Network Working Group J. Bedell
Internet-Draft infoeng.org
Expires: July 16, 2006 January 12, 2006
Information Currency Documents and Operations
draft-jpbedell-information-currency-01
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
Abstract
Information currency is the name given to tradeable economic
instruments representing underlying information. The document
formats for information currency and the operations defined for
information currency are described in this note.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Information Currency Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Information Currency Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. Series Information Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Information Currency Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.1. Information Currency Issuance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2. Information Currency Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3. Information Currency Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4. Information Currency Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 25
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1. Introduction
Economic calculation enables the efficient use of scarce resources
among independent agents. The use of economic mechanisms in human
society is ubiquitous, enabling billions of people to live with
(generally) increasing prosperity and quality of life. Tradeable
representations of underlying economic value have been an
increasingly important part of human economies for the last several
centuries. Currently, tradeable property titles are structured for
guaranteed periodic payments (in the form of bonds), fractional
ownership of capital goods and corporate entities (corporate equities
or stock shares), physical commodities (for example, crude oil or
agricultural products), and many other economic goods. The buying
and selling of property titles allocates capital between various
commercial entities, and enables the efficient use of capital in
society. The critical role of human intellectual capital in
promoting further economic development motivates the development of
new market mechanisms for the management of information using
economic means.
In the following, a new means for applying economic calculation to
the management of information is described. The basic principle is
the representation of a unit of digital information using a finite
set of digital certificates (an information currency series). Each
digital certificate is issued by a trusted authority, and has a
unique identifying URL that can be accessed to obtain the original
information. Each digital certificate (information currency unit or
ICU) can be validated to ensure that it is a valid member of the set
representing the underlying information. Furthermore, each valid ICU
can be exchanged for another information currency unit, invalidating
the original ICU in the process.
The use of public-key cryptography for digital signatures of
information currency documents makes it possible to associate
arbitrary digital information with public keys. The identification
of human-usable information with the results of authenticated
operations using known public keys potentially enables a new means of
creating a public-key infrastructure for network security.
While the principles underlying the implementation of information
currency systems are quite general, the discussion that follows will
focus on their specific realization within the ICWS implementation
[5].
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2. Information Currency Documents
The basic principle behind the concept of information currency
systems is the representation of an underlying unit of information by
economically scarce instruments that can be traded between
individuals. This 'unit' of underlying information can take a
variety of forms, including direct representations (e.g. a person's
name and/or email address), uniform resource locators (URLs) of
network-available resources such as web pages, or any combination of
these or other representations. An authoritative server can issue a
number of instruments of economic scarcity to represent its
perception of the underlying information. The recipients of the
instruments can then use those instruments in trades with other
individuals to establish a valuation for the underlying information
in a manner similar to the means by which currently existing economic
instruments are valued.
An appropriate comparison for information currency is the stock
certificates that represent physical capital, and can be traded to
establish the market valuation of that capital. The trading of
information currency will enable the valuation of intellectual
capital represented by information currency.
In addition, the twin premises of economic scarcity and lasting value
for the issued instruments provide a motivation for the issuer to
maintain system security, and will enable the ready evaluation of the
issuer's credibility and integrity by potential customers. This is a
mechanism by which the security of information systems may be
quantitatively assessed, and will enable the ongoing comparative
valuation of information security services provided by networked
service providers.
Information currency systems are based on documents presented using
XML [6] for interoperability between implementations. XML digital
signatures [14] are used to provide integrity, message
authentication, and signer authentication services in the context of
information currency management. In the following, we describe the
documents used to represent information currency systems and the
documents used to create and manage information currency systems.
2.1. Information Currency Units
The fundamental instrument of economic scarcity is the information
currency unit. As implemented, this is an XML-formatted document
which provides the secret information which is the basis for the
currency unit, a cryptographic signature of the secret information,
and an identifier for the series from which the information currency
unit is derived.
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An example of an information currency unit follows:
---------- BEGIN INFORMATION CURRENCY UNIT ----------
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
lyJzqtm2mzd0VPGb7Nuo5ZSaHZ0LG5J30CJlWuZ1mcsOmjPLPOusEa1qpm1S0yMKyvqdMsZ90n0J
tDCikBWoeWqDaU41zY+JcO8btkizCEF5qh7h60Y/pble/dm8H5xMo40SZFODUE8i9y1Z7DY0QS7j
FEzvG4Lhhteb1Hv94w8=
XOUuZIKu7l4iMsWtroZL9sKDYe69ALxifiXjmrEo/ThNuOpRA74L3ENfbm8hvvULklRUr20U+5+M
SS0b3pOBRoEO7kghbMTlQniyJtkrvGODCt8lRfP0T+/CFnV8jO8Fx0IqJlhrAbUy9hM3i1rVHOKF
JvC4RdO8uiZMxLEVuJJwIGDMykIK3P9wC/v7WCTqWJsgxB4YPTwZxoWCGwb2yJrgFsII/RMChg9Y
3zCHgh7iO1gQtoqzmwynb0mxyntkxRONT2AY18qog9p2XGkwvFX/wFmlmame2rWqEn5thUbreAjA
rbacRQTLrfyrGZMhA2+qLIoSDn2HmPdFmHkC1g==
---------- END INFORMATION CURRENCY UNIT ----------
The root element of an information currency unit is .
Individual information currency units, as well as each of the other
documents introduced here, belong to the namespace
"http://infoeng.org/2005/10/ic#".
The element contains the certification information that uniquely
identifies the information currency unit. This information is
presented using Base64 [7] encoding of the bytes that provide the
underlying value. Here there are 128 bytes present in the
certification information. The certification information should be
created as a sequence of random bytes. The value of the information
currency unit is based on the fact that the certification information
bytes are recognized by the issuance server.
The element contains the signature of the certification
information, generated using the public/private cryptographic keypair
associated with the information currency series. The format of the
signature bytes is determined by the algorithm used to generate the
signature, according to the specifications for Java signatures as
described in [9]. If the algorithm used for generating the signature
is RSA, the format of the signature bytes is the PKCS #1 standard.
If the signature algorithm is DSA[10], the bytes in the signature are
the DER-encoded bytes of the ASN.1 structure SEQUENCE ::= { r
INTEGER, s INTEGER }, where r and s are the integer parameters of a
DSA signature, as defined in the DSA standard. This signature
provides a mechanism for verifying that a particular information
currency unit is part of the series associated with the cryptographic
keys.
The element is both a key identifying the series and a uniform
resource locator for the series information document describing the
series.
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2.2. Series Information Document
An example of a series information document is the following:
---------- BEGIN SERIES INFORMATION ----------
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/services/ICWS
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
2005-12-04T15:58:16.000-0800
2006-12-04T15:58:16.000-0800
128
10
oRj+RZJf3DcgtXQub4PNqlH4tB8KUQI57uWURx5r2dt0MjRRLBovMLcn3KC6IRydP9sYvMlAZlP3
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YjL3Cj/YJt0XHvlLpEizi6ofGiPRTAopWcz3vtVhLdbgHAmvNzERlBC748iB0pRuSNkHFQfF3fp/
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nVJLKLVPEBXetQuUiRmVc8YbDec3Ucg29xe35Q==
AQAB
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3174.txtc2JjK1pdcGzuix5FmsNk00+cDiE=
jDYIks5jRevcrgTg55Qme8C9C78=
sIMeclnOaDCQ02wZUsZOu6MfqX0HhsoWHLq61K8yWFuqWGnIMz9HWByJd3TGl8uggWphVLa5JDZ0
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7opAB4IsBsel/oJtGIv6paoMENa6kzk4w765L2HhhOMcSUOBG6KuXhQKFZJ63EyWJnKP5Uvc2v4P
RUoJFj16UEqWm7IxO/ybS1y+Vxx9vYHiSrJ6NQ==
AQAB
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9NfITXyMc0P78e1uG96GF2WrHec=
Gm1cNEA8sXqe+XWQQn9HAgM93fOEzRULeKZuDC5eTdN6bmjfigARTA==
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7ZCPHP7CmbH7x5ETodw=
---------- END SERIES INFORMATION ----------
The series information document above, with a root SeriesInfo
element, contains a XML digital signature establishing its
authenticity.
The element provides the URL of the SOAP [8]
endpoint that can be used to perform the information currency
operations described below.
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In the document above, the series indentifier for the series is
within the element. This is identical to the
element within each information currency unit, and provides a unique
identifier for the series, and a URL for accessing the series
information document.
The and elements provide the times at
which the information currency series was created and at which it
expires. This time is specified in an ISO-8601 standard format.
The SeriesKeyInfo element provides the public key that is used to
generate the signature element of each information currency unit.
The child elements of SeriesKeyInfo are in the format defined by the
XML Security specification [13].
The element provides the total number of
certificates in the series. The initial implementation of
information currency systems allows only for series with a fixed
number of units within the series, although systems for ongoing
issuance of information currency are possible. The value of
information currency units for economic calculation will be
substantially degraded in numerous significant ways if there is
inflation of the number of issued units.
The element provides the number of bytes in
the certification information of each information currency unit that
comprises the information currency series.
The element provides the cryptographic key
information for the signatures within the information currency
system. In the example, RSA is used to create the signatures of the
individual information currency units, and the RSA modulus and
exponent are defined in the Modulus and Exponent elements.
The element has exactly one child node, which
is itself a well-formed xml document.
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3. Information Currency Operations
The first implementation of information currency systems provides a
SOAP interface to the issuance of information currency. The most
important operations, described here, are issuance, exchange, and
verification.
3.1. Information Currency Issuance
Currency issuance is the process of generating and returning new
information currency units based on information submitted by a user.
In the ICWS system, the issuance operation is performed by the
processing of a document delivered over a SOAP
connection.
An issuance request for the series above is shown here:
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---------- BEGIN ISSUANCE REQUEST ----------
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3174.txtc2JjK1pdcGzuix5FmsNk00+cDiE=
2005-12-04T15:57:58.809-0800
2005-12-04T15:58:18.782-0800
rucQyHrpHuvjfctB6bQVxRvfLuI=
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AQAB
---------- END ISSUANCE REQUEST ----------
In the request above, the key used to sign the request is used to
provide authentication, with authorization for issuance having been
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previously associated with the cryptographic key used for
authentication. The root element of the IssuanceRequest has an Id
attribute that is used as a cryptographic nonce, to prevent multiple
issuances of information currency for an individual certification
request.
The number of information currency units returned after processing
the certification request is determined by the settings of the
issuer. The issuer will, in general, reserve a certain number of
information currency units from the issued series as "payment" for
the issuance.
When the server receives the certification request, it first verifies
that the cryptographic key used to sign the request is authorized for
issuance. After the signature of the request is verified to be valid
and created by an authorized key, an information currency series is
issued and returned to the client. The information currency series
returned for the certification request above follows:
---------- BEGIN INFORMATION CURRENCY SERIES ----------
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
lyJzqtm2mzd0VPGb7Nuo5ZSaHZ0LG5J30CJlWuZ1mcsOmjPLPOusEa1qpm1S0yMKyvqdMsZ90n0J
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FEzvG4Lhhteb1Hv94w8=
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rbacRQTLrfyrGZMhA2+qLIoSDn2HmPdFmHkC1g==
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
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https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
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XhLvtLdXavzaFYxkcGk=
LAWZILNAJO70OGFZzRhq9yCdcZI2Zk/xOwdQSFg5m3y9e3O7l1bx2lO4+YiPibbFqMeJX39VWJZP
MKmz7GFtiEfO2zHP6Ak4u5/23wWVKQgb3atiIxeV4jMsUhraxJEfMeIqw/HUU36tqaoSeT7+kNdZ
+EegKgjVt7ZgTc3xjrBV2Sqe+LukN0I+CEU+UuLJa2td3EyA7JfBgQ5wtXPQ0ZLO2A0kXpDGGxuz
SVUBmu2dUWNDGJ2CggEL6iaKZSG2XBLgWpQxpl4A/zByL1QsQQ4atXC/JU1TXkOu4RwtHDGRVgeR
5bJVpriO40TBvugYPONXv1DzV8NPNRllBQdp2Q==
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
vrigkIv56JlUj89syjgHWD8SrDaZAgbya0xwh7ckAgMqoaf/UJZwdq2++clPhv243YQzcrsF94eI
0s48qNzeMpMFK8IiotFUBajpOvcfHx+E6fgal6OczeoNAbg9VMmLxv8hPpEQ3UrPR5LTQEi8Zrvq
uNFFggcrcWNMo4YpeiI=
ZzbJsKhEGa5nrphnEkZel6KwL60bILIb9lUPcSb5eUioOdjRhWDnxgllmOs7PNhRFZT1Ju+PElpu
LT0E+PZky0/q4gp70DKugks5lObcq2yAQFkc9tzkNL3JzFuJO8+DWYc01SOB9KfqLc7Jy1716Z0Z
AtEBCIGydZQrV/wHtQVX5zr4M2mtb42J46R/GBeWXQF34EP8gMYuYXoQsOy7iDDuaNGgsIVQClDp
55gEswOBT+AJlr60zNP5zR3lg9iapkvH961Key//Sa3V0Sh4dDaRjkfnj0FRrr4eDH8lLYXpB0hH
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9pYGXLe39E15iYdanG3gK257X3o34jVCYzJunA==
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
dYU+OnEV4/7EpW95bpwCpyI3s/XTjCEIJtnluMbfLaWsvyCotgMl5sc5g6i3Bo/MWp64BwXJrt0O
gvd+b6m8R0llzEcfZqEut9iwfeKpMom2gLsZ7DAAxUgjGxQOC10K4M5TMfbDCzV54Ci6Pe6XM6fd
/P4mXiU1d/sGFq+S0w4=
X5d2M9rPsZBlAxYrSKk/tf9Dwx7LHqdy8kst87Eqp5cvKFTwYZLJECxpTAiAmY9dGetBO8YqaVR/
/hvUr6vos/YdrzM0pJD8MvgbkGRVrTlx4+kroTa5jpPmbaqNoUgSUzF4XwnPyMhv+wGKU//Yl9rL
nf50ixRdyXyRXznztMQyPY77kxvbeNCdi4LK/rei8NNlWoBhYECIyc2et4E9HcOQEtRH0YsjnRYS
XlTajK+etDlD6ZMirhR55c1GyAkLse7NnMYrcDjN1hyjTjj2H8UxPQXhwt5kzUSHxP987Ku7MzoT
FqaOiHXh82dO+lEd7b1x0HvIKB9s7M0R1Dh/DA==
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
0+TGvkrois0AvAZze59KDiWUvLfvlTMqA7FsGs8X6MvJepo5m/J7dnnuKNxButhc62tEkZGLhmyP
uYQVe6yRRBSeb2NoK4qrCeNFk9gWYhg0vmig/QbXvDAJU3CuX5/UpbbuHFAC/7licUhVM+gRnIlZ
4zvaVse0F/Vsimad8oc=
WpPcQHjJ6CQZtornri/ccw7aFqmYxpz8mGbDkMckfeZEw4XbpFV1nFD2CawZOZ4iXugCF0jajRT2
6F7kgNfh2fJmXtoYR3ZEjKeCOqf5ifOdZbl7nUBDIs8ZSiJTdlltfa2ZdIGMHkpvZRy+KseotaS8
NyXez4EjDAoToLCtaHH4DvEg/ChPn+Uw5P1vSuW/r/5FW5M6yB1AfwLAYZdX70Qzi92VhgQR5N24
BoTg50df7pvm0Qr7y7+Fi+O8/90/+IGGrBcRIof81ygFfaPMb2iLhfqe5I2WN35eMuHeBBIf65xW
K6EVbnK5A7UyUNtaYC0+zOaNTq9FBKoTsAOvTg==
/cqaMMiME7Cpy5qRezORxDo0G7U=
F6gLosa9d9MfYrSSQaKFHgg/LbAQ4hQJuYUVVWp6UIcZEifInUVgcQ==
/X9TgR11EilS30qcLuzk5/YRt1I870QAwx4/gLZRJmlFXUAiUftZPY1Y+r/F9bow9subVWzXgTuA
HTRv8mZgt2uZUKWkn5/oBHsQIsJPu6nX/rfGG/g7V+fGqKYVDwT7g/bTxR7DAjVUE1oWkTL2dfOu
K2HXKu/yIgMZndFIAcc=
l2BQjxUjC8yykrmCouuEC/BYHPU=
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9+GghdabPd7LvKtcNrhXuXmUr7v6OuqC+VdMCz0HgmdRWVeOutRZT+ZxBxCBgLRJFnEj6EwoFhO3
zwkyjMim4TwWeotUfI0o4KOuHiuzpnWRbqN/C/ohNWLx+2J6ASQ7zKTxvqhRkImog9/hWuWfBpKL
Zl6Ae1UlZAFMO/7PSSo=
aqH+w6b97ZRASnAlzoZmJUKjQr1Dp6euJMfD8gd33ppkxLxRavp84kgc6zFunsvcAl6L4BWtYhmP
VTUneS89rq9V62CzrVoJQuF/ou+Bx3vu0pXi6TsX36hlj79iIvKBftZTMU11NWf+inpe6/CLEQOL
7ZCPHP7CmbH7x5ETodw=
---------- END INFORMATION CURRENCY SERIES ----------
3.2. Information Currency Exchange
The sole possession of information currency units is equivalent to
their secrecy, and the value of information currencies is based on
their scarcity. Therefore, when an information currency unit is
exchanged between individuals in a market trade, it is necessary to
exchange that information currency unit with the issuer so that the
original ICU is invalidated and a new ICU is issued in its place.
The exchangeCertificate operation takes as an input string the
original certificate. If the input information currency unit is
valid, the old information currency unit is invalidated and a new
information currency unit is generated and returned. If the input
information currency unit is invalid, the original information
currency unit is returned unchanged.
The result of the certificate exchange operation, starting with the
information currency unit above, is shown below:
---------- BEGIN ORIGINAL INFORMATION CURRENCY UNIT ----------
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
lyJzqtm2mzd0VPGb7Nuo5ZSaHZ0LG5J30CJlWuZ1mcsOmjPLPOusEa1qpm1S0yMKyvqdMsZ90n0J
tDCikBWoeWqDaU41zY+JcO8btkizCEF5qh7h60Y/pble/dm8H5xMo40SZFODUE8i9y1Z7DY0QS7j
FEzvG4Lhhteb1Hv94w8=
XOUuZIKu7l4iMsWtroZL9sKDYe69ALxifiXjmrEo/ThNuOpRA74L3ENfbm8hvvULklRUr20U+5+M
SS0b3pOBRoEO7kghbMTlQniyJtkrvGODCt8lRfP0T+/CFnV8jO8Fx0IqJlhrAbUy9hM3i1rVHOKF
JvC4RdO8uiZMxLEVuJJwIGDMykIK3P9wC/v7WCTqWJsgxB4YPTwZxoWCGwb2yJrgFsII/RMChg9Y
3zCHgh7iO1gQtoqzmwynb0mxyntkxRONT2AY18qog9p2XGkwvFX/wFmlmame2rWqEn5thUbreAjA
rbacRQTLrfyrGZMhA2+qLIoSDn2HmPdFmHkC1g==
---------- END ORIGINAL INFORMATION CURRENCY UNIT ----------
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---------- BEGIN NEWLY ISSUED INFORMATION CURRENCY UNIT ----------
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
y5CpUziWTlVCW/5BmNSh9neMLZkves6dzQghYeS6lo/mRzh9gsgtGOhxze8FXYQUPGWZHeW7Ftir
p18d1Kt9DU2sLLROkBZZgNACMzntkNixVa9awDsrjuC7vbgk+fUykeXyJ+U+WF9j4SBPsK/L8KGu
c+/jrfUyZDJ1UJvt0fQ=
f5ejw4Afur47KTDp0OSY6g/laliwLEFvgGVgVufzNjqlS11hEoNamRGZYWiv290m9kzMKwPophZq
e9GNrXX4+jegntiEn+jSYM715CsI0nmiOCT+Uoc+TXa/uiz2/JXcKE3i9u1DHivN+XpntIuo5DzO
q3Qtcor0RLMfcZxyAqPbYcqArDzaWQ32NkGUprEr9+SVweFGIR6VKlsABjRtrbpr1mb/gfjjgMzO
DzeHZYGFyB6VWUpOAy2ti+sUvf9sTp2VQPhzZ94hmEUcAxYUvGMcE5RsQ4d+Yx7Z074bZgIc0Zdc
8cIb1QpmC+IPUcayMpTf5Lee+hHhUlHbw5QhEA==
NfRvuP0Wf97yVKkHvm+QR+sOK5A=
L9pg8GRxh6iA4E51hsiGXdF36kwzjsumbcUG1Jqwbt5oh5ymt9VAuw==
/X9TgR11EilS30qcLuzk5/YRt1I870QAwx4/gLZRJmlFXUAiUftZPY1Y+r/F9bow9subVWzXgTuA
HTRv8mZgt2uZUKWkn5/oBHsQIsJPu6nX/rfGG/g7V+fGqKYVDwT7g/bTxR7DAjVUE1oWkTL2dfOu
K2HXKu/yIgMZndFIAcc=
l2BQjxUjC8yykrmCouuEC/BYHPU=
9+GghdabPd7LvKtcNrhXuXmUr7v6OuqC+VdMCz0HgmdRWVeOutRZT+ZxBxCBgLRJFnEj6EwoFhO3
zwkyjMim4TwWeotUfI0o4KOuHiuzpnWRbqN/C/ohNWLx+2J6ASQ7zKTxvqhRkImog9/hWuWfBpKL
Zl6Ae1UlZAFMO/7PSSo=
aqH+w6b97ZRASnAlzoZmJUKjQr1Dp6euJMfD8gd33ppkxLxRavp84kgc6zFunsvcAl6L4BWtYhmP
VTUneS89rq9V62CzrVoJQuF/ou+Bx3vu0pXi6TsX36hlj79iIvKBftZTMU11NWf+inpe6/CLEQOL
7ZCPHP7CmbH7x5ETodw=
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---------- END NEWLY ISSUED INFORMATION CURRENCY UNIT ----------
The newly issued information currency unit is recognized by the
issuer as valid, while the previous information currency unit is no
longer accepted as valid by the issuer.
3.3. Information Currency Verification
In order to verify with the issuer of an information currency series
that an information currency unit is valid, a verification
certificate is prepared based on the content of the information
currency unit. The certification information from the information
currency unit is digested and placed in a element, and
the series ID is placed in a element, for a document with a
root element of , as shown here:
---------- BEGIN INPUT VERIFICATION CERTIFICATE----------
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
6bZAgiVesydPs8Ky+M7CGhBMNnE=
sM2hEQG4fyoqZ87W4RY0gAB4BXg=
---------- END INPUT VERIFICATION CERTIFICATE ----------
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---------- BEGIN OUTPUT VERIFICATION CERTIFICATE----------
https://leucine.infoeng.org:8443/icws/seriesInfo?seriesID=9c182b89fccfa3558d58a398f7019ae1254a0ab4
6bZAgiVesydPs8Ky+M7CGhBMNnE=
IIBrn7dub5sGYI9Kkv4xJC5iQaM=
YCmAT+atA4xDGblty1JZB3qtnhc=
LuC4nYvzOOzarWJx/lp8q1l4xwmiiRuYLdN7MRhsXxx3NKGhkQlGsE8ogjGp2IrEvEQ5e/i9sX69
itNTPBK50ALDgFkvcSehx+lcInxTMTA9M/oOMs+483rdIJfGvKJYsKF4UKjtnxVkmFytZFdfZK7E
SpJge6080+su6HmwtL2KbvWg6P9/sCZdmK69r2tjokWH47D0vzBJitS9LMsyxVMyoVv/EZT73ADL
AjRMYY/SXhgzVAfe98yOl2yUZrNOfqCzjPolrR7rGfGuSDaNMyqReipV2EfgH9Vpfdd35o3NyQAh
wEDBDzfVB0Q2gRPcYMkjNNV0GbgOe6w38U8jzQ==
oRj+RZJf3DcgtXQub4PNqlH4tB8KUQI57uWURx5r2dt0MjRRLBovMLcn3KC6IRydP9sYvMlAZlP3
55sN9C89CVVknDBvU2GVe/9AsgagZEwfQhvR9hHx4FB496tqOIIqZRZgjxcwfeU6g6grkR756ibc
YjL3Cj/YJt0XHvlLpEizi6ofGiPRTAopWcz3vtVhLdbgHAmvNzERlBC748iB0pRuSNkHFQfF3fp/
M8NnAW/V+hrpc/+JXHhGSZ9d31R3WULH+pNVxsXp2do4JsGyaZYJ7/5BEQuVtuXlRa/d4JEzfEhv
nVJLKLVPEBXetQuUiRmVc8YbDec3Ucg29xe35Q==
AQAB
---------- END OUTPUT VERIFICATION CERTIFICATE ----------
The three components of of the original verification certificate are
the series id (seriesID), the digest value (digestValue), and the
random value (randomValue). The digest value is the SHA-1 digest
value of the bytes in the certification information. The random
value in the verification certificate is a random base-64 encoded
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byte array, with a length of x bytes.
The returned verification certificate contains two fields identical
to the original verification certificate, the seriesID and
digestValue, representing the original certificate. The randomValue
in the returned certificate provides the information that the client
can use to verify that the original certificate is valid.
If the digest value presented by the client in the original
verification certificate is valid, the signature value within the
original ICU is used as a shared secret. The randomValue in the
returned verification certificate is then the SHA-1 digest value of
the byte array formed by the concatenation of the signature bytes and
the random bytes provided by the client. To verify that this
randomValue signifies that the certificate is valid, the client can
use the randomValue generated by the client and the signature bytes
within the information currency unit to prepare the expected digest
value, and compare the expected returned randomValue with the
received randomValue. To verify that the server has the private key
used to generate the signature bytes in the original information
currency unit, the XML signature of the response verification
certificate is generated using the series-specific private key.
The fact that the verification certificate uses a digest value means
that a holder of an ICU can provide a third party with a verification
certificate to demonstrate that they possess a valid ICU. Upon
receipt of the verification certificate and the randomValue expected
to be returned for that verification certificate, the third party can
transmit the verification certificate to the ICU issuer for
verification that the generator of the verification certificate
possesses a valid certificate.
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4. Information Currency Applications
Information, whether open-source or closely guarded, can have
undeniable economic value, and information currency is designed to
quantify this value and enable it to be utilized in more general
economic calculation. The basis for use of information currency, as
with other economic instruments, is ultimately the utility of the
instruments and little else. As information currency is not widely
used at this time, the applications remain to be developed and
discovered.
The first application of information currency is the management of
software development through information currency marketplaces. Upon
receiving information currency for information submitted, the
creators of information have economic instruments that they may sell
to compensate them for their effort.
A central insight of economics is that both participants in a
voluntary economic transaction benefit, in prospect, from the
transaction. While their assessment of the economic value of the
traded objects may change, leading one or both of the participants to
believe that they did not benefit from the trade, the motivation
necessary to engage in trade comes from a belief on the part of both
parties that what they will receive is more valuable to them than
what they will provide. One source of differing economic valuations
is the varying time preference of market participants. This
differing time preference can be used to structure transactions
leading toward a specified goal.
Consider market participant mpA, who wishes to devote resources to
the realization, for example, of a software system, and market
participant mpB, who has previously created software and holds
information currency units corresponding to their creative work. mpA
creates a specification of the software system that they desire to
realize and generates information currency for this specification.
By making a standing commitment to redeem this "specification
information currency" for units of economic value, monetary or
otherwise, this specification information currency can be used as
currency for acquiring other information currency units representing
incremental steps toward the realization of this specification.
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5. Security Considerations
The participants in an information currency transaction should take
care to ensure that their transaction messages are encrypted. This
is because an attacker intercepting the information currency
exchanged by particpants can potentially steal the economic value of
the information currency by exchanging the intercepted information
currency to obtain exclusive ownership for themselves.
XML digital signatures provide authentication and message integrity
for information currency documents. The information currency issuer
establishes its identity using public-key cryptography. Newly-issued
information currency is signed with the private key of the issuer,
and each information currency unit is signed with a per-series key.
The per-series private key is used to create the elements
within each exchanged information currency unit, and the information
currency unit newly-issued after an exchange is signed with the
issuer's private key. The issuer uses the series private key to sign
responses to verification certificates. The use of public-key
cryptography offers the possibility of using economic transactions to
evaluate the trustworthiness of a public-key infrastructure, but if
or how this will be realized in practice remains to be determined.
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6. IANA Considerations
This document has no actions for IANA.
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7. Acknowledgements
This work is dedicated to those who have made economic progress
possible.
8. References
[1] "Library of Economics and Liberty".
http://www.econlib.org
[2] "SourceForge.net".
http://sourceforge.net
[3] "BioMed Central".
http://www.biomedcentral.com
[4] "Public Library of Science".
http://www.plos.org
[5] "Information Currency Web Services (ICWS) software".
http://infoeng.sourceforge.net
[6] Bray, T., Paoli, J., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Maler, E., Yergeau,
F., and J. Cowan, "Extensible Markup Language".
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml11-20040204/
[7] Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings",
RFC 3548, July 2003.
[8] Gudgin, M., Ed., Hadley, M., Ed., Mendelsohn, N., Ed., Moreau,
J., Ed., and H. Nielsen, Ed., "SOAP Version 1.2".
http://www.w3.org/TR/soap12
[9] "Java Cryptography Specification: API Specification &
Reference".
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/security/
CryptoSpec.html
[10] US National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Digital
Signature Standard (DSS)", FIPS 186-2, January 2000.
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[11] Adams, C. and S. Farrell, "Internet X.509 Public Key
Infrastructure Certificate Management Protocols", RFC 2510,
March 1999.
[12] Ellison, C., Frantz, B., Lampson, B., Rivest, R., Thomas, B.,
and T. Ylonen, "SPKI Certificate Theory", RFC 2693,
September 1999.
[13] Eastlake, D., Reagle, J., and D. Solo, "(Extensible Markup
Language) XML-Signature Syntax and Processing", RFC 3275,
March 2002.
[14] "XML Security Library, version 1.2.9".
http://www.aleksey.com/xmlsec
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Author's Address
J. Patrick Bedell
http://infoeng.org
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Intellectual Property Statement
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This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
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Copyright Statement
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Acknowledgment
Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
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