Re: e-Cash: CAFE vs. Mondex
Dear Mr. Klur, I'm member of the CAFE consortium but I can not answer your question. As far as we know, the details of the Mondex protocols are still confidential (or only available under a non-disclosure license). However, I can give you some details about CAFE. The CAFE system is a cheque based system. This means that the customer receives an electronic chequebook, where each cheque is (blindly) signed by the bank. During each payment the customer has to use one of these signed cheques. Some of its properties are: secure Breaking the card results in a limited gain, since soon the customer will run out of cheques (Mondex' security is quite likely only based on tamper-resistance). open Due to the open public-key architecture used, the system is open, e.g., it supports multiple-issuer, multiple-currencies. One part of this openness is the public availability of the specifications. practical It provides full loss- and fault-tolerance (i.e. if you loose your wallet you're able to recover your electronic money) and supports fast micropayments (e.g., for phone ticks). privacy-protecting The privacy of the user is protected. We will soon publish our full protocol and architecture specifications. A short 50-page summary is already available (PostScript). Additional information may be found at http://www.informatik.uni-hildesheim.de/~sirene/projects/cafe/index.html Please ontact me, if you are interested in this abstract or if you have additional questions. Regards, M. Schunter --- Forwarded mail from "David Klur" <dklur@dttus.com> Date: Mon, 11 Dec 95 12:13:48 CST From: "David Klur" <dklur@dttus.com> To: cypherpunks@toad.com, WWW-BUYINFO@allegra.att.com Is the Cafe e-cash system different than Mondex? If so, how? Also, does anyone know when the Mondex trial will start in Delaware? ---End of forwarded mail from "David Klur" <dklur@dttus.com> % Matthias <Schunter@acm.org> Uni Hildesheim +49(5121)883-788 fax-732
Matthias Schunter wrote: | The CAFE system is a cheque based system. This means that the | customer receives an electronic chequebook, where each cheque is | (blindly) signed by the bank. | During each payment the customer has to use one of these signed cheques. | privacy-protecting | The privacy of the user is protected. How do checks protect the privacy of the user? The bank knows who is spending how much with whom for each check. Adam -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume
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Adam Shostack -
Matthias Schunter