[Webfunds-users] router server API / Protocol idea

Sat, 31 Mar 2001 19:04:21 +0100

hah! I'll reply with a longer answer to this in a while, but the subject of 
this did make me chuckle...

why? because the reason I got into all this digital money stuff was back in 
the early 90s, I was working for a router manufacturer (Spider Systems, if 
anyone has heard of them, got bought by the US company Shiva in 1995). We 
did some great multi-protocol multi-network routers, the basic idea was any 
protocol, any network, whatever the customer wants, just plug it all 
together through our independent and extensible middle layer and the kit 
would happily switch anything between anything. TCP/IP, OSI, Netware? sure. 
X.25, ISDN, frame relay? sure! whatever you want, sir...

and then, courtesy of Bob Hettinga, I came across digital money, and 
thought, hey, this is going to be interesting. Multiple payment protocols, 
multiple network channels, this sounds familiar, except the packets are 
money, not data. Which is how I came up with the concept of the CashBox...

rachel