[fc-discuss] Financial Cryptography Update: On Digital Cash-like Payment Systems

cyphrpunk cyphrpunk at gmail.com
Wed Oct 19 02:27:53 EDT 2005


>  Just presented at ICETE2005 by Daniel Nagy:
>
>  http://www.epointsystem.org/~nagydani/ICETE2005.pdf
>
>  Abstract.  In present paper a novel approach to on-line payment is
>  presented that tackles some issues of digital cash that have, in the
>  author s opinion, contributed to the fact that despite the availability
>  of the technology for more than a decade, it has not achieved even a
>  fraction of the anticipated popularity. The basic assumptions and
>  requirements for such a system are revisited, clear (economic)
>  objectives are formulated and cryptographic techniques to achieve them
>  are proposed.

This is a thorough and careful paper but the system has no blinding
and so payments are traceable and linkable. The standard technique of
inserting dummy transfers is proposed, but it is not clear that this
adds real privacy. Worse, it appears that the database showing which
coins were exchanged for which is supposed to be public, making this
linkage information available to everyone, not just banking insiders.

Some aspects are similar to Dan Simon's proposed ecash system from
Crypto 96, in particular using knowledge of a secret such as a hash
pre-image to represent possession of the cash. Simon's system is
covered by patent number 5768385 and the ePoint system may need to
step carefully around that patent.  See
http://www.mail-archive.com/cpunks@einstein.ssz.com/msg04483.html for
further critique of Simon's approach.

CP

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