Security clampdown on the home PC banknote forgers

[bear]

On Tue, 8 Jun 2004, Axel H Horns wrote:

>Hmm hmmm ... and what about Open Source graphics software like Gimp?
>
>  http://www.gimp.org/
>
>Will Gimp be banned because of everybody can throw out the call to the
>banknote detection routine?
>
>Will the banknote detection software be made publicly available to the
>Gimp developer team?
>
>Questions over questions ...

Probably not; instead, the banknote detection stuff will probably be
pushed out to tamper-resistant hardware ROMs in the printers, where
it's *NOT* under the control of anything running on a general-purpose
computer.  Because, really, nothing prevents someone from building
their own electronic device from scratch and attaching it to the
printer. The logic has to be something you can't use the printer
without, and that means built into it.

This is actually a lot less annoying than something like Palladium,
where people want remote restriction on a general-purpose PC.  If
it's pushed out to the printing hardware, there's no need to restrict
the architecture of a general-purpose machine.

Of course, there is such a thing as money that really and truly
*can't* be counterfeited.  Elements such as gold, or other rare
commodities, for example, cannot be faked; something either is gold,
or it isn't.  Also, useful objects and consumables in general cannot
be faked; something either is useful, or it isn't.

Fiat currencies are based on artificially imposed rarity, and
increasingly people are able to overcome the artificial impositions.
Wouldn't it be a stitch if nations were forced to re-adopt the gold
standard (or adopt the chocolate standard) because all their bills
(and SmartCoins, and RFID tokens, and ....) could be counterfeited?

				Bear

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at metzdowd.com