From: "Marcel van der Peijl" <bigmac@digicash.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 94 02:01:47 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: ecash trial issues explained
Message-ID: <199412031001.LAA14509@digicash.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


(This message is not an official DigiCash message but represents my 
personal opinions)

Here are some answers to issues recently discussed on the cypherpunks 
list. I do not read this list as that takes too much time, I only read 
what people that do read forward from the list to me.

Stefan Brands is not excluded in any way from the trial. His request 
was never received at DigiCash. Several others in the CWI crypto 
group (all that applied) did receive their accounts. There is no
 'political boycot'.

The ecash software allows for multiple payment protocols to co-exist. 
Besides the currently implemented protocol and the Stefan Brands 
system there are more possible systems. We are not fixed in any way 
to the current protocol. Besides the patent issues, it is not clear 
which protocol is better.

Last time I checked (a week ago, I am currently on the road) there 
well over 500 or 600 active ecash accounts. But there are another 
1000 accounts waiting, and new requests coming in between 10 and 100 
per day. As the mail that was sent out explains, the trial is rolled 
out in phases. The result is that the software is more 'robust' before 
large quantities of users run into the same problem, in the sense 
that it works on any OS in any configuration with any network hookup, 
no matter how 'bad'. (We are not in the business of being a 'network 
helpdesk'.)

Potential ecash vendors have had priorities in being assigned ecash 
accounts. But they are also 'harrassed' for actually doing what they 
promise to do. Because we can not support a 24 hour staff and we want 
to keep response time low, people in time zones close to ours (GMT+1) 
have been issued accounts first. At the moment we are confident we can 
scale up the trial. I promise you it will not be several more months 
before everyone can join the trial.

People that run into ecash problems are almost always helped or 
replied to the same day, and often within the hour. However, some 
people send their problems to the wrong address, such as the generic 
ecash info address or the feedback address, which may result in not 
getting an answer for several days. If mails go to 
ecash-bugs@digicash.com, the developers involved immediately see the 
mail and help out, provided they are technical mails and have 
sufficient information to actually be able to give help. As you can 
imagine, problems described as 'it does not work for me' without any 
extra information take a few mails back and forth, and tedious 
searching in log files, before the actual problem is clear. You can 
understand the anonimity of the system does not make that easier.

People that compare FV or other systems and ecash are really 
comparing apples and pears. From a business view they may look
the same, but how they operate is totally different. Ecash is the 
only system that allows for full anonimity on the buyers side using 
public key technology. We strongly believe it should not be possible
for anyone to see all individual transactions a person makes.
The business model used is also different. We do not charge users or
shops a fee to use the ecash system, and provide the ecash software
(both client and shop) for free, and give support for free. 
Unfortunately this does mean we are not getting large sums 
of money to spend on slick marketing schemes.

Just a final remark before totally boring you to death:
Some of the people that post unfriendly messages on mailing lists, 
like Stefan Brands, do so before actually mailing to us. Please give 
us a fair chance!

Marcel van der Peijl
Ecash technical project leader
DigiCash bv
http://www.digicash.com/