
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Lucky Green wrote:
There are a number of technical reasons why you really don't want to call the standard commandline Ecash client from a script to add/retrieve Ecash from Mixmaster remailer packets. The biggest problem being that you can fit only a few coins into the packet header as specified. There is no feature in the standard Ecash client that allows coin level control. DigiCash firmly resited and continues to resist adding it. A $0.25 payment could be paid as three coins or as 25 coins. The user has no control over this. For this and a number of other reasons, DigiCash's software is unsuitable for the task.
I've thought about this and I don't believe that it is a brick wall. If the mixmaster remailers charged the smallest coin Mark Twain Bank issues, then you would always get one coin and it would fit into the packet. I'm guessing this is a penny. While this is not the ideal method for deciding pricing, it would certainly work. Even for larger amounts, there's probably a way to trick the Digicash software into giving you the coins you want. Let's say you are trying to generate a pile of certificates in a certain amount that have less than a certain size. If you keep withdrawing the money and redepositing it, you can keep the certificates which are the right size and throw back the ones that aren't. (You might have to find a way to shake things up by depositing and withdrawing various amounts.) There's probably a better way to do this. For instance, we might observe that every time ten dollars were withdrawn from the bank and a certificate was generated for 25 cents, it only used three coins. So, we withdraw ten dollars, issue a 25 cent certificate, put back the remaining amount, withdraw ten dollars, get another 25 cent certificate, etc. This is easily automated, of course. Question: Where is the coin issuing decision made? I assume that it is made in the client software. This, of course, is not under the control of Digicash or Mark Twain bank. Conclusion: Mixmaster remailers can probably use ecash with just a little more work. Monty Cantsin Editor in Chief Smile Magazine http://www.neoism.org/squares/smile_index.html http://www.neoism.org/squares/cantsin_10.html -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBNDAGpJaWtjSmRH/5AQFSAwf/S5Y13DqoVvkjsmt6AM0IvqOvbNFmFOdf mAeQHGuLXmVQyR+YhWrP5aDb/CVyz/JXpVVH5oKSmxr6p9ocqC4Nvl9lzMS/22Pq GNwxfZopTYZJhwdoeA/zo9uQ8A4rHOueFiZ8GRr7oDa+/sA70H6FBbMzIig/UxsB hi9+cBFGx4VFIWJemcPiU+vL9lWfbTV997IrTrlJKRISjA4VuNqHuoNNbHnUa+J+ /O4aPBgEu4m1SW+FGAQuZoBlbQc7TkstdgpAEF5fGWXJL9SEVmhpkL2hcdOPP5Fl mZ8GuynaMwzGf/UeOVHTUPEPDAjfaqdwbCzStuTzR1QeN13l1Xa2HQ== =g3FG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----