[Cryptography] [ANNOUNCE] HashCash Digital Cash

Ashish Gulhati crypto at ashish.neomailbox.com
Fri Jun 23 15:29:45 EDT 2017


> On Jun 23, 2017, at 9:25 AM, Rune K. Svendsen <runesvend at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> If it involves contacting the issuer to ask for validity,

Yes, to verify a coin hasn’t been double-spent, you need to exchange it for a new
coin with the vault.

> what's the point of having a digital instrument serve as cash, when you need to query a server for its validity anyway? That's not very cash-like.

It is cash-like in all ways except that one (in which it’s digital-cash-like). It still 
provides most benefits of cash (other than completely offline use):

- Permissionless
- Fungible
- Transaction privacy
- Instant, non-repudiable payments
- No ID requirement, anonymous
- No record of transactions (this is distinct from tx privacy)
- Ease of use
- Security (even for regular non-geek users)
- Direct P2P in-person payments by physical transfer of coins
- Scalable to planet / galaxy scale

[#] also offers many benefits of digital cash that paper cash doesn’t:

- Free-market dynamics with competing vaults (also means options for users)
- Total privacy (paper banknotes have trackable individual serial numbers)
- More secure (coins can be encrypted)
- Can be sent globally, instantly, over any communications channel
- Zero volume, weightless (paper cash takes up space / has mass)
- Theft/water/fire/damage proof (coins can be copied for backup purposes)
- Not a biohazard vector
 
Completely offline use is also possible (between people who trust each other
to not double-spend coins). That actually covers a surprisingly large number
of use-cases. But the data transfer / time required to verify a coin is so low, unless
there’s a real issue with Internet access, there’s no reason not to verify coins 
immediately when they’re received.

If Internet access really is a problem, as in remote, disconnected communities
(and it’s true, this actually is the situation of billions of people) local vaults 
running on local networks are the solution. Coins could also be verified over SMS 
with SMS gateways to vaults. It’d also be easy to tie in local community [#] systems 
with global systems: the local users use the local vaults, and the local vaults 
connect up to global vaults.

Now that’s the real Internet of money.

Cheers

#!



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