At 6:42 PM -0800 2/2/98, Anonymous wrote:
Tim May wrote:
The real solution is easy.
Easier said than done.
Designing digital cash software is easy. (Several prototypes exist.) Getting people to accept it as having value is not.
The thrust of my arguments, in my several posts in this thread, has been simply removing the laws which require True Names to be attached to transactions, bank account, credit cards, etc. No digital cash is needed. The rest of Mr. Anonymous' argument is a straw man, based on the difficulty of implementing digital cash. When I say the real solution is easy, I mean it. Get rid of the laws telling people how often and in what amounts they may take money out of their bank account, get rid of laws telling banks they must narc out customers who remove "too much" money, and get rid of any laws restricting the use of names customers and their financial partners may use. (BTW, until these actions happen, no widespread use of digital cash is likely to be accepted as legal. This has a lot to do, I think, with why d.c. projects are moving so slowly.) --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."