When it comes to the “crypto” part of cryptocurrencies, David Chaum’s work predates the crypto ecosystem. His efforts as a renowned cryptographer date back to 1989, long before Bitcoin (BTC) was a thing.
Chaum developed the protocols that act as the basis of DigiCash — the world’s first digital currency secured by cryptography. As the CEO of privacy-focused network developer Elixxir, David Chaum is working with the Swiss central bank to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that could also attract the crypto ecosystem due to its privacy features.
Named eCash 2.0, the new project aims to develop digital cash that would be “inalienably private” and quantum-resistant to counterfeiting. Since the technical details require a deep understanding of cryptography, Cointelegraph sat down with Chaum at Istanbul Blockchain Week to get a better understanding of the mechanics behind this crypto-friendly CBDC project.
A censorship-resistant CBDC
It all started when Thomas Moser, a board member at Swiss National Bank, invited David Chaum to Zurich for a conference and told him “he wanted to make eCash great again,” asking for his help in a new project.
“[Moser] couldn’t understand why people weren’t using eCash for CBDC,” Chaum started explaining. Big banks have too much to consider in terms of reliability and future readiness. So, they are not eager to invest in something that isn’t quantum-resistant.
As part of the project, which is internally called “Project Tourbillon,” Chaum developed a cryptographic protocol that proves a CBDC can protect privacy, be censorship- and quantum-resistant, scalable and even compatible with decentralized finance (DeFi) blockchains. One of his goals was to make the total supply number of coins transparent.
At first, the project team tried to use the legacy eCash but quickly realized it wasn’t a good fit for what they had in their mind. That’s why the BIS Innovation Hub, Swiss National Bank and xx Network based the joint project on eCash 2.0. Chaum noted that user-controlled privacy, “the best feature of the original eCash,” carried over to this new project.
According to the official announcement, Project Tourbillon aims to reconcile trade-offs between cyber resiliency, scalability and privacy by combining technologies like blind signatures and mix networks with the groundwork prepared by David Chaum and Thomas Moser.
Chaum pointed out that privacy is pivotal for banks, along with scalability…
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