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Electronic Cash

The growth of on-line services over recent years is providing a substantial new market for commercial activity, but its development has been held back by the need for a secure and reliable method for making private payments. Developed by DigiCash from cryptographic patents registered by Dr. David Chaum, ecash is a software-only payment system that provides tamper-proof, anonymous transfer of money over any network. The ecash technology provides speed, accessibility and ease of use and ensures both privacy and security.

A short summary of principles describing the fundamental mechanisms behind ecash can be found at the DigiCash web site.

The European Union has a number of  projects completed or currently underway include:

CAFE: Privacy-protecting off-line payment system using electronic wallets
OPERA: Continuation of the CAFE trials
SOSCARD: Next generation smart card chips capable of public-key
cryptography
CRISP: Building a full-featured smart card, based on the SOSCARD design
SEMPER: Architecture for secure electronic commerce, prototyped in Java.
MILLION: PDA with payment functions for access to the World Wide Web
IMPRIMATUR: IT, telecommunications and IPRs