-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- As cryptography and cryptographic techniques are developed, we tend to put more and more trust in them. It is probably not a bad idea to step back from time to time and ask ourselves if the risks are still reasonable. There is no better example of this than digital cash. Many techniques have been proposed for this as for other applications. It is usually not long before someone finds a critical flaw in the various implementations under consideration. The consequences are usually a loss of confidentiality or embarassments. For example, in the early days of Julf's remailer people came up with surprizing new ways to defeat it, and the consequences were that some identities were revealed and we all marvelled at how this hole had escaped us until that point. Digital cash is another ball game. Before any scheme is adopted we need total confidence in the security of the cryptographic algorithms, protocols, and implementation details. We need a risk analysis to tell us exactly what will happen if two principals collaborate or the bank cheats etc... Schemes such as Chaum's are provocative, but what if 2 years after a digital cash scheme is implemented, someone publishes an easy way to defeat it or cheat? The consequenes could be total chaos. Think of the mental poker problem. A solution was given that seems reasonable. However, someone showed that by taking certain properties of the encryption technique, a bit of information could be learned that would compromise the integrity of the system. In mental poker, no big deal, we stop playing poker. What would happen if your bank suddenly told you that it had no proof that you really had an account there? Wonderer -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQBVAgUBLOkFlx1kTJuroDD9AQEnpgH9GNMpcbjnwDzoNFdhPw5wTBdUQolvCAxk r643e/qOjnnlsL99IazAhCnTucRbaOm/v50HcwPcP2698UYWAX1GTg== =Ud6i -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.