-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Cypherpunks, I've been experimenting with a primitive digital cash system for remailers. Originally I had hoped to combine the remailing and banking functions of the elee7h5@rosebud remailer, but for now I have an even more primitive cash system implemented at elee6ue@rosebud. It seems to be performing as expected. A digital cash accepting remailer, along with a good positive reputation system, is the "crypto-anarchist" answer to labeling anonymous mail with subjects and/or usernames. (Of course, a subject that enables anonymous mail to blend in is great - such as "Re: your mail"). (Incidentally, since running pgp to get the signature from a pgp-signed message is expensive, I patched the script I use for positive reputation to give the option of checking signatures or not, if anybody is interested.) Currently, the only objection I've heard to anonymous mail is "somebody can abuse it"; future remailers will require payments, helping to address this concern. Basically, the remailer recognizes a Digicash pasting token, and for now the cash is a string of letters and numbers. Before remailing, the digicash is extracted and looked up in a cash list (which I create). If the cash is in the list, it is assumed to be valid, and the list is rewritten minus the cash string just used. If the cash isn't present, it is assumed to be invalid, and an insufficient funds message is remailed instead. The remailer does not keep a list of "spent" cash strings, so there is the possibility of duplication (once in every 36^60 times). As far as correlating the cash used to individual and a message, I can only assure you I could care less about the required bookkeeping. The pasting token looks like the others, and you use it in a similar way - - ----------8< cut here >8---------- :: Digicash: <here is the string> - ----------8< cut here >8---------- For example, I "paid" for the remailing of this message with - ----------8< cut here >8---------- :: Digicash: BcKjSoUEQaTam9xPs0oso2j0UVVb1M6OyxTn8QSX0rdT3eUIH4Vq1rXEpYH1D - ----------8< cut here >8---------- (Now, the above cash string should be invalid! :-) The way I'm distributing valid cash for the remailer is by email - mail me and I'll send you some valid cash strings. No charge :-) Karl L. Barrus <klbarrus@owlnet.rice.edu> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLKsyGYOA7OpLWtYzAQG/QAQAwNbDbKOdnWJ4g/tt8+0AdtR+5TzETfaU DaodN1LDs7+w46/KlyIoI/B9+C710U1f46dnd81MxMm6eTGcbwnkrTBhz7QlO7NH 1joVaoe8TVljk2RZnCYmpYbzXjuogZcAuuZKVWY3ES2iElKZLr24oCZbHWljPV4o griHzfbmHYI= =54L7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----