On Sun, 25 Jun 2017 00:44:36 -0400 grarpamp <grarpamp@gmail.com> wrote:
didn't you bother to make a summary of the scammers' project? http://www.hashcash.com/faq.html "Isn't HashCash centralized, and isn't that bad? HashCash is polycentric, rather than centralized. " Translation : yes hashcash is just a centralized bank and so it is shit. "A HashCash vault is a "trusted third party". Isn't that bad? A healthy market is full of "trusted third parties. Bla bla bla" Translation : yes hashcash is just a centralized bank and so it is shit. You're welcome.
HashCash is free software, written in Perl and published under the Artistic License 2.0.
Source can be downloaded from CPAN. On Unix-ish systems it should also be possible to download and install the package with:
cpan Crypt::HashCash
(note different capitalization from Adam's Hashcash)
HashCash is a lightweight Chaumian blind-signature based digital cash system, designed to work without the need for user registration or accounts.
The current implementation is a minimal usable version. It is experimental and released for beta testing.
HashCash can operate with various blind signature algorithms and value bases. The initial version includes support for blind RSA and ECDSA signatures, and a vault based on Bitcoin.
HashCash coins are bearer tokens of specific denominations, blind-signed by a vault, representing a quantity of some value (precious metals / Bitcoin / altcoins / fiat / whatever) stored by the vault.
Users can export coins from their wallets and send them directly to anyone else using any communication medium. Coins can be encrypted when exported, and the encryption passphrase sent to the recipient using an alternate communication method, to protect coins in transit. For in-person transactions, recipients can just scan coins as QR codes from payers' devices.
The wallet can work with multiple independent vaults, just as an email client might connect to multiple email accounts on different servers.
With the free vault software and fairly modest hardware and bandwidth requirements, operating a HashCash vault is within the capabilities of most people with basic computer skills, facilitating decentralizaton based on a diversity of competing private vaults. Independent automated reliability and reputation tracking of vaults could help users select reliable vaults to use.
Coin minting and verification fees can be set independently by each vault, and are built into each interaction with a vault, which enables vaults to operate without the need for user accounts.
A vault's private keys can be kept completely offline at all times, by running the vault on machines air-gapped from the Internet and communicating with them over serial links. The HashCash protocol is designed to facilitate air-gapped vaults, as well as completely offline yet fully functional wallets, which can provide a high level of security for naive users.
Offline mode for the wallet is included in current implementation. I'm still fine-tuning the support for air-gapped vaults. It works and has been well tested, just needs to be cleaned up. Support for air-gapped vaults should be included in an upcoming release soon, and an experimental live air-gapped vault should also be online shortly. In the meantime, you can get a feel for the system by running a vault locally. More details on that on the Download page:
http://www.hashcash.com/download.html
Comments, bug reports, code, translation assistance, etc. most welcome and greatly appreciated.
Hash
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