From: aba@dcs.exeter.ac.uk
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 95 10:27:54 PDT
To: ecm@ai.mit.edu
Subject: cypherpunks digicash bank?
Message-ID: <15811.9510071727@exe.dcs.exeter.ac.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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Re the attempts to get a practical DigiCash system moving with the
unofficial exchanges at the two exchanges:

	http://www.c2.org/~mark/ecash/ecash.html
	http://www.firecloud.com/eshop/eshop.htm

plus people participating on the ecm mailing list

	http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/lethin/ecm/

one of the major problems which crops up in discussion is that there
is no guaranteed future for the current issue of Digicash, ie it
relies on the digicash trial, and DigiCash's continuation in running
this server.

...

One solution would be for some one, a group of cypherpunks, or
individual cypherpunk, a startup company, to actually license the
technology from Chaum.  It has always puzzled me as to why Chaum
hadn't taken this approach himself.

- From what I've read in previous discussions, the price is $150k, plus
10% of profits.  Other than that what is required is presumably a
dealership in the major credit cards (VISA/mastercard, etc), a secure
WWW server (to allow on-line purchase of c$), or simply PGP signed,
encrypted emailed purchase instructions, and a good internet
connection.  Also some legal consultations to check if setting up such
a system - payee anonymous, would be ok in the US.  Or perhaps another
jurisdiction if this was a sticking point.  Work out anonymous
gateways to things like MSN electronic cheques later :-)

It strikes me that none of these things are insurmountable, and that
the resulting system could become very popular, as well as furthering
the cypherpunks cause - in the sense of having good cryptographic
system in place, which would hopefully attain wide use.

All that would be needed would be the internet connect (which some
folks have already?), VISA/mastercard (same folks might have already?)
$200k ($50k to honour existing digicash currency, at 5c$ to 100 US$ +
$150k for license), a well secured host, and lots of work.  Start
small, that's my moto, no need to go investing more than that until
the things started, and bringing money.  As, and if, it brings in
money, use that to buy better net connect, server hardware, etc.

I'd have thought the way to do it would be for the bank to link the
currency directly to a physical currency, US$ say, and to keep the
interest on the c$ currency in circulation, as profits.  Maybe not the
way to make the most money, but then that's the advantage the civilian
sector has over big banks :-) 100% real-currency backed, so that it
would be impossible to have a run on the bank.  Also a nice way to run
it, as there are no apparent charges for using the cash, or licensing
clients (aka you hand out clients willy nilly for free, like the
netscape model which seems to work so well).

I'm serious, and would want to invest in it.

So what say?  1st digicash bank, *run*, and owned by a group of
cypherpunks?

Adam
- --
#!/bin/perl -s-- -export-a-crypto-system-sig -RSA-3-lines-PERL
$m=unpack(H.$w,$m."\0"x$w),$_=`echo "16do$w 2+4Oi0$d*-^1[d2%Sa
2/d0<X+d*La1=z\U$n%0]SX$k"[$m*]\EszlXx++p|dc`,s/^.|\W//g,print
pack('H*',$_)while read(STDIN,$m,($w=2*$d-1+length($n)&~1)/2)

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