Re: The End of the Ecash Trial?
At 12:35 PM 8/23/95, Nathan Loofbourrow wrote:
I have yet to see a date, but Digicash states several times in their press releases that Cyberbucks are only a trial currency, and that at some point in the future the trial will come to an end.
We've talked about this a little bit on ecm. Someone from Digicash is on record there as saying that trading in c$ came as a complete surprise. The hitch about continuing to honor c$ is that there needs to be a bank. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that the current system does work on an offline, peer-to-peer basis. Nonetheless, ocassionally, you still need to verify that the money hasn't been double spent, and for that you need a bank. The problem with being a bank is the price of the bank software, which is where David Chaum and Co. want make their money. Thus, the last price I got (offhand) from David on the phone a year ago was $250k + 10% of net profits. Given the cost of hardware, people, lawyers, and if you actually back the certificates with dollars in a bank of deposit (not being what we want do to here, admittedly) bankers, and more lawyers. Could add up to a mulitmillion dollar proposition. Of course, it could be done with donated professional time, bandwidth, hardware and donated bank software from Digicash. But it's hard to see that happening from here... Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) Shipwright Development Corporation, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 323-7923 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell
Phree Phil: Email: zldf@clark.net http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<
The problem with being a bank is the price of the bank software, which is where David Chaum and Co. want make their money. Thus, the last price I got (offhand) from David on the phone a year ago was $250k + 10% of net profits. Given the cost of hardware, people, lawyers, and if you actually back the certificates with dollars in a bank of deposit (not being what we want do to here, admittedly) bankers, and more lawyers. Could add up to a mulitmillion dollar proposition.
So Dave expects a Bank to pay him $250,000 + 10% so they can't find anything out about their customers spending habits. Dosen't sound as if its all that tempting a proposition for them, they are expected to both create the market and pay the monopolist to participate in it. If Chaum had given his system away, got everyone using it he might have a Netscape type situation. As it is I can't see a great deal of incentive for the people he expects money from to give it him. I don't think this is a going proposition at the moment. It might work for Motorway service tolls and such. I can easilly see a method of getting a political party to buy into such a scheme. It would be kind of ironic given the political motivations of most annonymous payment supporters if the government turned out to be the only organisation likely to buy the product. Personally I don't like Motorway service tolls. Any other people have some ideas about people likely to pay 0.25 M +10% of profits? Perhaps it could be used for gambling? Phill
participants (2)
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hallam＠w3.org -
rah＠shipwright.com