From: olmur@dwarf.bb.bawue.de (Olmur)
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 95 13:52:53 PDT
To: Michael Froomkin <froomkin@law.miami.edu>
Subject: Re: digital cash and identity disclosure
In-Reply-To: <9510200933.AA02681@PrakInf.TU-Ilmenau.DE>
Message-ID: <m0t6e5R-0006UrC@dwarf>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>>>>> "Michael" == Michael Froomkin <froomkin@law.miami.edu> writes:

Michael> i would like to propose the following radical idea: Chaumian
Michael> digicash is a nice curiosity.  The future in the mdeium term
Michael> (10+ years) for better or worse belongs to Mondex.

Michael> Comments?

Mondex keeps their protocols confidential.  Not so good to establish
trust in the system.

I also heart _rumours_, that several things went wrong in their
current field-test.  Reminds me that I should go after these rumors.

Additionally several banks begin to establish their own e-cash
systems.  E.g. in Germany from 1st January 1997 on nearly every
bank-customer will have an electronic-purse.


The main problem with e-cash proposed by Chaum et al. is that current
SmartCards are not powerful enough to handle the needed computation in
a timely fashion.

The purse proposed by the german banks you have a simple counter on
your SmartCard.  With this system you _must_ have identification of
payer and payee to clear malfunctions or frauds by either party.


Bye!

Michael Deindl