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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
For cryptographic techniquesfor implementing secure electronic cash systems. Several innovative paymentschemes providing user anonymity and payment untraceability have been found.Although no particular payment system has been thoroughly analyzed, thecryptography itself appears to be sound and to deliver the promised anonymity.These schemes are far less satisfactory, however, from a law enforcementpoint of view. In particular, the dangers of money laundering and counterfeitingare potentially far more serious than with paper cash. These problems existin any electronic payment system, but they are made much worse by the presenceof anonymity. Indeed, the widespread use of electronic cash would increasethe vulnerability of the national financial system to Information Warfareattacks. We discuss measures to manage these risks; these steps, however,would have the effect of limiting the users' anonymity.This report is organized in the following manner. Chapter 1 defines the basicconcepts surrounding electronic payment systems and electronic cash. Chapter2 provides the reader with a high level cryptographic description of electroniccash protocols in terms of basic authentication mechanisms. Chapter 3 technicallydescribes specific implementations that have been proposed in the academicliterature. In Chapter 4, the optional features of transferability anddivisibility for off-line electronic cash are presented. Finally, in Chapter5 the security issues associated with electronic cash are discussed.The authors of this paper wish to acknowledge the following people for theircontribution to this research effort through numerous discussions and reviewof this paper: Kevin Igoe, John Petro, Steve Neal, and Mel Currie. 1. WHAT IS ELECTRONIC CASH? We begin by carefully defining "electronic cash." This term is often appliedto any electronic
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