[43745] in Cypherpunks
ecash protocol: Part 1
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ian Goldberg)
Tue Nov 21 16:51:03 1995
From: Ian Goldberg <iang@cory.EECS.Berkeley.EDU>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 1995 13:46:42 -0800 (PST)
Well, I dropped off the net for a few days due to a midterm, but I'm
back now...
Last week, I was taking a look at the ecash protocol (no, I don't have a copy;
I have a binary, which I can't even run...).
I've managed to decipher a useful bit of the first message sent from
the shop to the payer. It's the Payment Request, and contains the following
information:
o Header identifying packet as Payment Request
o The integer 4
o The payment amount, in cents
o The time (seconds since 1970)
o The integer 79
o The name of the shop (payee)
o A description of the item being paid for
o An empty string
o The integer 0
o End of Record marker
I don't know what the 4, 79, empty string, and 0 are for. I assume one
of them (probably the 4) is some indication of currency (US cents).
I can provide a byte-level description of the record, if people want.
I guess the important bit is that the payee, the item being bought,
and the cost are sent _in the clear_. Some of the people I've talked
to think this is a huge privacy breach, and some don't. You all can
debate this now. Lucky can, if he wishes, add insight, and/or tell us
what DC may do about this.
I'll try to figure out the rest of the fields, and some of the other
messages (like the payment itself).
- Ian "Why exactly isn't DigiCash releasing the protocol? What about
the source?"
