CHA_cha

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   Worth Magazine, October, 1995, has a longish, easy-reading,
   supportive article on David Chaum and digital cash.

      Virtually alone among E-money thinkers, Chaum insists on
      creating anonymity for all transactions -- building a
      tamper-proof system that works just as "real" cash
      always has, from cowne shells to $100 bills. The key, he
      says, is this: Without the spender's say-so, no one
      should be able to trace who paid whom for what, whether
      a transaction takes place online or in a swipe of a card
      at a coffee shop. It's a libertarian approach in tune
      with Chaum's roots in freewheeling communities such as
      Berkeley and Amsterdam -- but it is anathema to control
      freaks like the FBI, the IRS, and corporate information
      marketers.

      Chaum says every digital-cash system but his has the
      potential to be abused or compromised -- and the math
      seems to bear him out. His competitors, however, insist
      their plans will prove plenty secure in practice. They
      dismiss Chaum as an incorrigible purist, a brilliant
      mathematician and innovator whose political views are
      hindering his chances of success.

      Like many in the digital elite, Chaum, an unabashed
      utopian, does want to create a new world. To him,
      electronic money is just the first consumer use of an
      arcane field he hopes will transform society:
      cryptology, the science of secret codes. In cyberspace,
      these codes can prove a powerful way of shielding a
      person's identity -- or of verifying an identity without
      giving away extra information. Armed with personal
      computers and good software, says Chaum, ordinary people
      will finally have the power to do and say things without
      being tracked by Big Brother.


   CHA_cha  (31 kb in two parts)