An eco-friendly Ecash with recycled banknotes

TL;DR

This paper proposes an eco-friendly digital cash system that recycles banknotes into secure, anonymous electronic transactions, reducing energy consumption and avoiding the need for miners.

Contribution

It introduces a novel cryptocurrency model based on recycled banknotes, emphasizing environmental sustainability and user-centered security without mining.

Findings

Recycled banknotes can be transformed into secure Ecash.

The system enables anonymous transactions with minimal energy use.

Ownership transfer is achieved through simple physical exchange.

Abstract

By comparing cryptocurrencies with other existing payment methods, including banknotes and bank cards, it is clear that the use of Bitcoin and its competitors (Ethereum, \dots) is almost insignificant in world trade. We may also note that these cryptocurrencies have become tools of speculation, which is the antithesis of their primary purpose. Based essentially on the security of electronic signatures, the Ecash introduced here will put the users back to the center of the game and exclude miners and their enormous waste of power energy. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to show that even a piece of paper can be recycled into a secure Ecash, while remaining environmentally friendly. Hence, we create here a cryptocurrency that would use a slight modification of the current banknotes to set up anonymous electronic transactions. By trading with banknotes, we mechanically transfer ownership of the paper money from one owner to another, hence, in this scheme, we introduce the notion of ownership transfer. It implies that at each transaction the elements allowing to authenticate the Ecash does not change, while the ownership certificate will change since the Ecash is transfer towards someone else.