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Comment by jaekwon | Hacker News Reader

If you're a brilliant mathematician who has made a breakthrough in breaking cryptography, wouldn't you want to make a deal with the NSA? Reveal breakthrough in return for more knowledge.

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Well, on those feet, I'd ask for money, not knowledge. That has the advantage that the NSA may actually accept the deal, instead of just blackmailing me (or worse).

That is, if I wanted to make any kind of deal with the NSA.

Why would you expect a lawless organization like this to actually pay you?

It might just be easier for them to say "Thanks, but we already knew that, and by the way that's ultra classified so we'll give you the option of a clean suicide."

Because the "lawless organization" is backed by the richest country in the history of the concept of money.

The money isn't the issue. The issue is that once you disclose the algorithm, your continued existence can then only represent future nation-state levels of liability.

The NSA isn't some faceless villain. They are an organization that has been consistently 10-20 years ahead of the world in many math disciplines.

The NSA is but one of several massive spy operations under the Pentagon. It's not even the best funded. Several of them are ones most people have never even heard of. I'd say that qualifies as 'faceless'.

I see two much more plausible scenarios:

1) Publish. Get famous. Guaranteed employment for the rest of your life.

2) Use it to break into systems. Become rich or get caught and jailed, likely for life.

#1 Pretty much guarantees a non-poverty lifestyle too :)

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