Timothy C. May writes:

I would encourage people *not* to do "Yet Another Digicash Experiment."

We've had several, and the problems of digital cash lie in the *launch* of viable, robust systems, not in casual, doomed-to-not-be-successful efforts. (Pr0duct Cypher's "Magic Money" system was considerably better programmed than most such experiments, and yet nobody would bother to try to use it. A less here.)

I haven't seen a Tacky Token in months, although there was quite a bit of activity when I first made my server available. Although I haven't heard how the other servers are doing, I would expect interest has trailed off there as well. The problem with practical digital cash lies not in the mathematics, but in the financial and legal arenas. It is very difficult to convince a real financial institution with deep pockets to underwrite a potentially unlimited liability for itself. I suspect that for the forseeable future, digital cash will take the smartcard route, and that money which can anonymously traverse cyberspace in large denominations will not be forthcoming. It is also unlikely that faith of financial institutions in supposedly unbreakable mathematics has been enhanced by the recent one-line fix announced for the DSS. Still, I look forward to the first person brave enough to attach a hard currency value to anonymous cyberbucks. It may actually make hacking a worthwhile pursuit again. -----Begin Totally Unrelated Topic----- BTW, Thinking Machines Inc. went Chapter 11 today and dismissed one third of its work force. They are blaming the end of the Cold War for their problems. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ mpd@netcom.com $ via Finger. $