Users must be assured that they cannot be easily duped or swindled, or be falsely implicated in a fraudulent transaction. Users must be protected against eavesdroppers, impostors, and counterfeiters. For many types of transactions, trusted third-party agents will be needed to serve this purpose. All of these features depend on cryptography and secure hardware in varying degrees. Cross Industry Working Team, Electronic Cash, Tokens, and Payments in the National Information Infrastructure, Corporation for National Research Initiatives, Reston, Va., 1994.
Digital cash raises many basic questions.
Apart from such questions, digital cash also raises policy issues that are part of cryptography policy writ large. Based largely on the reference in footnote 1, the discussion below sketches some of the main issues. The technology of digital cash will support essentially any degree of anonymity desired. Such anonymity is not generally possible for other types of electronic payment vehicles. On the other hand, anonymous perpetrators of crimes cannot be identified and apprehended.