but everyone would like to know whether it's going to rain tomorrow
I live in my parents' basement. Why would I want to know whether it's going to rain tomorrow?
Meat is the same tissue, but terminally locked into 'deadness'
It would appear that we are all undead.
Why use the original key at all? They have no idea what the key looks like, so a random key is just as plausible as the original key (which obviously should have been random when it was created).
Call me naive, but refusing to give up the keys does make you look guilty any which way you look at it.
Yes I do have locks on my doors too and they indeed come in useful to keep peeping toms out; however when the police knocks saying they suspect my basement to be a meth-lab, well I'll gladly let them in and go look for themselves
How about when the police knocks on your door asking to see your meth-lab, which is in fact your super-secret fantasy basement, complete with props for you sexual fetishes and evidence of your deviant fantasy of wanting to be your own mother?
The above is not against the law, but you might rather die than have your friends/relatives know about it. Also consider if the basement was the HQ of a (perfectly legal and moral, etc) secret anti-government organisation. While not illegal, I'm sure you would rather the police did not know of its existence.
Don Stewart wrote about optimising Haskell programs using genetic algroithms.
Then I'd say David Chaum's "digital cash" is not what will wind up being used.
Very possibly
And no, the tokens won't be useless unless payed into a bank.
With Chaum's protocol, the tokens are worthless unless they are repaid by the bank. Stockpiling them is worthless. That may or may not be good, but it's how the protocol works. Like you say, another protocol may be used.
With digital cash*, one obtains a token from the bank, which they can then spend anonymously at stores. Obtaining the token is not anonymous, so criminals cannot make huge payoffs without the bank noticing that they're withdrawing £1,000,000 as a single token (or lots of little tokens at the same time). The tokens themselves are useless unless payed into the bank, and so if a gangsta receives £1,000,000 worth of tokens, it shall still be noticed by the bank. What will not be noticed by the bank is how they received the £1,000,000.
(The above is an argument against anonymous digital cash being worse than high-value bills; I'm not arguing against your other points)
* There are presumably many protocols for digital cash; I think I'm referring to the one introduced by David Chaum, but it was a while ago when I read about it.
"Why can't we ever attempt to solve a problem in this country without having a 'War' on it?" -- Rich Thomson, talk.politics.misc