flat list:
cat CHANGES-2026.txt

Marker	Meaning	Examples
MODERNIZED-2026	Patched vintage file	Src/crypto.c, Src/rem.c, scripts/*.sh
NEW-2026	New 2026 code	Src/remailer/*

Everything else is unmodified Mixmaster 3.0 from 2008.

---

Quick start (macOS)

Prerequisites: Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install), plus Homebrew libraries:

brew install openssl zlib pcre ncurses

Build, set up spool, and run (recommended):

./scripts/build-macos.sh
./scripts/setup-mixdir.sh
./scripts/start-mixmaster.sh

Or use the Makefile shortcuts:

make build && make setup && make start

setup-mixdir.sh copies conf/ templates into a local Mix/ spool (or $MIXPATH). start-mixmaster.sh runs the ncurses menu client in the foreground — press Ctrl+C to exit cleanly.

Alternative: the vintage interactive installer still works:

./Install

Invoke the client directly once bin/mixmaster or Src/mixmaster exists:

export MIXPATH="$PWD/Mix"   # after setup-mixdir.sh
cd Src && ./mixmaster       # menu UI
./mixmaster --help          # CLI options — see mixmaster(1)

Pingers and live remailer stats were a thing of another era. For historical context on keys and lists, see the original README § Installation and § Using the remailer client.

Remailer server (after make setup):

./scripts/start-remailer.sh           # maintenance tick
./scripts/start-remailer.sh --flush   # force pool send
./scripts/start-remailer.sh --daemon  # background daemon

Architecture notes → Src/remailer/ARCHITECTURE.md

---

Easter egg?

Yes — you just found Mixmaster.

Mixmaster 3.0 and the Bitcoin whitepaper both landed in 2008. Different problems, same Cypherpunk bet: cryptography can change who gets to speak, spend, and stay anonymous.

Dig deeper → EASTER_EGG.md

---

Historical software disclaimer

This is museum-grade privacy tooling.

• Type I (Cypherpunk) remailers are deprecated; the original docs discourage them.
• The public remailer network this client was built for is largely gone.
• Crypto and threat models have moved on; do not rely on this for real-world anonymity today.
• Build on modern macOS may require patience, vendored deps, or ./Install answering y to compile libraries from Src/.

Treat this repo as source preservation and curiosity — not production infrastructure.

---

Modern alternatives

If you want anonymous messaging infrastructure that people actually run in 2026:

• Katzenpost — modern mix-network design, active development, successor spirit to the Mixmaster era.
• Echolot — pinger tooling (historical companion to Mixmaster ops).
• Tor / I2P — different threat model, still relevant for metadata resistance.

---

Original documentation

This README is the friendly front door. The authoritative vintage docs remain:

File	Contents
README	Full installation, client & remailer usage, security notes
mixmaster.1	Manual page
Install	Build & configure script
COPYRIGHT	Mixmaster License Agreement
idea.txt	IDEA™ commercial-use notice

---

License

See COPYRIGHT for the full Mixmaster License Agreement. A pointer file lives at LICENSE.

---

_{Mixmaster 3.0 · Cypherpunk heritage · preserved for the curious}