[2370] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Blind Signatures Digital Cash in Russia?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Wed Mar 25 18:00:36 1998
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 15:19:11 -0500
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net, dbs@philodox.com, e$@vmeng.com, dcsb@ai.mit.edu
So, I'm talking to somebody from Russia about the wonders of digital bearer
settlement recently :-), and this morning he comes back to me saying he's
starting to hear of several people there who are planning on issuing
Chaumian blind signature digital cash, with payee anonymity, even.
I don't know if they're denominating things in dollars, or rubles, or what,
and I certainly don't know if this is really true, which is why I'm here
asking you guys here about it.
I always thought (though I now don't know why I think so) that the blind
signature patent holds in Russia, but, as the world's only um,
anarchocapitalist, society ;-), Russians may honor patents in the breach
more often than not. Lots of out of work cryptographers in Russia, I bet. I
mean, they did Tetris, and Elvis+ (such as it was; their failure was our
fault, not theirs), could RussoDollars be next?
I'm not saying that Russia's a cakewalk these days, but it *is* interesting
to note the current Russian state (or lack thereof) is about as old as the
commercial internet, that not many people use Moscow city phone system
because there are 22 voraciously competing cellphone companies, etc., and,
finally, that Moscow has *lots* of Cirrus ATM machines, which means that
our money can go there. :-).
In the interest of brevity, we'll ignore their, um, geodesic market for
armed personal force for the time being, but maybe things have calmed down
now that their mafia has figured out they can do all the "hostile" bank
takeovers they want, but ownership doesn't a bank make...
Anyway, I haven't heard of a Russian ecash licensee, certainly.
Does anyone on these lists know of anyone in Russia -- or anywhere else in
the old Soviet Union -- who's doing fully anonymous Chaumian
blind-signature digital cash, with a patent license or not?
If done in dollars, all that seignorage, and there would be bunches just in
Russia alone, would be a boon for the Russian balance of payments account,
certainly. In addition to Russians not having to haul those pictures of Ben
around, Americans, and the rest of the world, for that matter, could start
to safely keep and spend their cash on the net, while, of course, earning
some Russian entrepreneur both purchase premia and seignorage.
Irony, thy name might be Russia?
Naaawwww....
Cheers,
Bob Hettinga
-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/
