[Webfunds-users] it works!

Sun Sep 5 14:34:30 1999

> How centralized is it?

The issuer is a single server, so I guess that qualifies
as centralised.  WebFunds is capable of talking to any
number of issuers, so the financial system as a whole is
not centralised.  There is another issuer being run somewhere,
and when we get a contract out of it, we'll probably shove
that in the distribution (this will be a play contract, not
a for-value one).

> I notice the client connects to the server for
> almost every mouse action.

Yes, although it should cache more of the information.

> Is it possible to operate in disconnected
> mode?  I mean, I can write digigold even if I don't have enough, by just
> saying OK to the warning that I might be overdrawn.  Can I do this without
> being connected to the Internet?

You can write payments without being disconnected, but I've
not tried it with the current WebFunds.

> What patents?

The infamous blinding patents are held by a company in
Canada somewhere.  These formulas allow you to sign something
without seeing the contents, so the mint (what we call the
issuer) can then sign a payment, deduct the value, and the
client can unblind the signature to reveal a valid signed
payment that the mint has never seen.

There are (many) alternatives, and the method used by Ricardo
is one.  I won't list the alternatives, because apparently,
most of the world doesn't see it, so it becomes valuable IP
assuming they work of course :)

> In the digigold contract, it says that digigold is backed by 25% e-gold,
> and the rest can be "interest-bearing securities."  Why?

The precise makeup of the contract is outside my ambit, you'll
notice that Systemics or myself don't promise anything in there
(except to keep the accounting safe).

In the case of DigiGold, the legal issuers have decided that
in order to pay for the costs of running a currency, they will
place some proportion of the value where it earns interest.  This
is in complete contrast to e-gold, where the metal sits there and
costs.

You will probably notice from your transactions, that each one
cost nothing.  There are no fees in the DigiGold currency.  So
somewhere along the line there has to be enough money to pay
for the servers and the lawyer's time and all the other costs.
By sticking some of the float into securities, this is how the
company DigiGold.net decided how to pay for it.  There are of
course other possibilities.

iang