No, I didn't read this entire message, but I thought it may be relevant... Forwarded message: *> From dummy Wed Feb 29 12:12:12 1990 *> X-EB: ------------------------------ *> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 16:01:46 -0700 *> From: Arthur Chandler <arthurc@SFSUVAX1.SFSU.EDU> *> Subject: The Bank of the Internet!? *> *> Yesterday I went to hear a very interesting talk by Eric Hughes, one of *> the founding members of the Cypherpunk list/organization. Unlike most *> encryption pop journalists, who seem to limit themselves to PGP, this *> fellow brought up several boggling ideas: *> 1) "Cryptography is all economics." *> In other words, all encryption schemes come down to: how much $ am I *> willing to spend to keep you from getting into my secret info, and how *> much $ are you willing to spend to get it?" *> 2) There are two methods to keeping secrets on the NET (or IRL): trust *> some one, or trust an algorithm. And, in general, human trust is cheaper *> than technology. *> 3) The US government classifies encryption schemes as munitions, and is *> accordingly places all encryption technology under export restrictions *> controlled by the state department. *> 4) Claude Shannon's two basic principles of encryption: confusion and *> diffusion. *> *> He also mentioned something called a "blind signature" -- a special form *> of digital signature that keeps users unknown (through encryption) to both *> the bank they deposit with and sellers they transact with. I didn't *> understand this "blind digital signature" idea. Can anyone out here explain? *> *> But the real boggler is that this fellow Eric is, with the backing of *> the Electronic Frontier Foundation, going to start a Credit Union based on *> up-to-date encryption schemes and using the Internet as the monetary *> highway! It involves using something called digital money -- a system of *> encrypted data that expires over time, but that a highly flexible ability *> to purchase quantities or services. The data itself will be located *> over several nodes, so that no one site has all the info about your *> account, but that any "quorum number" of bank nodes can reconstruct the *> whole picture of your assets. Anyone trying to crack the system would *> have to crack, not just one or two nodes, but a quorum number. Such nodes *> will be distributed internationally, though favoring nations with *> encryption-favorable legislation. *> ************************************** *> I'm oversimplifying all this. But the whole notion of a Bank of the *> Internet, backed by the EFF and running encrypted international monetary *> transactions seems... well, this is Future Culture: what do you think? *>