Fwd: Introduction, plus: Open Transactions -- digital cash library

Ian G iang at systemics.com
Wed Jul 28 23:18:25 PDT 2010


Hi Bob,

On 28/07/10 9:08 PM, R.A. Hettinga wrote:
> Anyone out there with a coding.clue wanna poke inside this thing and see if it's an actual bearer certificate -- and not yet another book-entry --  transaction system?

Sorry to get your hopes up ... Just reading the words below not the 
code:  it is basically modelled on the SOX/Ricardo concepts, AFAICS.

As you know, the SOX concept used (PGP) keys to make an account with the 
server/issuer Ivan, or a long term persistent relationship, call them 
Alice and Bob.  DigiCash also had something like this too, it's 
essential for application robustness.

The simplest payments metaphor then is a signed instruction to transfer 
from Alice to Bob, which Ivan follows by issuing a signed receipt.  What 
you'd call double entry, but in Ricardo is distinct enough to deserve 
the monika triple-entry (not triple-signed, that is something different, 
another possible innovation).

Then, the blinding formula/transaction is simply a replacement for the 
standard payments tranaction above:  Alice withdraws a coin from Ivan, 
sends it to Bob, who deposits it with Ivan.

(Ricardo had Wagner too from around 2001, and like this author, had a 
path to add Chaum, with future extension to Brands.  The code for Chaum 
was mostly written, but wasn't factored correctly...)

Another possible clue:  the author has obviously taken on board the 
lessons of the Ricardian Contract form, and put that in there (albeit in 
XML).  I find that very encouraging, even the guys from DigiCash never 
understood that one!  So I'm guessing that they have studied their stuff.

BTW, FTR, I do not know who this is.

> Cheers,
> RAH
> Who sees lucre down there in the mousetype and takes heart...


Lucre was 1-2k lines.  Ones heart beats blood into thin air until there 
is another 1-2 orders of body parts built on...  This is looking much 
more like that 1-2 orders of magnitude down the track.



iang





More information about the cypherpunks-legacy mailing list