At 12:34 AM -0500 on 2/9/00, Adam Shostack wrote:
> Anyway, has anyone taken a look at what the system offers? It looks
> to us like its covered by Chaum's blinding patent. They even call the
> functions in schemas 1 & 2 "B" and "U", apparently for blinding and
> unblinding.
My understanding, at least from the short presentation they gave at DCSB
this month, is that it's a form of blinded "passbooks" in the same way that
old checking accounts used to operate. It's geodesic (it requires no
hierarchy of intermediaries, just a single one) it's book-entry, not
bearer, though like mondex smart cards, you could transfer passbooks. It
seems that different intermediaries can sign different records, so it's not
"proprietary", or at least monopolistic.
It does remind me, somehow, of Eric Hughes' encrypted (blinded?) "open"
books scheme a little bit.
Finally, the blinding happens on highly distributed record entries, and not
on bearer instruments, and, while I wouldn't be surprised if Chaum's
blinding patent applies, it *is* used in a different context, and, not
having studied the patent enough to say this, of course, maybe the blind
signature patent doesn't cover it.
They said they have a patent in Russia on it.
They're looking to come to the US as well.
Interesting times, indeed.
Cheers,
RAH
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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'
