Call for Participants

Visit for more related articles at Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce

Financial Cryptography 1998 (FC98):
The world's only financial cryptography conference, exhibition, and workshop.

FC98 Conference
February 23-26, 1998

FC98 Exhibition
February 23-27, 1998

FC98 Financial Cryptography Workshop
March 2-6, 1998

The Inter-Island Hotel
Anguilla, BWI

Conference Reservations:

FC98 is currently sponsored by:

Offshore Information Services

e$

Hansa Bank & Trust Company Limited, Anguilla

C2NET

If your firm would like to sponsor FC98, please see below, and contact Julie Rackliffe, the sponsorship manager, at for further information.

What is FC98?

FC98, the world's only peer-reviewed conference on financial cryptography, will be held Monday through Thursday, February 23-26, 1997, at the Inter-Island Hotel on the Caribbean island of Anguilla.

In conjunction with the conference, the Inter-Island Hotel will also be the site of an intensive 40-hour workshop for senior managers and IS professionals the week after the conference (March 2-6), and a concurrent exhibition of financial cryptography products and services during the entire week of the conference itself, February 23-27.

The goals of the combined conference, workshop, and exhibition are:

- -- to provide a peer-reviewed forum for important research in financial cryptography and the effects it will have on society,

- -- to give senior managers and IS professionals a solid understanding of the fundamentals of strong cryptgraphy as applied to financial operations on public networks, and,

- -- to showcase the newest products in financial cryptography.

In addition, time has been reserved in the afternoon and evening for sponsored corporate presentations, functions and activities, and for business networking.

Conference participants are encouraged to bring their families.

The Conference

Ray Hirschfeld, the conference chair, has picked an outstanding group of professionals and researchers in financial cryptography and in related fields to review the papers for this conference.

They are:

Chair: Rafael Hirschfeld, CWI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Co-Chair: Matthew Franklin, AT&T Laboratories--Research, Florham Park, NJ, USA

Matt Blaze, AT&T Laboratories--Research, Florham Park, NJ, USA Antoon Bosselaers, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Yves Carlier, Bank for International Settlements, Basel, Switzerland
Walter Effross, Washington College of Law, American U., Washington DC, USA Michael Froomkin, U. Miami School of Law, Coral Gables, FL, USARafael Hirschfeld, CWI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Alain Mayer, Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ, USA Moni Naor, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Frank Trotter, Mark Twain Ecash/Mercantile Bank, St. Louis, MO, USA Doug Tygar, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Moti Yung, CertCo LLC (formerly: Bankers Trust E-Commerce), New York, NY, USA

The actual agenda of the conference will be determined by the papers the program committee selects. The conference committee is selecting papers in what it considers the union, rather than a strict intersection, of the fields of finance and cryptography.

For last year's program please see .

Original papers are being solicited on all aspects of financial data security and digital commerce in general, including:

Figure 1:

Proceedings of Financial Cryptography 1998 will be published by Springer Verlag in their Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.

For further information on the submission process, please see the program committee's web-page at.

Last year, the conference was been covered by The New York Times, Institutional Investor, the Financial Times, Wired Magazine, NHK Japan, and other media. In addition, financial cryptograpy and several of last year's conference participants and sponsors were the subject of a cover story in a September issue of Forbes Magazine.

If last year's interest in this conference is any indication, it is probably a good idea to register for FC98 and make your plane and hotel reservations as soon as possible, as conference, workshop, and exhibit space is extremely limited, and we anticipate selling out all three events.

The price of a pass to the conference sessions and exhibits is US$1,000, with discounted rates for full-time academics and students of $250 and $100 respectively. You can pay for your FC98 conference ticket with Visa or MasterCard, or any of a number of other internet commerce payment protocols, at the regstration site.

The price includes breakfast and lunch. Internet connectivity will also be provided at the conference site.

The FC98 Exhibition is an exclusive trade show for financial cryptography products and services. The trade show floor will be open from 9:00 am to 5 pm the entire week of the conference Monday through Friday, February 23-27. In addition, the conference facility will be open for commercial presentations and demonstrations in the afternoons Tuesday through Thursday, and all day on Friday. Each booth will have high bandwidth access to the internet, and will get 3 conference passes. Booth prices start at $5,000 US. Please contact Julie Rackliffe at for further information. As space is limited, please reserve your space as soon as possible.

The Workshop

We are again honored to have Ian Goldberg as the leader of the FC98 Financial Cryptography Workshop, which will run one week after the conference, March 2-6, 1998.

Ian, the cryptographer at Berkeley who is now famous (in articles in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Forbes) for breaking several financial cryptography transaction protocols, will be running an intensive, 5-day workshop for senior managers and technology professionals.

While the workshop is still being developed, and will depend on the skills of the planned participants, Workshop topics will include, but not be limited to:

Overview and background of cryptography Survey of existing and proposed Internet payment systems Details on some specific payment systems Issues involved in setting up a secure Internet site A step-by-step walkthrough of setting up a digital bearer certificate mint.

Ian has recruited a strong roster of instructors with credentials similar to his own, and, as he plans to maintain a 5-1 student/teacher ratio, the size of the Workshop will be restricted and advance registration will be required.

Further information about the Workshop can be found at:

The planned price for the workshop is $5,000. This covers lab space, hardware, network access, software, meals, and, of course, 40 hours of instruction and structured lab activity. The lab itself will be open 24 hours a day.

Sponsorship Opportunities

FC98 offers sponsorship opportunities at all levels. Businesses are encouraged to be an exclusive sponsor for lunch or dinner in conjunction with a networking/recreational activity of some kind. Sponsorship provides corporations with a unique opportunity to get their message heard by the best people in the field of financial cryptography, and to gain unprecedented exposure for their business. Sponsorships start at $10,000, and include one booth, discounts on additional booth space, 5 conference passes, mention of your company in all FC98 communications (like this one), and a sponsored lunch or dinner and networking/recreational activity for the conference participants.

In-kind sponsorship is also available, with opportunities for companies to provide networking, bandwidth, software, hardware, radio packet modems and equipment, as well as web-design and print services, and transportation.

The sponsorship contact is Julie Rackliffe.

Air Transportation and Hotels

Air travel to Anguilla is typically done via San Juan, Puerto Rico, or St. Maarten. There are several non-stop flights a day from various US and European locations to St. Maarten. Connection through to Anguilla can be made through American Eagle, or through LIAT, not to mention a short, inexpensive ferry service from St. Martin to Anguilla. See your travel agent for details. American Eagle Airlines has agreed to increase their flights as needed to accomodate any extra traffic the conference brings to the island.

There is also discussion of a "crypto-plane" charter making a transcontinental run from San Jose to St. Maarten by way of Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and JFK/New York. We're still working on it. Let Robert Hettinga know if you're interested in this idea.

Anguilla's runway is 3600 feet, with a displaced threshold of 600 feet, and can accomodate business jets.

Anguilla import duties are not imposed on hardware or software which will leave the island again, so, as long as you take it with you when you leave, you won't pay import duties on the things you bring.

Hotels range from spartan to luxurious, and more information about hotels on Anquilla can be obtained from your travel agent, or at.

Registration for FC98

Again, to register and pay for your ticket to FC98 see:

For information the selection of papers for FC98 see:

If you're interested in exhibit space, please contact Julie Rackliffe:

If you're interested in sponsoring FC98, also contact Julie Rackliffe:

If you're interested in the FC98 Workshop for Senior Managers and IS Professionals, see:

See you in Anguilla!

The FC98 Organizing Committee

Vince Cate and Bob Hettinga, General Chairs

Ray Hirschfeld and Matt Franklin, Program Chair and Co-Chair

Ian Goldberg, Workshop Director

Lynwood Bell, Exhibition Steering Committee Chair

Julie Rackliffe, Exhibition and Sponsorship Manager

FC98 Sponsors

Offshore Information Services

e$

Hansa Bank & Trust Company Limited, Anguilla

C2NET

See Your Name Here: