Digital Cash with dynamic range

Ray Dillinger bear at sonic.net
Mon Jan 1 12:32:53 PST 2001




Most of the protocols I'm finding for digital cash don't have much 
in the way of dynamic range.  Generally, there is a range of values 
that they are designed for (rarely more than a factor of a thousand 
or so from smallest to largest) and smaller payments become 
impossible and larger payments become impractical. 

The problem is particularly severe for offline protocols, where you 
can't get the bank online to make change or issue arbitrary-valued 
coins. 

Does anyone know any happy exceptions to this rule, where payments 
ranging from a millionth of a token up through several million  
tokens could all be practical?  (ie, dynamic range of the twelfth 
or higher order?)

Anyway, the "practical in arbitrary amounts" assumption is pretty 
fundamental to useful money.  We achieve it through bank drafts, 
checks, transfer orders, etc.  But these instruments are not as 
clear how to do in a digital world where anonymity is preserved. 

In particular, I haven't found low-level details of how the "Mojo" 
tokens in use by the new MojoNation stuff work. Are they just an 
implementation of a well-documented protocol, or did they do something 
new?

				Bear








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