The End of the Ecash Trial?

I have yet to see a date, but Digicash states several times in their
press releases that Cyberbucks are only a trial currency, and that at
some point in the future the trial will come to an end.

Will the bottom drop out of the c$ market at that point? Without
Digicash to authenticate currency, it would appear to be impossible to
trade c$ coins. If and when Digicash announces an end date for the
trial, I would expect to see quite a spectacular crash in the "real
cash for ecash" market.

The only way to preserve the market would appear to be providing an
ecash-for-ecash exchange with a new bank, presumably a licensee of the
Digicash software. Such a bank could, out of little more than good
will and a desire to kick-start a new e-currency, offer to exchange c$
for the new ecash. Or, perhaps we just shrug our shoulders, kiss our
hardly-earned Cyberbuck goodbye, and mumble about how it was fun while
it lasted.

Either way, in order to preserve the new e-currency's value -- and
correct my economics where flawed -- we need the assurance that the
money supply will not experience unreasonable growth. The ecash trial
has Digicash's promise of a c$1M cap; is this trust sufficient
leverage for the user to leave any amount of value in the Cyberbuck,
or its successor?

nathan

From: Nathan Loofbourrow <loofbour@cis.ohio-state.edu>
   Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 12:35:39 -0400

   I have yet to see a date, but Digicash states several times in their
   press releases that Cyberbucks are only a trial currency, and that at
   some point in the future the trial will come to an end.

   Will the bottom drop out of the c$ market at that point?

Will there be a collectors market for c$? Does Chaumian cash work
as collectable antiques? What is the difference in value of a "real"
signed Mickey Mantle baseball card vs. one mechanically imprinted?
Will "original" digical cash have the cachet normally associated with
obsolescent objects consisting primarily of protons and neutrons? How
much will the "provenance" of my e-cash be worth? I am assuming that
the provenance of e-cash will be the same credentials which made it
unforgable in the first place; presumably a (hobbyist?) organization
will maintain the books determining authenticity, with an obvious
self-interest to keep it afloat.

So what happens if a collectors market for antique e-cash springs up? Or
is this even conceptually possible? Or is is possible only if enough
people to make a market believe it is possible? Will Digicash open their
books or transfer them to the Smithsonian (or the computer museum) or
something? Is there a market value for the obsolete c$ database? I
wouldn't think so, but...

-- 
david taffs <dat@ebt.com>

David Taffs writes:
 > Will there be a collectors market for c$? Does Chaumian cash work
 > as collectable antiques?

Not if no authority exists to certify that your coins are
unspent. Otherwise, I can just keep trading my coins back and forth to
Digicash and saving copies of the used ones.

nathan

>The only way to preserve the market would appear to be providing an
>ecash-for-ecash exchange with a new bank, presumably a licensee of the
>Digicash software. Such a bank could, out of little more than good
>will and a desire to kick-start a new e-currency, offer to exchange c$
>for the new ecash. Or, perhaps we just shrug our shoulders, kiss our
>hardly-earned Cyberbuck goodbye, and mumble about how it was fun while
>it lasted.

Well I might be interested in setting up such a scheme, but I'm not sure
that the Chaumian Annonymity guarantees could be provided as is. This is 
because of Chaum's patent on blind signatures.

There are schemes which offer weaker annonymity and also schemes which provide 
for faster movement of currency.

The scheme I am currently looking at employs both symmetric and asymmetric 
keying to provide for fast transfers of cash after a connection is set up. The 
mode of payment is of the fraction of cents per page type so RSA is too 
expensive.

Who would be interested in such a trial? Who would be interested in writing 
code? There are complications if the Web consortium is involved since we are 
obliged to provide code to our members one month in advance of the official 
release. But that is for source I beleive, I don't think that there would be a 
problem with trial users or with exchanging code with collaborators. After the 
one month period all consortium code becomes copyright but freely avaliable for 
use for any purpose, its the X consortium contract in fact.


Cyberbucks could be siphoned out of the Chaum system by simply agreeing to 
exchange e-cash for whatever the new currency is. It would also be possible to 
go in the other direction perhaps, "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the 
sum of one cyberbuck".

Since most cyberbuck users are looking to control access to a resource its not 
clear that the cyberbuck model is what is needed. It might be possible to deploy 
a resource contention arbitration mechanism which was not convertible. This 
would also avoid many of the regulatory problems of e-cash.


		Phill