From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 05:44:47 -0700 (PDT)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: ecash press release
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Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 11:40:27 +1000 (EST)
From: Andreas Furche <afurche@cs.newcastle.edu.au>
To: Tom Wills <twills@commerce.net>
cc: e-payments@commerce.net
Subject: ecash press release
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Sender: owner-e-payments@python.commerce.net
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Addressed to: e-payments@commerce.net
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For General Release
24 October 1996

ADVANCE BANK FIRST TO PROVIDE DIGICASH'S ECASH(tm)
SYSTEM IN AUSTRALIA


Advance Bank and DigiCash Pty Ltd today announced that
Advance will be the first bank in the Asia-Pacific region to
issue electronic cash on the Internet.

Advance will issue ecash denominated in Australian dollars
in a move that will greatly benefit Internet commerce in
Australia by making secure payments on the network a reality.
The system will be piloted with Advance Bank and BankSA
customers and merchants.

Other licensees of the ecash system include Mark Twain
Bank (USA), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Merita Bank/EUnet
(Finland) and Posten (Sweden).

Currently, shopping on the Internet usually requires the
sending of credit card details over computer networks but
credit card transactions are relatively expensive and therefore
are not efficient for low value purchases.

DigiCash's patented ecash system allows payment of
amounts as low as one cent, and all payments are made with
the security technology currently used by large financial
institutions for international money transfers.

"This launch in Australia represents an important collaboration
between the premier electronic cash company and the leading
Internet bank in a country that is very advanced in Internet
usage," said Dr. David Chaum, inventor of electronic cash and
founder of DigiCash. He added "Internet users have come to
understand the unique ability of the ecash electronic cash
system to empower them, using their own computers, to
protect their own privacy. And leading banks in the region, and
globally, are beginning to observe this and see the strategic
importance of operating their own electronic cash systems."

"Advance Bank is reinforcing its position as Australia's leading
Internet bank with this move.  Our customers can already use
Internet Banking to access statements of accounts, transfer
money between accounts and pay bills. Now, Internet Banking
will be complemented by electronic cash, realising the concept
of the virtual ATM on the Internet," said David Brown,
Advance's head of Public Affairs.

Ecash is the only Internet payment system that creates
actual electronic cash. This concept increases security and
reduces transaction costs. It gives more control to the user of
the system and provides consumer privacy.  It  also helps the
merchant, as payments are authenticated and finalised at the
time of purchase, avoiding uncertainty and delays in payment.

The system is a great opportunity for merchants selling low
cost goods, information and services online.

Andreas Furche, Managing Director of DigiCash Pty Ltd, said:
"This is particularly good news for companies wanting to sell
digital goods such as information, software, or database
access. These merchants can set up shops that automatically
provide services and collect money.

"Since even low value payments are possible, newspapers
could, for example, sell digital versions of their different
sections separately, so that the user could choose to buy only
the business and the sport sections, or even single articles at a
time," he said.

Advance Bank and DigiCash Pty Ltd expect to make ecash
available to users of Advance Bank's Internet Banking system
by Christmas.

Advance Bank has prepared an information kit for merchants
and companies interested in selling their goods and services
for electronic cash over the Internet.  This can be obtained
from Advance's web site at:
www.advance.com.au/advance/ecash/

Further Information:

David Brown
Advance Bank
Head of Public Affairs

Telephone:	02 9236 1050

Andreas Furche
Managing Director
DigiCash Pty Ltd

Telephone:	02 9375 2316


DIGICASH BACKGROUND - www.digicash.com

History and Mission

Since beginning operation in April 1990, DigiCash's mission
and primary activity has been: to develop and license payment
technology products - chip card, software only, and hybrid--
that both show the true capability of technology to protect the
interests of all participants and are competitive in the market.

Founder

Dr David Chaum, Chairman of DigiCash, received his Ph. D.
in Computer Science from the University of California at
Berkeley.  He taught at New York  University Graduate School
of Business Administration and at the University  of California,
and headed the Cryptography Group at CWI, the Dutch
nationally- funded centre for research in mathematics and
computer science, before taking his current position. He has
published over 45 original technical articles on cryptography
and also founded the International Association for Cryptologic
Research.

DigiCash Products

Blue: smart card technology for EMV 7 prepaid with
dynamic public key

Conforms to joint Europay, Mastercard, Visa specifications;
multiple applications, including loyalty and closed systems;
superior data integrity in case of malicious/accidental
interference/interruption; requires only the smallest and most
proven chips, e.g. SC-24 or ST601; mask technology
licensing.

Cafe: smart card and card-accepting electronic wallet
project

Consortium of 12 other members founded and chaired by Dr.
Chaum of DigiCash; simulation, mask and first readers
developed by DigiCash; technology trial at the EC
headquarters building in participation with related open special
interest group and partially funded by the EC.

DyniCash highway-speed road-toll collection system
using smart cards

Chip card inserts into battery-powered dashboard unit;
reflected backscatter microwave technology by industry leader
Amtech; prepaid mode has user privacy; open and/or closed
pricing schemes; tested extensively in Japan; non-exclusive
licensing of the payment technology.


Ecash* software only electronic cash system for
Internet/email

Users download software that can make and receive
payments; protects users' money like travellers cheques and
privacy like coins; now operational after testing by over twenty
thousand users world-wide; Macintosh, MS-Windows and X-
Windows; any WWW browser; currently   Mark Twain Bank
issues ecash* in US dollars and Merita/EUnet issues digital
Finnish marks; Deutsche Bank has licensed ecash* to issue
electronic Deutsche Mark.  Posten has announced their
license and intention to issue Swedish Kroner.

Facility Card: complete facility management, smart-
card/reader system

Cash replacement, access control, and time/attendance
system; now in schools, hospitals, industry, offices, recreation;
interfaces to vending, point-of-sale, access control, copiers,
phones, gaming; downloadable 7 upgradeable readers work
on-line and/or off-line; over 100k cards in use in the
Netherlands; Mars Electronics International will launch it
globally later this year.



How does ecash* work?

Using ecash* is like using a virtual ATM (Automatic Teller
Machine). When you connect over the Internet and
authenticate your ownership of the account, you can withdraw
money electronically. Instead of giving you bank notes, you
are given digital cash which your software can store on your
PC's hard disk.

When you want to make a payment, you simply confirm the
amount, payee and description of goods.  Then with a mouse
click you tell your ecash* software to transfer cash of the
correct value from your PC direct to the payee. Merchants
(ranging from casual participants in the global Internet bazaar
to mega-retailers) can then deposit the digital cash into their
accounts.

Behind the user interface, your computer actually creates
'serial' numbers for the electronic cash based on a random
'seed'. Then it hides them in special encryption 'envelopes',
sends them to the electronic bank for 'signature' and, when
they are returned, removes the 'envelopes' (retaining the
bank's validating digital signature on the 'serial' numbers). This
way, when the bank eventually receives your cash, it cannot
recognise them as coming from any particular withdrawal or
account' because all cash are hidden from the bank during the
withdrawal process. Therefore the bank cannot know when or
where you shop, who you pay or what you buy.

The serial number of each signed coin is unique, so that the
bank can be sure that it never accepts the same coin twice. If
you wish to identify the recipient of any of your payments, you
may reveal the unique coin number and use your ecash*
software to prove that you created it and set the bank to
confirm who deposited it. Your software can also re-create the
serial numbers and 'envelopes' from the 'seed' that you wrote
down when installing your account, thereby allowing all your
cash to be re-created if your PC fails.

How safe is Ecash*?

Security is fundamental to electronic cash. The cryptographic
coding that protects every 5 cent ecash payment is the same
as that routinely relied upon for authenticating requests to
move huge sums between banks and even for national
security. But in principle ecash goes beyond such
communications security to achieve true multiparty security;
no one (buyer, seller, bank) can cheat anyone else, no matter
how they might modify their own software. Even if two parties
collude, they cannot cheat the third.

Replacing paper and cash with ecash* would make life
harder for criminals. Because the payer's computer chooses
the 'serial' numbers of the cash as mentioned above), users
can identify receivers of their ecash*. Moreover, the privacy
which ecash offers would be essential to widespread
acceptance of any electronic payment system.


--
Andreas Furche					Level 29 Chifley Towers
Managing Director				2 Chifley Square
DigiCash Pty. Ltd.				Sydney 2000, Australia
e-mail: andreas@digicash.com			ph  +61 2 375 2316
mobile (0419) 385 569 (NEW number!)		fax +61 2 375 2121


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-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"The cost of anything is the foregone alternative" -- Walter Johnson
The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/