12.16.1. Encrypted open books, or anonymous auditing
- Eric Hughes has worked on a scheme using a kind of blinding
to do "encrypted open books," whereby observers can verify
that a bank is balancing its books without more detailed
looks at individual accounts. (I have my doubts about
spoofs, attacks, etc., but such are always to be considered
in any new protocol.)
- "Kent Hastings wondered how an offshore bank could provide
assurances to depositors. I wondered the same thing a few
months ago, and started working on what Perry calls the
anonymous auditing problem. I have what I consider to be
the core of a solution.
...The following is long.... [TCM Note: Too long to include
here. I am including just enough to convince readers that
some new sorts of banking ideas may come out of
cryptography.]
"If we use the contents of the encrypted books at the
organizational boundary points to create suitable legal
opbligations, we can mostly ignore what goes on inside of
the mess of random numbers. That is, even if double books
were being kept, the legal obligations created should
suffice to ensure that everything can be unwound if needed.
This doesn't prevent networks of corrupt businesses from
going down all at once, but it does allow networks of
honest businesses to operate with more assurance of
honesty." [Eric Hughes, PROTOCOL: Encrypted Open Books,
1993-08-16]
12.16.2. "How can software components be sold, and how does crypto
figure in?"
+ Reusable Software, Brad Cox, Sprague, etc.
- good article in "Wired" (repeated in "Out of Control")
- First, certainly software is sold. The issues is why the
"software components" market has not yet developed, and why
such specific instances of software as music, art, text,
etc., have not been sold in smaller chunks.
+ Internet commerce is a huge area of interest, and future
development.
- currently developing very slowly
- lots of conflicting information...several mailing
lists...lots of hype
+ Digital cash is often cited as a needed enabling tool, but
I think the answer is more complicated than that.
- issues of convenience
- issues of there being no recurring market (as there is
in, say, the chip business...software doesn't get bought
over and over again, in increasing unit volumes)
By Tim May, see README
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