[2448] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Blind Signatures Digital Cash in Russia?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dale R. Worley)
Tue Apr 7 15:04:00 1998
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 21:43:45 -0400
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net, cryptography@c2.net, dbs@philodox.com,
e$@vmeng.com, dcsb@ai.mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <v04003a67b13f0ba2b6ab@[139.167.130.246]> (rah@shipwright.com)
From: worley@ariadne.com (Dale R. Worley)
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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.
Patents are granted by individual States, and are valid only in those
States. So unless Chaum has filed in Russia, he's probably out of
luck. And that works only if Russia issues (and enforces) patents on
algorithms, anyway.
More likely would be trouble over the fact that Russia regulates
cryptography, at least in theory, and you'd need a license from the
government. That might be enforced by the intelligence agencies,
which are probably still quite efficient.
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.
It might be a large enough body of e-money to affect the overall money
supply of dollars, since there would be no limit to issuing money that
wasn't backed by reserves. That could be ... messy.
Dale
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