HSMs and Exchanges

Technology
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I have been thinking about writing this for a while, but recent events have encouraged me to find out for myself. (thanks gemini for PoC thanks others for encouragement)

I hear a lot of talk of “compliance” being the issue, or “the tech is to hard to codesafe”, “Making HSM’s are hard”, “Exchanges are reluctant to talk to us about their back end” and probably worst of all “user demand threshold is not high enough”

The crazy thing is zcash tech in and of itself could make hsms compliant. (but thats a different post)

I have done some digging. As far as I can tell the issue is not technical (I have spoken to two very high up people within the manufacture of payment hsm’s. They are working with exchanges.)

For CodeSafe just be posix compliant and the company will help you.

Exchanges shouldnt be talking to you about their back end. that support should be done between you and the HSM maker.

There is no user demand because people cant be bothered to add z2anything support (<3 gemini).

These are very basic assumptions that are easily falsifiable, whats more, none of them are an excuse. I am going to write a proposal to spend a few months investigating why this support is not there, and use my knowledge and contacts within the HSM and FinTech industry to see if the foundation can do something to solve this issue.

I am sure they can, and I am sure with their support we can find out the real blockers, solve them, then hopefully pass a card to an exchange and say add this and you get z support.

I guess, im saying its time for me to put up or shut up. HSM’s should not be blockers. we are competing, or even use these - payShield-9000-ds.pdf (thalesgroup.com)

(I made that!)

If you made it this far here is a little known fact about “blockchain” - it was meant to replace the hsm in the banking industry. so people “could be their own bank” - it was broken from the start. zcash imho is the only coin that fixes that whilst adding value service on top.

As much feedback as possible would be amazing. I would like to try to get a proper proposal in before the end of the month.

If you would like to help me thrashout ideas and styles please pm me or post in this thread. I am going to do the formatting and create the outline in the proposal thread now.

edit: any reasons I have missed would really help. please quote or screenshot so I can gather context

5 Likes
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Very interesting, could you please elaborate on this a bit more? I’m trying to understand the concept here, so Zcash can replace HSMs as “blockchain” was meant to? & or Zcash fixes the current HSM problem? Also curious if the value service on top you speak of is shielded money & memos?

1 Like
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the blockchain in bitcoin replaces the hsm’s in banks. (or is meant to - its the next step from RPOW) All it is used for is to prove you have funds available

this give or take is bitcoin. but hal used an IBM hsm for his blockchain to prove he couldnt change peoples balances, etc. just like the blockchain does for btc. Apart from small abstractions, where is the difference?

zcash can replace certain problems of current hsms, a few of those are compliance related.

Distributed shielded transactions. yes, thats the value. it doest matter if it is a memo or wealth, the way zcash works the blockchain is a positive for everyone. One think i keep saying is zec is not zcash.

zcash is what bitcoin could have been if it was made by people that understood the necessary of privacy.

The paysheild 9k has be superseeded by the 10k. i still want this tho.

Now we have hyper capitalism where people claim they cant support the right thing, just because it costs too much. (wrong, - Thales E-Security PayShield 9000 HSM9-12S Card Payment Processor Security Module | eBay

This is what your bank card talks to when you get money out

payshield
payshield1314×405 131 KB

sorry to go on a bit. im just thinking outloud.

does the foundation want one of these? @antonie @dconnolly :slight_smile: - I can get the rest of the bits to make it work. its in the uk too… :smiley: (they are normally 24k+ ish with licences) - it may well prove very useful and for 2.4k it is worth a punt imho.

edit: i am so close to buying this… :grimacing:

oh damn,

The older one. back in 2012 i got offered a staff discount for this for 4k.

Thales nCipher nSHIELD F3 PCI-e Security Module A-025001-L low Profile | eBay

the new one, which is 4k second hand.
Thales nCipher NC4033E-6K0 nShield F3 PCIe Hardware Security Module N CIPHER | eBay

3 Likes
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I like this proposal. It has the potential to strengthen the network

This seems should be higher priority than any lightwallet proposal (we should be running full nodes to get the maximal privacy benefits of Zcash) and support of any kind for merchants, wallets or services that use the transparent version of ZEC.

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This sounds useful to push forward. I think the lack of interest largely reflects the fact that the status quo is working very well for most of the people with the knowledge and confidence to indulge in cryptocurrencies. Now is the time to use our resources to build something useful for the future. I do not believe the status quo is sustainable or that it is heading in the right direction.