Atomicity is a necessary element for reliable transactions (Financial Service Technology
Consortium, 1995; Camp, Sirbu and Tygar, 1995; Tygar, 1996). Anonymity is also an
issue of great importance not only to designers of commerce systems, (Chaum, 1982;
Chaum, 1989; Chaum, Fiat & Naor, 1988; Medvinski, 1993), but also to those concerned
with the societal effects of information technologies (Branscomb 1994. Compaine 1985,
National Research Council 1996, Neumann 1993, Poole 1983). Yet there has been a tradeoff
between these two elements in commerce system design. Reliable systems, which
provide highly atomic transactions, offer limited anonymity (Visa, 1995; Sirbu and Tygar,
1995; Mastercard, 1995, Low, Maxemchuk and Paul, 1993) . Anonymous systems
(Chaum, 1985; Chaum 1989; Medvinski, 1993) do not offer reliable transactions as shown
in Yee, 1994; Camp, 1999; and Tygar, 1996. This work illustrates that any electronic token
currency can be made reliable with the addition of this atomicity-generating layer.IB
