Re: In Search of Genuine DigiCash
At 7:45 PM 8/27/94 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
Eric Hughes says:
If there were already a fully identified digital money system,
Is there one?
I don't think there is any digital money system at all, neither anonymous nor fuly identified.
There certainly are digital funds transfer systems, almost all fully identified. These are not digital money systems, although they may be precursors.
The U.S. banking system is largely a "digital money system" in the sense that the bulk of the money in the system is represented in book entry form in computer systems and has no other existance.
I suppose what I meant was is there any fully identified offline digital cash system in the literature. I haven't heard of any from secondary sources, like around here, or from my cursory reading of Schneier, for instance. The penalty for imprecision on a mail-list of scientists is blown bandwidth. My apologies. Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923
rah@shipwright.com (Robert Hettinga) writes:
I suppose what I meant was is there any fully identified offline digital cash system in the literature. I haven't heard of any from secondary sources, like around here, or from my cursory reading of Schneier, for instance.
"Fully identified cash" is not widely discussed in the literature because it is (relatively) trivial, and here because it is not privacy protecting. "Fully identified cash" is equivalent to a check made out to "cash". All you need is a signed directive to your bank to transfer money from your account number such-and-such to the bearer. Such "cash" can be used on-line if the receiver sends it to the bank right away and gets confirmation that the money has been transferred from your account (that there were sufficient funds to cover the check, etc.). It can be used off-line if the receiver checks your ID so that he knows if the check bounces he can sue you or press charges. See? You already have all the technical requirements for your fully identified cash by firing up PGP or RIPEM. Just find a bank which will honor your signed messages. The CommerceNet people implied that such payment options might be forthcoming. Hal
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