Niels Ferguson sent some e-mail to me, which I managed to delete because I'm using this new MS-Mail package. But I STILL prefer it to QuickMail, mainly because it doesn't cause the system to freeze up with a stupid TSR notifier. It also is designed for Windows. But anyway ... To the question Hal Finney raised about Eric Hughes protocols, Niels also continues to have the same worries. He gave an example of a bogus depositor being compensated for interest for parking $1 million, and also thought the amount of data needed by Eric's protocol was excessive. It seems the fraud works if a depositor can be left out of the accounting. A way to insure that anyone with a signed bank statement is included might be to certify each statement by an auditor registered with the Department of Anarchy (some private association). A similar approach for digital cash might be that when you hand over an amount of gold (or whatever) to a "Notary Private," you get a receipt you can verify from an Association. Kent - <jkhastings@aol.com>