From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 10:03:57 +0800
To: frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)
Subject: Re: Tense visions of future imperfect
In-Reply-To: <199604091857.LAA06933@netcom9.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199604101321.JAA04966@jekyll.piermont.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Bill Frantz writes:
> >   Garfinkel described it like this:
[...]
> >   "This counterfeit currency looked just like the real thing,
> >   except it was a fraud. She even found some of it -- a
> >   digital dollar that was signed and sealed by the US
> >   government's secret key, yet had a serial number that had
> >   never been issued. The money that was being made was on the
> >   Net. It was everywhere and nowhere. And it was encrypted,
> >   so that we wouldn't even know it if we found it. Last
> >   month, we estimate, the total fraud was up to $900,000 a
> >   month, and it is increasing still."
> 
> I don't see how this third scam would work in a system such as DigiCash
> which uses online clearing.  Unissued serial numbers would be refused when
> presented for clearing.

The whole point of DigiCash is that its blind to the issuing bank; it
doesn't know any serial numbers. However, Garfinkel's journalism is
faulty, because the bank would never see "unissued serial numbers" in
a system like DigiCash.

Perry