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  •   about 14 years ago

Is Value Message Data Readable by 3rd Parties?

Let's consider four attributes of a MintChip Value Message, the payee id, the payer id, the value, and the annotation.

Can any of these attributes be read by a 3rd party who intercepts a Value Message? Or is the value message only readable by the designated payee?

The "MintChip Messages" page leads me to believe that the Value Messages are signed to prevent tampering, but not encrypted. Is this correct? I thought transactions were supposed to be anonymous.

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  •   •   about 14 years ago

    That's correct; you can read the four values, but cannot tamper with them and keep the message valid.

    Transactions are anonymous. Payer/payee IDs are not information about the payer/payee. A mapping between the ID and the owner *is* information; the anonymity of that relationship is probably what you're referring to.

    In much the same way, you can see two hands exchange cash and break the anonymity of the transaction by looking up to see who's attached to the hands.

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