From: shamrock@netcom.com (Lucky Green)
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 15:20:57 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: My meeting with Chaum (Also: ecash full anonymity and a legal question)
Message-ID: <v02120d09adc6760def8c@[192.0.2.1]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 17:13 5/20/96, Jüri Kaljundi wrote:

>BTW why isn't some other company besides DigiCash selling similar software
>product as the Ecash mint & client?

Not that I am aware of. David Chaum (DigiCash) holds the patents on the
blinding technology that lies at the core of Ecash.

>Public domain ecash software would be an interesting effort to accomplish.
>In case of full source availability it should be possible to develop
>commercial systems based on public software, it might even be more secure
>than commercial software which source is available for review to only
>certain persons.

Coin based software that uses blinding would infringe on DC's patents.

>There is also a problem with Digicash licensing: they licence only to
>banks, and usually only to one bank in each country.

That is not the case. At this time, there is only one Ecash issuing bank in
each country that has an Ecash issuing bank. There is no reason why there
might not be several Ecash issuing banks in a given country in the future.

>I believe there are
>also many companies that are not banks, who would also like to issue ecash
>for specific purposes.

Such companies could negotiate a deal with one of the current Ecash issuers
in which the company gets exclusive use of one of the many currencies that
all Ecash mints are capable of issuing.


Disclaimer: My opinions are my own, not those of my employer.

-- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com>
   PGP encrypted mail preferred.