Re: backing?

[swc@uc1.ucsu.edu (Stuart W. Card)]

I propose a simple basis for digicash: gold.
REAL gold in a depositary, for which the digicash is
basically a warehouse receipt.  Try this:

Alice purchases 10 ounces of gold and puts it in Bob the Banker's
account at a depositary institution (like the big one in Zurich
that holds much of the world's physical gold).  When she makes
the deposit, she annotates the transaction with an encrypted
message to Bob saying "This deposit from <long random number>."
Alice then logs into Bob's public access system with a pseudonymous
account (automatically generated by Bob's hacked login software).
Alice sends another message to Bob saying "Hey, that deposit you
got from <long randome number> was from me: pseudonym."
Bob issues digicash to <pseudonym> (not knowing this is Alice),
and Alice happily spends the money under a DIFFERENT pseudonym.

OK, fire away, my head is down :-)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stuart W. Card, Consultant, Card & Associates -- Research & Development
Box 153 RR 1 Newport Rd Utica NY 13502         315-735-1717 / FAX -8469
swc@uc1.ucsu.edu or cards@top.cis.syr.edu           "Who is John Galt?"