[LINK] Liability for Internet Banking

[Alan L Tyree]

On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 01:45:29 +1100
Stephen Loosley <stephen at melbpc.org.au> wrote:

> At 04:53 AM 20/02/2007, Howard writes:
> 
> >> As noted, I do think banks should issue 'numbered' consumer
> >> bank accounts which would facilitate e-commerce confidence.
> >
> > How do you mean "numbered"?  
> 
> Simple.  Along with a normal bank account, (in my name), in future
> I believe Aussie banks should offer us an attached account without
> a name, just a number. (This is precisely what Swiss banks do now
> though without their 100,000 Swiss franc minimum monthly deposit).
> 
> <http://swiss-bank-accounts.com/e/banking/accounts/swiss-numbered-account.html>
> 
> Such numbered accounts can be intended for casual e-commerce
> conducted through pages with hosting services in eg Nth Timbuktu.
> 
> A credit card number, with the name, just tempts humans too much.
> 
> I also want to be notified by SMS of large account withdrawals, or be
> issued with specific PIN numbers for every 'large' account
> transaction.
> 
> > The answer is client side certificates, but refer to my earlier
> > comment about user comprehension.
> 
> Agreed .. "Advances in financial cryptography (e.g. public-key
> cryptography) make it possible to use anonymous electronic money and
> anonymous digital bearer certificates to achieve financial privacy &
> anonymous internet banking."
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_secrecy> But, user take-up will be
> slow.

I have also read this, but I have never seen a scheme that permits
anonymous digital bearer certificates. In order to prevent double
spending, there is always some reference back to "home base" to verify
that the "digital coin" has not been previously used.

In any case, if such a scheme were devised, I think it would be shut
down quickly. Remember the Austrian bank accounts which were operated
by an "anonymous passbook". The bearer of the passbook was the person
entitled to the account. International pressure closed them down.

I think that cash is about anonymous as it is going to get, and that is
becoming more difficult to deal with in large quantities. At a social
level, people are suspicious if you wish to pay large debts with cash.
Financial institutions have to report cash transactions of $10,000 or
more, and the latest Anti-money laundering/Counter-terrorist financing
legislations requires reporting of cross-border movements of cash and
other bearer instruments that exceed a certain amount.

If anyone knows of a truly "anonymous digital bearer certificate"
scheme, I would appreciate hearing about it. Unless the "double
spending" problem can be solved, any transaction with the digital coin
is going to be less than completely anonymous.

Cheers,
Alan

> 
> Cheers Howard
> Stephen Loosley
> Victoria Australia
> .
> 
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-- 
Alan L Tyree                    http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~alan
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