Re: Digital Cash

On Tue, 3 May 1994, Black Unicorn wrote:

So has anyone tried to solve the problem of double spending and the online requirement of digital cash?

Sure. Stay jacked-in full time. Seriously, communications costs are dropping so fast, I'm not sure why you'd put much effort into designing a bulletproof offline system. Even with today's technology, a shopkeeper could just have a $17.50/mo. Netcom account and run his Magic Money client whenever someone wanted to pay with bits. Certainly no more expensive than a credit card Verifone. But this question comes up often enough that I'm afraid I'm missing something. Why would offline systems be more useful? Joe