At 10:16 AM 02/23/2000 -0800, Bill Stewart writes:
> At 10:14 PM 02/21/2000 -0800, Greg Broiles wrote:
> >4759063 Blind signature systems (19 Jul 2005)
> >4529870 Cryptographic identification, financial transaction, and credential
> >device (16 Jul 2002)
>
> Interesting - I wonder how much of the "Credentials Without Identity"
> is part of the 2002 patent as opposed to the 2005 blind signature patents?
The 2002 patent seems to be focused mostly on smartcards, as are a number
of the Brands patents recently licensed by Zero Knowledge Systems.
What are the prospects for smartcard based systems within the U.S.? Such
cards are essentially nonexistent in commerce. Apparently in Europe and
Asia they are widely used, though, instead of the credit cards preferred
by Americans.
The one place smartcards might make inroads in the U.S. in the next ten
years would be B2B applications, companies rolling out smartcards to
all their employees to hold their keys and certs. This will improve
security and allow people to sign messages from wherever they are.
However that would seem to be the environment where the anonymity offered
by Chaum and Brands would be least attractive. Companies need to know
what their employees are doing. They have little interest in giving a
credential saying "authorized to purchase up to $10,000" to an employee,
then when the invoice comes in, being unable to determine who ordered,
just that it was an authorized order. This would be a nightmare for
the accountants.
Are there other applications where the Chaum and Brands smartcard patents
could play a role in the U.S. within the next decade?
