12.12.1. What is Magic Money?
- "Magic Money is a digital cash system designed for use over
electronic mail. The system is online and untraceable.
Online means that each transaction involves an exchange
with a server, to prevent double-spending. Untraceable
means that it is impossible for anyone to trace
transactions, or to match a withdrawal with a deposit, or
to match two coins in any way."
"The system consists of two modules, the server and the
client. Magic Money uses the PGP ascii-armored message
format for all communication between the server and client.
All traffic is encrypted, and messages from the server to
the client are signed. Untraceability is provided by a
Chaum-style blind signature. Note that the blind signature
is patented, as is RSA. Using it for experimental purposes
only shouldn't get you in trouble.
"Digicash is represented by discrete coins, the
denominations of which are chosen by the server operator.
Coins are RSA-signed, with a different e/d pair for each
denomination. The server does not store any money. All
coins are stored by the client module. The server accepts
old coins and blind- signs new coins, and checks off the
old ones on a spent list."
[...rest of excellent summary elided...highly recommended
that you dig it up (archives, Web site?) and read it]
[Pr0duct Cypher, Magic Money Digicash System, 1992-02-04]
+ Magic Money
- ftp://csn.org/pub/mpj/crypto_XXXXXX (or something like
that) <Derek Atkins, 4-7-94>
- ftp:csn.org//mpj/I_will_not_export/crypto_???????/pgp_too
ls <Michael Paul Johnson, 4-7-94>
12.12.2. Matt Thomlinson experimented with a derivative version called
"GhostMarks"
12.12.3. there was also a "Tacky Tokens" derivative
12.12.4. Typical Problems with Such Experiments
- Not worth anything...making the money meaningful is an
obstacle to be overcome
- If worth anything, not worth the considerable effort to use
it ("creating Magic Money clients" and other scary Unix
stuff!)
- robustness...sites go down, etc.
- same problems were seen on Extropians list with "HEx"
exchange and its currency, the "thorne." (I even paid real
money to Edgar Swank to buy some thorned...alas, the market
was too thinly traded and the thornes did me no good.)
By Tim May, see README
HTML by Jonathan Rochkind