Re: A cryptographic alternative to escrow agents (Matts' half coin)

[Black Unicorn <unicorn@schloss.li>]

On Fri, 17 May 1996, Matts Kallioniemi wrote:

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> 
> 
> Black Unicorn wrote (was: Why does the state still stand)
> 
> >> .  What if a company does not pay as expected - other than adopting
> >> Assassination Politics, what method could an employee use towards
> >> getting their expected remuneration for work done?
> >
> >If payment is made weekly, it should be made in advance to an escrow agent
> >who would issue a certificate that the payment for employee r2dd54 has
> >been received.  The payment would then not be released to anyone without
> >the consent of the corporation and the employee.
> >
> >Obviously the escrow agent would have to be trusted.
> 
> It should be possible to avoid that trusted escrow agent using blinded
> ecash and Matts' half coin algorithm.
> 
> Bob wants to buy a $100 service from Alice. Alice wants to get paid if she
> performs the service.
> 
> Bob and Alice each create half of a $300 ecash coin. They send their half
> coins to the ecash mint for signing, with instructions to withdraw $200
> from Bob's account and $100 from Alice's account for the signing of a
> $300 coin.
> 
> When the mint has received both half coins, it signs the complete coin,
> withdraws the money and returns the signature to both Alice and Bob.
> Nobody can now use the coin alone because they don't know the other half
> of the random coin number.

The mint is the escrow agent.  It still (obviously) needs to be trusted.

---
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