From: rah@shipwright.com (Robert Hettinga)
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 94 12:53:46 PDT
To: wessorh@ar.com
Subject: RE: Golbal Econ.
Message-ID: <199408281952.PAA22343@zork.tiac.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At  7:35 PM 8/28/94 +0100, p.v.mcmahon.rea0803@oasis.icl.co.uk wrote:

>An "internet economy" needs a basis of trust, as well as security
>mechanisms appropriate for the current level of IP security. What basis
>of trust do you envisage?

Most of this can be done in civil law. It's done all the time in the
securities markets. If you have certificate which is collateralized, by an
agreement between the issuer and the purchaser, and thus the entire
transaction chain until the certificate is redeemed, monitored by an
independent trustee, then you have a stable exchange mechanism for internet
commerce. International trades of securities like this are made in amounts
in the trillions of dollars every day.

All collateralized bonds have this feature. The extension of this to an
offline digital cash issuance agreement is trivial.

Secure transactions are here already. They're obtained by using public key
crypto to pass transaction information, including the digital certificates
and any information or software, or purchase order/invoice, between buyer
and seller.

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga



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