From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 94 08:27:12 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Brands excluded from digicash beta
Message-ID: <199412011627.IAA14481@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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Last month I complained that my multiple attempts to request an account
to try out the digicash beta-test ecash system had been ignored.  I got
half a dozen replies from people who had had exactly the same
experience.  Shortly afterwards, though, I got email from digicash
saying that my account would be activated in a few days.  This was on
Oct. 21, and I have heard nothing since then.

I just figured that I didn't have enough clout for them to bother to
respond to me, but today on the www-buyinfo list, Stefan Brands, who
many think has the best ecash technology available today, posted that he
had had the same experience!  Brands himself has still not been given
an opportunity to join the beta test.  He did not sound very happy about
this.

I can see that Chaum and Brands are potential competitors to an extent;
they both have or will soon have patents which will be necessary for
efficient offline systems.  But it is clear to me that some form of cross
licensing is going to be necessary to have a really clear patent situation.
Under the circumstances it seems silly for Chaum to antagonize such an
important player in the game.

Of course, it may well be a matter of incompetence rather than insult,
but the net result is the same.  The more I see of digicash's lack of
consideration towards their potential customers and important figures like
Brands the more I question whether they have the potential to succeed.

Hal

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