Worth Magazine, October, 1995, has a longish, easy-reading, supportive article on David Chaum and digital cash. Virtually alone among E-money thinkers, Chaum insists on creating anonymity for all transactions -- building a tamper-proof system that works just as "real" cash always has, from cowne shells to $100 bills. The key, he says, is this: Without the spender's say-so, no one should be able to trace who paid whom for what, whether a transaction takes place online or in a swipe of a card at a coffee shop. It's a libertarian approach in tune with Chaum's roots in freewheeling communities such as Berkeley and Amsterdam -- but it is anathema to control freaks like the FBI, the IRS, and corporate information marketers. Chaum says every digital-cash system but his has the potential to be abused or compromised -- and the math seems to bear him out. His competitors, however, insist their plans will prove plenty secure in practice. They dismiss Chaum as an incorrigible purist, a brilliant mathematician and innovator whose political views are hindering his chances of success. Like many in the digital elite, Chaum, an unabashed utopian, does want to create a new world. To him, electronic money is just the first consumer use of an arcane field he hopes will transform society: cryptology, the science of secret codes. In cyberspace, these codes can prove a powerful way of shielding a person's identity -- or of verifying an identity without giving away extra information. Armed with personal computers and good software, says Chaum, ordinary people will finally have the power to do and say things without being tracked by Big Brother. CHA_cha (31 kb in two parts)