From: Steve Schear <azur@netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 01:11:11 +0800
To: Ryan Lackey <cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: mondex
In-Reply-To: <199707181026.GAA01342@the-great-machine.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <v03102814aff5515737fd@[10.0.2.15]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 6:26 AM -0400 7/18/97, Ryan Lackey wrote:
>It would be kind of impressive in a way if Mondex were lame about
>allowing other currencies to proliferate free of state influences, yet
>managed to get the basic technology employed around the world, then some
>cypherpunkish group came up with their own cards, a little bit of
>software, etc. and then issued currency with more behind it than Mondex
>franchisees, had higher profits than Mondex, and then were to be the
>only currencies anyone would trust after the collapse of a few state-backed
>currencies.  Also, I'd trust the cypherpunkish crowd to do a better job
>of hardware and software design for the cards and system, so they're
>likely to be more secure in that fashion as well.
>
>Am I being utterly out of touch with reality, or only tangential to it?

Actually Doug Barnes, C2, gave a brief but excellent rump session talk at
FC '97 pointing out that Mondex could be a near ideal way to pay for fully
anonymous e$, since settlement can be offline, immediate, and
non-repudiatable.

--Steve