Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: kmfkewm on February 25, 2012, 12:19 am
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http://voices.yahoo.com/siddley-inc-unveils-anonymous-digital-currency-7420634.html
This has been in development for several years and I hear that Pecunix is about to start using it.
This is certainly going to be the model that is the future of traditional, gold backed E-currency systems. Should offer bitcoin significant competition too, considering it actually has strong anonymity built into it and also is backed by gold so wont have price fluctuations. I wonder if they can resist government trying to shut them down, I am kind of amazed Pecunix in its current state has not been shut down to be honest, but they seem to know all the legal loopholes required to not technically break any laws.
Design Goals guiding the Siddley team.
1. The system must not be account-based, but constitute a true digital bearer certificate exchange system, where digital wallets exist but accounts do not.
2. To engender user trust in the system, it must be 100% open source, not only for our code but for any code packages or libraries which are utilized.
3. The system must be distributed so that it cannot be shut down by highly organized crime.
4. All data must be encrypted, and handled in such a way that the user does not need to trust any of the system operators. (The sole exception being the Issuer, which must be trusted to store bona fide backing assets.)
5. Payments must be irrevocable, and untraceable. It must be physically impossible for any component, even the VP, to provide a transaction history for any user. That which is impossible cannot be compelled. (See goals 1 and 3.)
6. The system architecture must provide inherent economic benefits to its operators, while minimizing costs to users.
7. To mitigate the threats of DDoS, spam, and easy traffic analysis, HTTP browser and email traffic should be avoided.
8. Given the increasing ubiquity of wireless handheld devices such as web-enabled cell phones, it is desirable not to restrict users needlessly to the desktop environment.
The voucher-safe system is now ready to release as a public beta, using sample money, and completely detached from any other DGC.
It's very important to grasp the fact that voucher-safe is NOT a branch of a DGC, or related to any other DGC. It's an entirely separate software entity.
Any DGC company that backs a voucher is simply partnering with voucher-safe to facilitate a reputable issue that can be trusted and is reliable. This combination is a business relationship that will allow evolved digital gold platforms to continue and operate without taking on the associated P2P payment risks. This is also a very important issue, as we have seen the kind of problems that emerged with e-gold.
We are now at a very special point in Internet payment history as this is a new paradigm, where the issuer and storage facility is NOT involved in payments, and consequently is not a target for immoral authorities. This is an absolute necessity and Voucher-safe.org is the first one of its kind.
The average DGC user would open a vouchersafe and buy vouchers from an exchanger, or sell vouchers to an exchanger... he might never even visit the issuer or digital gold platform that backs the vouchers.
This is a brief interview with one of the designers at Siddley Inc.
(Q) Regarding the new Voucher-Safe Open Source software. Will that only be integrated with one digital gold platform or will the new software be available to integrate with any other digital precious metals or currencies? What I'm really asking is, if next week I come out with [Mark Herpel Gold], MHgold.com, a clone of Pecunix or e-gold, would it be technically possible to use Voucher-safe software with my MHgold product? Could the Voucher-Safe platform spawn a dozen new digital currencies?
The short answer is yes, but under strict supervision.
Independent issuers will need to fit within an acceptable governance and trust regime that we designate. We will maintain full control of the voucher publishing function.
The voucher safe client software will be released as open source for peer review, but the developers have agreed that other components of the system (such as the voucher publisher) will not be released until some time in the future. We need to ensure that the voucher-safe system does indeed stay safe and trustworthy with reputable issuers so it's name doesn't get tarnished.
(Q) Do you anticipate that Voucher-Safe products will be well received by existing third party exchange agents?
I see no reason why not. They are secure, private, and easy to use and the potential for profit is the same as any other exchange product. My perception is that exchangers are driven to support the products their customers request. If there are customers using voucher-safe the exchangers will support them.
(Q) How about retail customers... do you feel this product will be well liked?
Retail customers are as likely to take to the vouchersafe as they have taken to Pecunix or other digital currency systems. These all remain niche products that serve a special purpose for those who use them.
The voucher-safe system is in many ways like a digital cash, with the privacy benefits of cash and the convenience benefits of on-line payment. There are a number of internet markets that will benefit from the use of vouchers.
A phone based voucher-safe will also be developed soon, so that voucher payments can be made anywhere your phone connects to the internet. That will probably increase the uptake of the system and introduce it to new markets.
(Q) How long has Voucher-Safe been in development?
About 3 years now.
(Q) Where can I get more information on using Voucher-Safe and all the OS details?
There is a wiki site at http://www.voucher-safe.org that we plan as a portal to keep all the latest technical information up to date. There are also a number of user resources there, such as developer community forums and technical information. Voucher-safe.com is the place for the average user to get started. There they can get simple instructions to get started and avoid all the technical complexities that go on behind the scenes. They can also find help and tutorial resources there.
(Q) Can you briefly any relationship between Voucher-Safe and the digital gold platform that backs the vouchers?
The voucher-safe system is not integrated into the digital gold company at all, they are separate systems. The digital gold platform does however access the voucher-safe system to facilitate the voucher issue and redemption process. There will be a facility in the digital gold platform account that allows a verified user to convert some gold to a voucher and send it to a voucher-safe, or the reverse.
(Q) What level of security and privacy measures have been built into Voucher-Safe?
Voucher safe is extremely secure. It's designed from the bottom up using strong cryptography as the foundation. Privacy is as good as it gets.
Voucher-safe payments are peer to peer payments, there is no single server in between the two parties. Consequently there is no third party record of payments, only the two safes directly involved in the payment know the details of the transaction.
(Q) What can you tell me that should make me feel all warm and fuzzy about using this product?
If you care about security and privacy, there is absolutely nothing better than voucher safe at present. When you use an on-line payment system or money system you need to be able to trust the company that is providing the service. Pecunix has provided reliable and trustworthy service for more than 10 years and PXGold is the new offering from Pecunix that combines all the experience of those 10 years into issuing a better product.
Furthermore, the system has been designed such that one does not need to trust the system operators. That is, there is no component in the distributed system that could be hacked or seized or operated maliciously, which would compromise the security or anonymity of user transactions.
I should also mention that the software has been developed in Java specifically to be platform independent, so it should work well on any operating system that can run a recent Java Virtual Machine.
We have tested the voucher-safe extensively on Mac, various versions of Windows and multiple versions of Linux. Next year we will get to testing a version to run on the more popular smart phones.
(Q) Are there any close companion products that act like Voucher-Safe already on the market?
Not to my knowledge. There are other attempts at digital cash type payment systems, but none that have the experience, planning and reputation behind them like Pecunix. What we have here is a true digital wallet where each independent wallet holds specific digital vouchers that belong to the wallet owner; this is not a traditional account-based system and there is no "statement of account" anywhere.
I am unaware of any other digital cash like product that stores the cash and all records redundantly "in the cloud" so that the value is protected from any loss or crash of a computer/phone etc. Storing the value and transaction records in the cloud also means that the voucher-safe can be accessed from any computer that has an internet connection, anywhere, any time.
(Q) In other words is there any competition already operating?
Not that I know of.
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Super interesting currency, can't wait to see how it develops.
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"..the software has been developed in Java specifically to be platform independent, so it should work well on any operating system that can run a recent Java Virtual Machine..."
- great !!! java is great, lovely ..a nice slow app....and of course its secure environment....NOT
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What makes Java insecure? The security rests on the JRE, which in many cases is going to be more secure than what anyone else throws together with C. Also Java applications are immune to buffer overflows. I heard from someone who is a true security pro:
It is hard to write insecure applications with Java. It is impossible to write extremely secure applications with Java. It is easy to write insecure applications with C. It is hard to write extremely secure applications with C.
Also performance is an issue when performance is an issue, for something like this I don't think Java performance is going to be much of an issue.
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this looks pretty cool. I'm going to keep my eye on it...
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I hope the Siddley team dig out bitcoins heart with a spoon and lay a big turd in its place >:(