[Lucrative-L] lucrative accounts revisited

[Tim May]

On Thursday, April 24, 2003, at 10:57  AM, R. A. Hettinga wrote:

> At 11:09 AM -0400 4/24/03, Patrick Chkoreff wrote:
>> I expect my scheme will be slapped down
>> forthwith.  :-)
>
> <Baff-Baff> :-)
>
> Again, the *only* thing you need to prevent double-spending is a copy 
> of the spent coins. Period.
>
> Anything else costs money.

For on-line clearing, a copy of the spent "coin" stops double-spending. 
I would not call it a "coin," however. We should reserve the word 
"coin" for things which behave like coins, e.g, things that clear 
locally without presentation to an issuer or other entity.

For off-line clearing, double-spending is a significant and hard 
problem. Perhaps unsolvable.

If so, then there are no digital coins and never will be.

(I don't count token-based systems, using smartcards or "observers," as 
digital coins.)

Everything connected with money costs money, by the way. Even keeping 
copies and comparing them to newly-presented exemplars.


--Tim May
"The great object is that every man be armed and everyone who is able 
may have a gun." --Patrick Henry
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they 
be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton