On 15 Jun 2001, at 0:00, lcs Mixmaster Remailer wrote:
George writes:
If you look at the process of obtaining digital cash abstractly, I give you a bag of money, you give me a bag of tokens I can use to spend in shops, it seems to me that there are in principle two general sorts of ways that I can maintain my anonymity. ... 2) Just make it so you don't see my face when I get the bag of tokens.
This seems a lot more straightforward and natural to me.
Well, the problem is that to exchange cash for tokens, you need a way of sending cash to the bank. But if this exchange is to be done electronically, then that means you are sending e-cash. But your "tokens" *are* e-cash! So your description shows how to get anonymous e-cash, but only if you already start with anonymous e-cash.
What I'm sending ISN'T necessarily e-cash. In principle it could be anything someone has agreed to "buy". Also, at least one method of getting e-cash would be to literally hand over a bag of money to someone in the physical world. George