How can e-cash, even on-line cleared, protect payee identity?

[Timothy C. May]

At 11:20 PM 10/22/95, Bryce wrote:

>I can imagine a future in which this requirement is not difficult to
>meet.  Perhaps it will be the case that you can accept a coin, open
>up a new ("anonymous") account with the bank, deposit the coin,
>withdraw a new coin of the same amount, close the account, and now
>have an untraceable coin all in a fraction of a second.

Bryce, we'll make you a believer in online clearing yet!

This is essentially the point several of us have been making, that if
"anonymous bank accounts" are allowed (_technically_, no problem), then Bob
can take his "possibly watched" piece of cash, deposit it with his bank in
his anonymous account, withdraw the same amount (or more, or less, it
doesn't matter if the account is truly anonymous) and neither Alice nor the
Bank know who got it.

As you note, Bob can even open a new account, deposit, withdraw, close the
account. This makes the bank a "digital coin laundry," such as Lucky Greene
and others have talked about.

If forbidden by law in the U.S., no problem using offshore banks.

--Tim May


Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government.
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay at got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
Corralitos, CA              | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839      | black markets, collapse of governments.
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