[13434] in Cypherpunks
Re: Why Digital Cash is Not Being Used
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Peter Wayner)
Tue May 10 18:54:21 1994
Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 18:52:59 -0400
To: nelson@crynwr.com (Russell Nelson)
From: pcw@access.digex.net (Peter Wayner)
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
> Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 11:48:18 -0800
> From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
>
> - Digital Postage. This remains my favorite. There's a _need_ for
> untraceable payments (else why use a remailer?). I've written about this
> extensively, as have others.
>
I should point out that Pitney Bowes has a patent on using digital signatures
and RSA to "sign" a postal meter application. The patent begins by noting
that postal meters are literally machines that print money. It goes on
to show how to control this with digital signatures. There is some kind
of bar code applied to the stamp. My impression is that getting the info
density on the envelope is a bit of a problem with the invention. But I'm
not sure.
