Electronic version of U.S. Dollar
An alternative to credit cards or cryptocurrency…
Digital dollars can be stored on secure hardware (not a paper money but kind of) - “…peer-to-peer offline transactions, and distributed directly to the public via secured hardware devices”.
Is it secure, private, etc.
But “…e-cash would be regulated similar to physical currency and subject to existing anti-money laundering, counterterrorism, Know Your Customer, and transaction reporting requirements and regulation”.
And “The ECASH Act can also help ensure the introduction of a public digital dollar doesn’t come at the expense of our rights to privacy, and could forestall other digital payment schemes that might expand mass surveillance, not curtail it.”
More “Until now, the conversation over CBDCs and cryptocurrencies has been divided between proponents of centralized and distributed ledger-based designs. By contrast, e-cash is unique in that it does not involve any common ledger whatsoever.”
How it can be implemented?
It’s a challenge, paper money has an ID and some counterfeit protection, no energy needed. Same with digital, but it’s a physically and digitally protected device with battery. An unique ID inside + verification/transaction mechanism (API).
internal private_key=random_bytes(n); // no one knows it
ID = hash(public_key)
verify: sign/verify(test_message)
p2p transaction: transfer from one device to another protocol
