Crypto suggestion - re: Fatal Flaws in Credit Cards

Dan McGuirk mcguirk at indirect.com
Sat Feb 3 06:24:47 PST 1996


> Nathaniel's written about the "fatal flaw" in any system that
> involves typing credit card numbers into your computer being that
> they're easy for a keyboard-sniffer or similar cracker to recognize.
> An obvious work-around for this (and for many of the problems with
> Social Security / Taxpayer ID numbers) is to use some sort of smartcard
> that generates one-shot numbers that the credit card company (or tax thugs)
> can map back to the "real" owner's ID.
> 
>[...]
>
> Any other suggestions?

Isn't this what zero-knowledge proofs are for?  Prove you know the
credit card number without ever having to transmit it.







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