Re: A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online
At 00:46 2003-07-25 -0700, Tim May wrote:
On Thursday, July 24, 2003, at 07:12 PM, Steve Furlong wrote:
On Thursday 24 July 2003 15:50, Tim May wrote:
In fact, "digicash" strongly suggests David Chaum's "Digicash,"
That assumes the reader or listener has heard of Digicash, or of Chaum. Not an assumption I'd be comfortable making.
Agreed, making the assumption that readers here have heard of Chaum or understand the basic idea of blinded transactions (or dining cryptographers, or oblivious transfer, or any of the other building blocks) is no longer warranted. I expect many of the persyns of peircing now spewing on the list are, like, thinking "that's, like, _so_ nineties."
As for thinking very general readers or listeners, those not even on the list, are capable of understanding Chaum or Digicash, that's a fool's errand. The average nontechnical person knows nothing about how crypto works, and attempting to explain a DC-Net or a blinded transfer is no more useful to them than just telling them the currency is based on "magic beans."
I've used the graphics and explanations that were in Digicash's Users Guide with non-technicals to great effect. They portrayed blinding using envelope, wax seal and wax token. The token was placed in the envelope and sent to the mint. The envelope represented the blinding function performed by the user's SW. The wax seal: the mint's digital signature pressed onto the envelope and "by pressure" into the enclosed coin which has not been seen by the mint. And the wax token, once removed from the envelope, the un-blinded coin. steve
On Fri, Jul 25, 2003 at 09:50:47AM -0700, Steve Schear wrote: | I've used the graphics and explanations that were in Digicash's Users Guide | with non-technicals to great effect. They portrayed blinding using | envelope, wax seal and wax token. The token was placed in the envelope and | sent to the mint. The envelope represented the blinding function performed | by the user's SW. The wax seal: the mint's digital signature pressed onto | the envelope and "by pressure" into the enclosed coin which has not been | seen by the mint. And the wax token, once removed from the envelope, the | un-blinded coin. Bzzt. Thank you for playing. If anonymity loves company, you can't spend 20 minutes explaining what you mean to each person you want to use your system. They have to figure out why this is private and that ain't, and they need to do it in a way that works for the privacy threat that they worry about. "This is like a credit card number that can only be used once, so you don't have to worry about someone hacking their store." "This is like a travellers check that prevents ID theft." Adam -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume
On 25 Jul 2003 at 9:50, Steve Schear wrote:
I've used the graphics and explanations that were in Digicash's Users Guide with non-technicals to great effect. They portrayed blinding using envelope, wax seal and wax token. The token was placed in the envelope and sent to the mint. The envelope represented the blinding function performed by the user's SW. The wax seal: the mint's digital signature pressed onto the envelope and "by pressure" into the enclosed coin which has not been seen by the mint. And the wax token, once removed from the envelope, the un-blinded coin.
I need to steal those visuals. Where can I find them?
participants (3)
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Adam Shostack -
James A. Donald -
Steve Schear