From: Karl L. Barrus <barrus@tree.egr.uh.edu>
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 92 11:21:49 PST
To: ncselxsi!drzaphod@ncselxsi.netcom.com
Subject: Re: digital banking, file formats, etc.
In-Reply-To: <19286.drzaphod@ncselxsi>
Message-ID: <9212031921.AA09706@tree.egr.uh.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Dr. Zaphod writes:
>What happens if the bank mails $$$ to Alice.  Somebody intprive
>Alice of HER money.  I haven't read much about digital money protocols
>so correct me if I'm wrong. TTFN!

Well,

I intend for the communications themselves to encrypted as well.  This
would call for the remailing request to also somehow include Alice's
public key, and Bob's communications to include his public key, etc.
This will prevent intercepted mail from tampering and keep the
anonimity.  .  Possibly the bank will have two public keys: one for
money, and one for mail.

However, in the initial phase to keep things simple, the messages
won't be encrypted - only the remailing info will.  This will
implement the anonymous part, and allow transactions, but will provide
no protection against intercepting mail, etc.  Heck, the initial
system will only allow withdrawals and deposits of a constant
denomination, so I'll worry about spoofing later :-)

I'm operating under the premise of getting something out that is
usable but not full blown.  So extra denominations, fully encrypted
messages, etc. will be added later.

Also, I received a mail from rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Rob Crowley?) - whose
mail I seem to have misplaced - voicing concern over proving deposits in
the event that the bank can't be trusted.  Any of the digital currency
protocol articles discuss this issue?  I guess I need to visit the
library again and do some more research, after finals.

/-----------------------------------\
| Karl L. Barrus                    |
| barrus@tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXTMail) |
| elee9sf@menudo.uh.edu             |
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