At 09:27 PM 8/26/96 -0800, Adamsc wrote:
On Mon, 26 Aug 1996 13:26:04 -0500, John Deters wrote:
What do cypherpunks think about the following practice or law (I realize that it may be impossible to implement): each email message should carry a little digicash check for, say, 20 cents. Mail reading programs should reject (send back unread) all messages not carrying these digital checks, unless the senders are in the "friends list". The MUAs should ask users whether they want to "cash" the digital check or not.
I do not believe it is possible to have a secure executable that exists on an uncontrolled user's machine. "Tamperproof" encryption chips still require communications in and out from the user's program. A determined attacker could continue to use the pieces of their code that talk to the encryption chip.
Never underestimate the allure of "free money" when you're planning to >give it away.
Methinks you don't understand e-cash. It's not executable, and uses public key crypto to prevent "minting". It uses records to prevent replays. In other words, it'd be like Ed McMahon including a quarter in the envelope. You'd only be able to use it once....
Maybe I misspoke; I wasn't referring to minting e-cash. I was referring to the fact that if you can get spammers to enclose a 20e coin for every junk e-mail advertisement you agree to read, then you can write a mail reader that will read their spam and collect all their 20e coins. To me, that's better than "minting" e-cash. Totally legal, and the net effect transfers funds from the spammers to me. The rest of my letter was in regards to writing that mail reader. And no, even if they were to succeed at getting stupid users to install their own special mail reader just for the privilege of reading their advertisements, without secure hardware in the users' machines, their mail server would not be secure against a spoofing attack. John -- J. Deters "Captain's log, stardate 25970-point-5. I am nailed to the hull." +-------------------------------------------------------+ | NET: jad@dsddhc.com (work) jad@pclink.com (home) | | PSTN: 1 612 375 3116 (work) 1 612 894 8507 (home) | | ICBM: 44^58'36"N by 93^16'27"W Elev. ~=290m (work) | | PGP Key ID: 768 / 15FFA875 | +-------------------------------------------------------+