Payment systems move money, and everyone wants a piece of
the action. Motives differ; governments want to know geographic and demographic
details; sellers want to know purchasing habits; buyers want anonymity and
security; providers of payment systems infrastructure want to satisfy the
demands of their users.
The paradox is easy to state. The design of a payment system
structure without forces influencing specific contours of a payment pipes is
impossible. The paradox (in a nutshell) is operation of payment systems demand
security, and prevents description of the pipes’ contours; so customers do not
fully understand the system they use and cannot demand (and pay for) the features
they want.
Because the paradox exists we witness deformities in the
systems that allow attacks to succeed and prevent architects from designing effective
countermeasures. We witness the HAL 9000 logic and seem powerless to unplug a Schizophrenic
machine. One such deformity is Bitcoins a fatally flawed payment system
resulting from the demand for semi-anonymous payment structure regardless of
settlement speed. Another such deformity is the EMV requirement for a chip to
the detriment of preventing the higher percentage of attacks on international small
value payments.
Observations are easy; overcoming defects funded by big money
and unimaginative suits is not so easy.
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