At 10:10 AM 5/19/96 -0400, Simon Spero wrote:
(On the other hand, I have had a longstanding faith that the system can be made to be both payer- and payee-anonymous. Moneychangers, for example.) .. This scheme can't be used with the ecash API, and I believe is not looked on kindly when applying for ecash licences. It makes you a lot more vulnerable to traffic analysis
There are at least two reasons for wanting payee anonymity - general privacy - criminal activities, e.g. ransom, where payee doesn't trust payer. In the latter case, the facts that collaboration is required, special software is needed, and licenses are violated are not really a problem - the Bad Guy can give the payer the code along with the ransom note, and doesn't care about the license. Traffic analysis is a concern, but you're probably not going to collect ransom from the same person on a regular basis, and for blackmail, you can keep changing the payment address, and you're a bit less worried about the payer's location being noticed than if you were collaborating in something like tax evasion. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215 # goodtimes signature virus innoculation