Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 07:20:52 -0400 From: "R. A. Hettinga" Subject: DCSB: Yiannis Tsiounis; InternetCash and the "loading" problem The Digital Commerce Society of Boston Presents Yiannis Tsiounis Chief Technology Officer, InternetCash.com, Inc. Prepaid internet cash cards: The InternetCash Experience Tuesday, May 2nd, 2000 12 - 2 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, Boston, MA InternetCash is an alternative Internet payment method; effectively an "electronic cash" system. The design requirements behind InternetCash were: Accessibility, Ease of Use, Efficiency (to allow for micropayments), Security and Anonymity. The similarity to real cash prompted the creation of a pre-paid card system that satisfies all of the above requirements. Accessibility is achieved through physical distribution of the product - which can be liberal due to the Point Of Sale Activation methods employed. Such distribution also achieves anonymity and drives consumers to InternetCash's web site. Ease of use is brought on by the public's familiarity with pre-paid phone cards and the simplicity of InternetCash's interface. Efficiency is achieved via the use of lightweight cryptographic algorithms. Security is provided by the cryptographic algorithms, as well as via the use of a customer-selected PIN. The talk will provide an overview of InternetCash, with an insight to both the advantages and the hurdles of an electronic cash system which contains a physical part - in this case a pre-paid InternetCash card. Security and anonymity will be discussed, as well as future enhancements and ways in which InternetCash's infrastructure can be used for other Internet payment methods - most notably debit cards. Dr. Yiannis Tsiounis is the Chief Technology Officer of InternetCash.com, Inc., since May '99, where he is responsible for the design, architecture, development and deployment of secure and anonymous e-commerce systems. Previously, Dr. Tsiounis was a Senior Member of Technical Staff at GTE Laboratories, Inc., since '95. There he initiated and was responsible for the design and development of smart-card based electronic payment systems, and the design of algorithms and standards for cellular phone authentication and encryption. Dr. Tsiounis holds a Ph.D. in Cryptography (electronic cash) and a M.Sc. in Computer Science (computer networks) from Northeastern University, Boston, MA; and a BA in Applied Mathematics from University of Athens. He is publishing in Cryptography and Security conferences worldwide, and has submitted patents in electronic cash. This meeting of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston will be held on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2000, from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the Harvard Club of Boston, on One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $35.00. This price includes lunch, room rental, A/V hardware if necessary, and the speakers' lunch. The Harvard Club has relaxed its dress code, which is now "business casual", meaning no sneakers or jeans. Fair warning: since we purchase these luncheons in advance, we will be unable to refund the price of your meal if the Club finds you in violation of what's left of its dress code. We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or, if we *really* know you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by Saturday, April 29th, or you won't be on the list for lunch. Checks payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will have to be sent back. Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they *must* be made payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", in the amount of $35.00. Please include your e-mail address so that we can send you a confirmation If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (We've had to work with glacial A/P departments more than once, for instance), please let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out. Upcoming speakers for DCSB are: June TBA July NO MEETING: (4th of July and Tall Ships) August Bruce Schneier TBA We are actively searching for future speakers. If you are in Boston on the first Tuesday of the month, are a principal in digital commerce, and would like to make a presentation to the Society, please send e-mail to the DCSB Program Committee, care of Robert Hettinga, . For more information about the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, send "info dcsb" in the body of a message to . If you want to subscribe to the DCSB e-mail list, send "subscribe dcsb" in the body of a message to . We look forward to seeing you there! Cheers, R. A. Hettinga Moderator, The Digital Commerce Society of Boston ----------------- R. A. Hettinga The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe from this list, send a letter to: Majordomo@reservoir.com In the body of the message, write: unsubscribe dcsb-announce Or, to subscribe, write: subscribe dcsb-announce If you have questions, write to me at Owner-DCSB@reservoir.com