only in glimpses.
It seems an appropriate way to view a pioneer cryptographer who some say has done more than anyone else to create technologies that protect privacy on the Web. A former computer science professor, Chaum started thinking about privacy and financial transactions 20 years ago when he became convinced that vendors didn't need to know buyers' birth dates to verify their purchases. He discovered an alternative way to confirm the buys, and set off on a quest to demonstrate that consumers didn't need to sacrifice personal information to ensure the safety of their financial transactions.
Chaum took his passion to the Web about a decade ago, when he invented the world's first digital currency. Based on a technology called "blind signatures," Chaum's electronic cash gave customers a way to transfer funds without revealing their identities. To market the new currency, Chaum founded DigiCash and landed DeutscheBank as a client. But, for Chaum, creating complex technologies was easier than running a new company. DigiCash failed to sign other high-profile clients, and the company ended by filing for Chapter 11.
Though DigiCash has disappeared, Chaum's influence persists. True, the Web has grown into a place where financial transactions can be identified and traced as never before. But in 1999, eCash Technologies bought the rights to Chaum's blind-signature invention, which it employs in a variety of products, including electronic currency that's used by DeutscheBank, in gift certificates to online retailers, and in a pilot system for credit card processing that is used by Metavante. Chaum's dreams of anonymous action also survive in companies like Canada's Zero-Knowledge Systems, which bases parts of its online-privacy software on his innovations.
While others make use of his early inventions, Chaum himself is busy creating fresh technologies, and it's likely that the world of online financial services has not heard the last from him. With 25 patents submitted for approval, he's working on a system that includes a new type of electronic cash. The system will shield buyers from surveillance by banks, retailers and ISPs.
Don't bother pressing him for details, though. As you might expect, mum's the word. / Alicia Neumann
MASS MARKET
Online IPOs Seemed Like a Good Idea ...
In Hong Kong, the Web is getting a tryout at crowd control.
Investors here have a history of hitting the streets in hordes for anything - from cakes to plastic McDonald's figurines to IPO applications - that can be bought low and sold higher. But last February was particularly unruly: 300,000 investors converged upon just 10 designated banks to apply to buy shares in the Chinese portal Tom.com. Crowds pushed and shoved, spilling onto streets that eventually had to be closed. As police scrambled for control, one on-duty officer was caught trying to sneak in his own application. While newscasts broadcast the scene around the world, the city's Financial Secretary Donald Tsang expressed his embarrassment, calling it "unthinkable" for such chaos to occur in Hong Kong.
"Any way to alleviate this would be good," says Ben Dunn, manager of personal e-business at the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp.
So the city tried a new approach to keep Hong Kong's competitive investors in check - and off the streets. When the government took part of its underground railway company public last fall in a massive $1.2 billion IPO, Hong Kong trumpeted its first electronic offering. Banks and brokers splashed full-page ads in major newspapers and advertised online, promising investors a small rebate if they used the Internet to apply for shares in the Mass Transit Railway Corp.
But the e-IPO was beset with problems. The issuer accidentally sent out more than 1,500 duplicate share certificates. One site stopped taking applications a full day before the offering so that typists would have time to create hard copies and pass them on to a broker. And applicants who braved the
