From: hughes@ah.com (Eric Hughes)
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 94 10:58:36 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Card Playing Protocol
In-Reply-To: <199407160808.AA09114@world.std.com>
Message-ID: <9407161733.AA19240@ah.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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   1) I am wondering whether a "digital deck of cards" is a good choice.

Premature abstraction is a severe problem if it happens to you.  Read
some of the literature to get an idea of the techniques before you
pick an abstraction.  Your remarks about knowledge models for an
abstraction proposal of "a table with stacks of cards" seem on target.

Most card games require a random permutation, mutually trusted to be
random, which can be revealed one card at a time.  That permutation
need not be generated in advance.  Games like Magic--The Gathering in
which each player shuffles their own deck, are easier to implement and
only require bit committment.

The revealing of cards cannot be global, since at the beginning each
player sees only their own cards.  The revealing of cards should
require that the cooperation of each player that sees the cards, and
possibly some others.

Time to read crypto.

Eric