Re: MintChip and duplicate detection

To get an answer to your question it appears you'll hit an
Intellectual Provenance (IP) restriction, because your learning would
be under the terms of the license (see below).   Should you inspect
any of the assets provided via
http://developer.mintchipchallenge.com/downloads.php   then if you
actually learn any of the computational ideas implemented in MintChip,
for the rest of your career you'd better be careful about the several
patents held by the core system developers. More likely, it seems you
need not expect to get source code access to any of the interesting
tidbits:
http://mintchipchallenge.challengepost.com/forum_topics/759


MintChip Developer License Agreement

By downloading content from the Royal Canadian Mint (the "RCM")
Website, installing, copying or otherwise using the contents of the
Kit (as defined below) or any component thereof, you are accepting a
license from the RCM (the "License Agreement") and you are agreeing to
be bound by this License Agreement. If you do not agree to the terms
of this License Agreement, you are not authorised to install or use
the Kit or any component thereof.

1.0 DEFINITIONS

"Kit" means:

the MintChip hardware development kit, along with each and every one
of its components;
two (2) MintChip MicroSD cards;
one (1) MintChip USB Reader;
one (1) MintChip MicroSD - SD Reader;
the Materials;
the Programs; and
the Software.

"Materials" means MintChip documentation, modifications, subsequent
versions, support materials and manuals.

"MintChip" means digital currency originating from an integrated circuit.

"Programs" means the MintChip toolkit and sample applications.

"Software" means Programs, third party software, bug fixes, diagnostic
software, and any subsequent versions thereof.

2.0 LICENSE GRANT

Note: Your duties under this section shall survive expiration or
termination of this License Agreement.

2.1 License - The RCM hereby grants you a limited, non-exclusive,
non-transferable, personal and revocable license (without the right to
sub-license or assign) to use the Kit and any component thereof solely
to create software applications for evaluating MintChip, and for no
other purpose. Where title to certain third party software is retained
by RCM's licensors, the RCM warrants that it has the authority to
license such third party software to you but only to the extent that
third party software are used in accordance with this License
Agreement.

2.2 Limitation on Use - In addition to all other limitations in this
section, you expressly agree that except for the Programs provided as
part of the Kit, you will not (1) make any copies of the Kit or any
component thereof (the RCM will provide you with replacement copies of
the Programs without any charge if necessary); (2) modify the Kit or
any component thereof in any way; (3) create derivative versions of
the Kit or any component thereof; (4) reverse assemble or disassemble,
reverse compile, or reverse engineer the Kit or any component thereof;
or (5) distribute or otherwise make the Kit or any component thereof
available, directly or indirectly, for any use, by any other person.
All of these activities are expressly prohibited.

2.3 Ownership, Intellectual Property, and proprietary information -
The RCM represents, and you acknowledge that the Kit, including any
component thereof, contain valuable trade secrets, confidential and
proprietary information owned by the RCM, including but not limited to
the development status of the Programs, the functionality of the
Programs, the appearance, content and flow of the Programs' screens,
the method and pattern of user interaction with the Programs, and the
content of the Programs' documentation. You hereby agree that no title
to (1) RCM's trade secrets, confidential and proprietary information
owned by the RCM (2) the intellectual property rights in the Kit or
any component thereof or (3) copies of the Kit or any component
thereof is transferred to you by this License Agreement. The RCM
retains all intellectual property rights in the Kit and any component
thereof, and all of their updates, documentation, bug fixes,
modification, subsequent versions, diagnostic software, support
materials, manuals and other documentation, all of which also contain
RCM confidential and proprietary information. The Kit and any
component thereof, any RCM proprietary information contained therein
and any intellectual property rights pertaining thereto (including but
not limited to, patents, copyrights, know-how, trade secrets,
trade-marks and service marks), remain the sole and exclusive property
of the RCM and no title is granted to you in conjunction with this
License Agreement.

3.0 DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITED REMEDY

3.1 General disclaimer - Except as expressly provided herein, the RCM
hereby disclaims all express and implied representations and
warranties with respect to the Kit or any component thereof, including
without limitation, any implied warranty of merchantability, and
fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement.

3.2 Limitation of liability - In no event shall the RCM be liable to
you or any other individual or entity connected with you for any
claim, loss or damage of any kind, arising out of the performance of
this License Agreement or arising out of or in connection with (1) the
deficiency or inadequacy of the Kit or any component thereof, for any
purpose whether or not known or disclosed to you; (2) the use or
performance of the Kit or any component thereof, including any files,
data or computer systems relating thereto or used in connection
therewith; (3) any interruption or loss of service or use of the Kit
or any component thereof; (4) any error; or (5) any loss of profits,
sales, business, data or other direct, indirect, special, incidental,
consequential, or loss or damage of any kind or nature resulting from
the foregoing, and not withstanding any failure of essential purpose
of any limited remedy.

4.0 MISCELLANEOUS

4.1 Export - You acknowledge that the Kit or any component thereof may
be governed by Canadian laws and regulations on exports and may be
subject to import or export regulations in other countries. You agree
to comply with all such laws and regulations.

4.2 Disposition of Hardware and Software - You may not transfer, sell,
assign or pledge the Kit or any component thereof without RCM prior
written consent. You shall not allow any liens or other legal claims
to be made against the Kit or any component thereof as a result of
your use.

You shall only discard the Kit and any components thereof in
accordance with local laws and regulations.

4.3 No other rights - Except as expressly provided herein, no license,
rights, or title in any intellectual property are provided hereunder,
whether expressly or by implication, estoppels or otherwise.

4.4 Assignment - This License Agreement may not be assigned by you
without the express written consent of the RCM. Any attempted
assignment shall be void.

4.5 Termination - Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, if you
fail to comply with the terms of this License Agreement, the RCM may
terminate this License Agreement and the licenses granted herein. If
the RCM so terminates this License Agreement, you must immediately
destroy all copies of the Software and uninstall the Software from any
computers on which you have installed the Software. You must also
immediately return the Kit and all of its components to the RCM at 320
Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G8 using the returning instructions
provided as part of the Kit. You also agree to indemnify, defend and
hold harmless the RCM from and against any and all claims, expenses,
and liabilities (including reasonable attorneys fees) arising out of
or relating to your failure to comply with the terms of this License
Agreement.

4.6 Applicable Law - This License Agreement is subject to the
exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of and governed by and construed
in accordance with the laws of Canada.

4.7 Headings - The section headings of this agreement are for
organisational purposes only and shall not be used in interpreting
this License Agreement. However, reference to a section includes
reference to all subsections of that section.

4.8 Unenforceable Provisions - In the event that any provision of this
License Agreement is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be
unenforceable, the remaining portions of this License Agreement shall
remain in full force and effect.

4.9 Waiver - The failure of either party to enforce any section of
this License Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver of such
provisions or of the right of such party to enforce that, or any
other, provision of this License Agreement.

4.10 Language - In the event of any discrepancy or inconsistency
between the English language version and the French language version
of the License Agreement, the English version shall prevail, govern
and control.

On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> wrote:
> I read on [1] that MintChip uses a random number generated by the receiver
> to detect duplicates and prevent double spending.
>
> Can anyone explain the details of this?  Is there a history of these numbers
> to prevent replay attacks?  I presume that the history can be bounded by
> only allowing transactions within a limited time after the initial payment
> request. Is a MintChip restricted to a single transaction at any given time?
> What happens when a valid transaction message isn't received in time? The
> sender would have debited its balance, but the received wouldn't have
> credited its balance.
>
> Is there any discussion on revoking the private key used to sign
> transactions? Whilst it is probably impractical to extract the key from the
> secure chip, it might be stolen from the Royal Canadian Mint.
>
> [1] http://developer.mintchipchallenge.com/devguide/transactions.html
>
> --
> Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett
>



-- 
Joseph Potvin
Operations Manager | Gestionnaire des opérations
The Opman Company | La compagnie Opman
http://www.projectmanagementhotel.com/projects/opman-portfolio
jpotvin@opman.ca
Mobile: 819-593-5983
LinkedIn (Google short URL): http://goo.gl/Ssp56

Received on Friday, 20 September 2013 14:13:04 UTC