smartcards

[Trei, Peter]

> Steve Thompson[SMTP:stevet010 at yahoo.com] wrote:
> 
> I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned cell-phones as a digital cash
> platform.
> Perhaps this belabours the obvious, but I'll spell it out anyways:
> 
>   o They are ubiquitous.
> 
>   o Most of them have an IR port and many contain enough storage and
>     horsepower to keep and play small MP3 collections.  Chaumian digital
> cash
>     code should fit easily.  Hell, some companies are already making
> noises
>     about full-motion video.  How long before the damn things have a
> digital
>     camera built in?
> 
>   o Peer-to-peer transactions will obviously work via IR.  Central
> clearing
>     mechanisms will work through the phone net.  Thus they embody the
> basic
>     infrastructure for both worlds.  The entire thing could be done over
> SMS,
>     of course, but IR for peer-to-peer, day-to-day transactions is best
> from a
>     privacy and usability standpoint.
> 
>   o PC-based software is in use for the synchronisation of calendar data,
> etc.
>     Many people are already familiar with using their phones for these
> kinds
>     of purposes so what's one more application to the user?
> 
> The problem is that phone software is (to my knowledge) all closed-source
> and
> running on proprietary hardware.  What's the liklihood of manufacturers
> opening up their phones for third-party code?  A Java VM might do it, as
> might
> something lean like an Inferno VM.  More informed list members could
> probably
> suggest other virtual machines which would suit our purposes.
> 
	[...]
> Regards,
> Steve
> 
The phone SW world is nowhere near as closed as you think. 

* Thousands of developers are writing Java applets for Japanese iMode
phones. 
* Hundreds are developing applets for the Blackberry 5810 and 5820 phones 
  (free Java-based IDS from RIM). 
* Similarly, the high end Pocket PC and Palm phones both have free or
inexpensive 
  development environments (C/C++)
* Finally, Qualcomm phones support BREW (free SDK, expensive training).

My take on the situation is that the platform vendors are so anxious to get 
developer mindshare, and new apps, that they are for the most part giving
away the development environments and specs.

Peter Trei