From: Peter Foldiak
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
On
http://www.digicash.com/ecash/aboutcrime.html
Digicash says:
"... ecash is not at all well suited for black markets, extortion,
bribes and tax evasion. The reason is that only the payer is anonymous,
the recipient of the money has no anonymity at all.
Furthermore, all money that the payee receives must be given to the
bank. It is not possible to hide from the bank the fact that you
received money (and thereby hide it from the authorities). So
tax-evasion is definitely out. For people who operate black markets
the same story holds. First of all, their income is visible. The second
reason is far better: if any of the customers ever wants to,
he can prove that a certain payment was made by him. This means that
a criminal accepting ecash
can be identified with the retroactive help one of his customers. ..."
Is this really true under all circumstances? Can (some kind of) e-cash
be made truly two-way anonymous, like physical cash?
