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HASHCASH(1)			    hashcash			     HASHCASH(1)

NAME
     hashcash - hashcash anti-spam / denial of service counter-measure tool

SYNOPSIS
     Mint (create) stamps:

     hashcash -m [ [ options ] [ resource ... ] ... ]

     Check stamps:

     hashcash -c [ [ options ] -r resource ... ] [ stamp ... ]

     Speed estimates:

     hashcash -s [ options ] [ -b bits ]

     Purge database:

     hashcash -p now [ -j resource ] [ -k ] [ -t time ] [ -u ]

     Count partial preimage bits:

     hashcash -w [ options ] [ stamp ... ]

     Get resource name:

     hashcash -n [ options ] [ stamp ... ]

     Get time remaining until expiry

     hashcash -l [ options ] -e period [ stamp ... ]

DESCRIPTION
     Hashcash is a denial-of-service counter measure tool.  Its main current use
     is  to  help  hashcash  users  avoid  losing email due to content based and
     blacklist based anti-spam systems.

     The hashcash tool allows you to create hashcash stamps to attach to  emails
     you  send,  and  to  verify hashcash stamps attached to emails you receive.
     Email senders attach hashcash stamps with the X-Hashcash: header.	 Vendors
     and  authors  of  anti-spam  tools  are encouraged to exempt mail sent with
     hashcash from their blacklists and content based filtering rules.

     A hashcash stamp constitutes a proof-of-work which takes a  parameterizable
     amount  of  work  to  compute for the sender.  The recipient can verify re-
     ceived stamps efficiently.  This package also includes a  sha1  implementa-
     tion  which is equivalent in functionality to the sha1sum program available
     on some systems.

     The hashcash proof-of-work function is to compute	partial  hash  preimages
     (the  SHA1  hash  function is used).  By choosing the number of bits of the
     preimage that are equal to 0, the work required to compute a partial preim-
     age can be made arbitrarily expensive -- from fractions of a second to min-
     utes or hours.  The verification is efficient requiring the same small cost
     whatever the preimage size.

     For more detailed discussion of other applications hashcash has  been  used
     for see http://www.hashcash.org/

USAGE NOTES
     In  this man page a resource name is the name of the service or address the
     stamp is created for.  In the case of email, the resource name is	the  re-
     cipient's email address in the form user@domain.com.

     Minting stamps

     The -m flag must be given to mint a stamp.

     The resource name (recipient's email address) to mint the stamp against can
     be  passed as an argument, or if omitted is read from stdin.  If stdin is a
     tty the user is prompted, if stdin is a pipe  the	resource  name	is  just
     silently  read.  The desired preimage size can be specified with the -b op-
     tion.  If no preimage size is specified, the default is 20 bits.  See  also
     the -b default option.

     Checking stamps

     The -c flag must be given to check a stamps expiry.  The stamp to check can
     be  given	as an argument to "hashcash".  If no stamp is given the stamp is
     read from stdin.  If stdin is a tty the user will be prompted, if stdin  is
     a	pipe  the stamp is just silently read.	A resource name (the recipient's
     email address) can be given with the -r option.   If  a  resource	name  is
     given  the  resource name is compared to the resource name in the stamp, if
     they do not match, the stamp is rejected.

     Note: if no resource name is given the stamp is anyway checked to see if it
     is otherwise valid, but it could be minted for a different resource,  which
     would  allow  stamps  to  be reused across different resources, so hashcash
     will return unchecked exit code on exit.

     Stamps are by default considered to be valid for 28 days.	The validity pe-
     riod can be changed using the -e flag.

     If the stamp has expired or has a date in the future the stamp is	rejected
     and the program exits immediately.

     If  a required preimage size is given with the -b flag, the stamps value is
     computed and compared, if the stamp has insufficent value it  is  rejected,
     and  the program exits immediately.  If the -b flag is not given, the stamp
     is checked to see if it  is  otherwise  valid,  but  hashcash  will  return
     unchecked exit code on exit.

     If  the  stamp is double spent the stamp is rejected.  Double spending pro-
     tection is discussed in more detail below in "Double Spending  Protection".
     If  double  spending  protection  is not enabled, the stamp could be double
     spent, so hashcash will return unchecked exit code (exit code 2) on exit.

     The -w flag can be used to request that the number of bits of the	preimage
     are  counted and displayed. The -n flag can be used to request that the re-
     source name in the stamp is parsed out and displayed.  The -l flag  can  be
     used to request the number of seconds until expiry of the stamp is output.

     The  program will only return exit codes valid or invalid if the -c flag is
     used, the -b flag is used, -d, -r resource are used.  These are the minimum
     set of options necessary to fully check the validty of a stamp.   If  these
     criteria  are  not  met,  the program will return exit code unchecked (exit
     code 2) on exit.  (See also the -y flag.)

     Double Spending Protection

     If the -d flag is used when checking stamps, a database of spent stamps  is
     kept.

     By  default  stamps expire after 28 days, without expiry the database would
     grow indefinately.  You can specify an alternate expiry period with the  -e
     flag.   The  recommended  (and default) expiry period for email is 28 days.
     After the expiry period amount of time, the stamp is anyway considered  ex-
     pired and may be purged from the database to save space.  (See "Purging Pe-
     riodically vs on Next Access" for how to purge stamps.)

     For  efficiency  reasons  a  stamp  is verified before it is checked in the
     database; if it is otherwise invalid no database activity will occur.

     Note: The decision about how long the stamp should be considered  valid  is
     up  to  the  verifier.  If it is too short it is possible for some applica-
     tions that the stamp will expire before arriving at the recipient (eg  with
     email.)  The suggested value of 28 days should be safe for normal email de-
     livery delays.  The choice is a trade-off between database size and risk of
     expiry prior to arrival, and depends on the application.

     Note: Different stamps in the same database can have different validity pe-
     riods,  so for example stamps for different resources with different valid-
     ity periods can be stored in the same database, or the recipient may change
     the validity period for future stamps without affecting the validity of old
     stamps.

     Purging Periodically vs on Next Access

     To purge old stamps periodically while checking stamps use  the  -p  period
     option  to purge no sooner than the given time period since the last purge.
     Purging can be used with the -k option to purge unexpired stamps also,  and
     with the -j resource flag to purge only stamps for the given resource.

     There are circumstances where it may be inconvenient to purge stamps on the
     next  access,  for  example if there is a large double spend database which
     takes some time to purge, and the response time of the hashcash checker  is
     important.   To  avoid  this  problem, purging can be done separately using
     just the -p now option to request just the purge operation.   On  unix  for
     example  you could call "hashcash -p now" in a cron job once per day, or on
     demand when disk was running low.

     Speed Estimates

     The -s flag requests measurement of how many preimage  can  be  tested  per
     second.  No stamp is minted, or verified.

     If  the  -b  flag is used with this option, instead an estimate of how many
     seconds it would take to mint a stamp of the given size  in  bits	is  com-
     puted.   To  find	out  how  much time it will take to mint a default sized
     stamp use -s -b default.

     Notes

     All informational output is printed on stderr.  Minted stamps, and  results
     of  stamp verification and timing are printed on stdout.  The quiet flag -q
     suppresses all informational output.  The -v flag	requests  more	informa-
     tional output.  The requested output, which is the only information that is
     output  in quiet mode (when -q is specified) is printed on standard output.
     If stdout is a pipe, or when quiet mode is in effect the output is  printed
     without description (ie just bits, just seconds, just resource).

OPTIONS
     -c  Check	the  expiry  information  of  stamps  given as an argument or on
	 stdin.  (Use with -b, -d and -r resource to fully check stamps).

     -m  Mint stamps with the resources given as arguments or on stdin.

     -b bits
	 When minting a stamp, create a preimage of at	least  this  many  bits.
	 When  verifying  a  stamp require that it have a preimage of at minimum
	 this many bits, otherwise reject it.  If omitted the default is used.

	 When checking stamps, require that the stamps have this many bits.

	 The default number of bits can be specified with -b default.  Bits rel-
	 ative to the default can also be specified with -b +n for n  bits  more
	 than the default and -b -n for n bits less than the default.

	 -b default, -b +0 and -b -0 are all equivalent.

	 When  doing  the  speed  test -s, can to measure speed of default token
	 with -s -b default.

     -r resource
	 When minting stamps, the resource name (recipient's email  address)  to
	 mint  the  stamp  against can be given either with -r resource or as an
	 argument to "hashcash".

	 When checking stamps, the resource name (your	own  email  address)  is
	 given	with the -r option.  If the resource name is given it is checked
	 against the resource name in the stamp, and if they do  not  match  the
	 stamp	is rejected.  Note if the resource name is not given, stamps for
	 other resources would be accepted, and therefore hashcash returns  exit
	 code unchecked (exit code 2) on exit.

     -o  When  verifying stamps multiple resources can be given.  By default the
	 resources are just checked one by one until a matching  valid	resource
	 is  found.   However when you use wildcards or regular expressions (see
	 -E), it is useful to be able to specify that one resource overrides an-
	 other.  For example this: -b15  -r  adam@dev.null  -o	-b10  *@dev.null
	 states that mail to address adam@dev.null requires 15 bits, but mail to
	 *@dev.null  requires only 10 bits.  If we omitted the -o override rela-
	 tionship between the two resources, a stamp of 10  bits  would  be  ac-
	 cepted  for address adam@dev.null because while it would be rejected as
	 having insufficient bits under the first rule, it would be accepted un-
	 der the 2nd rule.  The -o option allows you avoid this problem.

     -e time
	 Expiry period for spent stamps.  While checking stamps  (using  the  -c
	 flag),  if  the stamp was minted more than the specified amount of time
	 ago, it is considered expired.  If this option is not used, by  default
	 stamps  expire after 28 days.	The expiry period is given in seconds by
	 default (an argument of 0 means forever).  A  single  character  suffix
	 can  be  used	to  specify alternate units (m = minutes, h = hours, d =
	 days, M = months, y = Y = years, and s = seconds).

	 If used with the -d option, the spent stamp and its  expiry  period  is
	 recorded  in the database.  See the -p option for description of how to
	 purge stamps from the database.

	 While minting stamps, the -e flag can have an effect on the  resolution
	 of time created in the stamp.	Without the -e option, the default reso-
	 lution is days (time format: YYMMDD).	Alternate formats based on range
	 of expiry period are as follows:

	 While minting you can also given an explicit time width with the -z op-
	 tion  instead.   (-z  overrides  -e  if both are given.  If neither are
	 given the default is 6 chars (time format: YYMMDD)).

	 The rules for automatically determining appropriate time width from  -e
	 if no -z option is given are:

	 * period >= 2 years then time format YY is used rounded down to the
	 nearest year start;
	 * 2 years < period <= 2 months then time format YYMM is used rounded
	 down to the nearest month start;
	 * 2 months < period <= 2 days then time format YYMMDD is used rounded
	 down to the begining of the nearest day;
	 * 2 days < period <= 2 minutes then time format YYMMDDhhmm is used
	 rounded down to the begining of the nearest minute;
	 * period < 2 minutes then time format YYMMDDhhmmss is used in seconds.

	 Note  the rounding down is based on UTC time, not local time.	This can
	 lead to initially suprising results when rounding down to  eg	days  in
	 time zones other than GMT (UTC = GMT).  It may be clearer to understand
	 if you use the -u option.

     -z width
	 The -z option is for use during minting and allows user choice of width
	 of  time width field.	See also the -e option given in combination with
	 -m to specify an implicit time field width under the description of the
	 -e flag.  Valid widths are 6,10 or 12 chars corresponding  respectively
	 to:  YYMMDD,  YYMMDDhhmm,  and YYMMDDhhmmss rounded down to the nearest
	 day, or minute respectively.

	 Note the rounding down is based on UTC time, not local time.  This  can
	 lead  to  initially  suprising results when rounding down to eg days in
	 time zones other than GMT (UTC = GMT).  It may be clearer to understand
	 if you use the -u option.

     -g period
	 The -g option is for use when checking hashcash stamps with the -c  op-
	 tion  and  specifies  a  grace  period for clock skew, ie if a hashcash
	 stamp arrives with a date in the future or in the past it will  not  be
	 rejected as having a futuristic date (or as being expired) unless it is
	 more futuristic (or has been expired for longer) than this period.  The
	 default is 2 days, which means as long as the sending system's clock is
	 no  more than 2 days ahead (or 2 days behind) of the receiving system's
	 clock, the hashcash stamp will still be accepted.

	 The default units for grace period are  seconds.   A  single  character
	 suffix  can be used to specify alternate units (m = minutes, h = hours,
	 d = days, M = months, y = Y = years, and s = seconds).

     -d  Store stamps in a double spend database.  If stamp has been seen before
	 it will be rejected even if it is otherwise valid.  The  default  data-
	 base  file  is  database.sdb  in the current directory.  Only otherwise
	 valid stamps will be stored in  the  database.   Only	fully  validated
	 stamps will be stored in the database, unless the -y option is given.

     -f dbname
	 Use dbname instead of default filename for double spend database.

     -p period
	 Purges  the  database	of  expired  stamps if the given time period has
	 passed since the last time it was purged.  As a convenience -p  now  is
	 equivalent to -p 0 both of which mean purge now, regardless of when the
	 database was last purged.

	 If  used in combination with -j resource only the stamps minted for the
	 given resource are purged.

	 If used in combination with -k all stamps even  un-expired  stamps  are
	 purged.   Can	be  used in combination with -t time to expire as if the
	 current time were the given time.

     -k  Use with option -p to request all stamps are purged  rather  than  just
	 expired ones.

     -j resource
	 Use  with  option -p to request that just stamps matching the given re-
	 source name are to be purged, rather than the default which is to purge
	 all expired stamps.  If the resource name  is	the  empty  string,  all
	 stamps are matched (this is equivalent to omitting the -j option).

	 Note  the  -E,  -M  and  -S type of match flags also apply to resources
	 given with the -j resource flag.

     -s  Print timing information only, and don't proceed to create a stamp.  If
	 combined with -b bits flag print estimate of  how  long  the  requested
	 preimage size would take to compute, if -s given by itself, just prints
	 speed of the preimage finder.	To print an estimate of how long the de-
	 fault number of bits would take use -b default.

     -h  Print short usage information.

     -v  Print more verbose informational output about the stamp minting or ver-
	 ification.   (If  -v is the only argument, prints the tool version num-
	 ber.)

     -V  Prints tool version number.

     -q  Batch mode.  Prints no information  other  than  output.   This  option
	 overrides the -v option.

     -X  When  minting, prints the hashcash email X-header 'X-Hashcash: ' before
	 the stamp.  Without this option just the bare stamp is printed.

	 When checking, after scanning stamps given as	arguments,  scans  stdin
	 for  lines starting with the string 'X-Hashcash:', and uses the rest of
	 the matching line as the stamp.  Only the lines up to and ending at the
	 first blank line are scanned (see also -i flag which  can  be	used  to
	 override  this).   A  blank  line is the separator used to separate the
	 headers from the body of a mail message or  USENET  article.	This  is
	 meant to make it convenient to pipe a mail message or USENET article to
	 hashcash on stdin.

     -x extension
	 An  extension string composed of name value sets.  The extension format
	 is described below in the section on the hashcash stamp  format.   This
	 allows users to define their own stamp extensions which are hashed into
	 the stamp, verified by recipients that support them, and ignored by re-
	 cipients  that  don't	support them.  Note the extension hook mechanism
	 has not yet been implemented.	This will come in a subsequent release.

     -i  When checking and using the -X flag, ignore the blank line boundary be-
	 tween headers and body of the message, and check for stamps in the body
	 too if one is not found in the headers.

     -t time
	 Pretend the current time is the time  given  for  purposes  of  minting
	 stamps,  verifying  stamps  and  purging  old stamps from the database.
	 Time is given in a format based on UTCTIME format YYMMDD[hhmm[ss]].

	 Time is expressed in local time by default.  Use with -u flag	to  give
	 time in UTC (GMT).

	 You  can  also  give time relative to the current time by prefixing the
	 argument with + or -.	The default units for relative time are seconds.
	 A single character suffix can be used to specify alternate units  (m  =
	 minutes,  h  = hours, d = days, M = months, y = Y = years, and s = sec-
	 onds).

	 Note: when time is expressed in local time, if there is  daylight  sav-
	 ings in your timezone, there are one or two ambiguous hours per year at
	 the time of change from daylight savings time to normal time.

     -u  Input and output absolute times in UTC (GMT) instead of local time.

     -a period
	 Add (or subtract if number is negative) a random value from the current
	 time  before minting the stamp.  This hides the time the stamp was cre-
	 ated, which may be useful for anonymous  users.   Note  adding  (rather
	 than  subtracting)  a	random time may be risky if the stamp takes less
	 than the added time to arrive as the recipient will reject stamps  with
	 time stamps in the future.

     -n  Print	resource  name	parsed	from stamp being verified.  Returns exit
	 code unchecked on exit.

     -l  Print number of seconds left before stamp expires.  Returns  exit  code
	 unchecked on exit.

	 Note:	the  calculation  includes  the  grace period, so can be up to 2
	 times grace period longer than you might otherwise expect  (clock  fast
	 but  system  has  to presume it could be slow).  If you want to exclude
	 the grace period add -g0 to set grace period to 0 for the calculation.

     -w  Print number of bits of preimage of stamp.  Returns exit code unchecked
	 on exit.

     -y  Returns success if the stamp is valid even if it is not fully	checked.
	 Use  with  -c where not all of -d, -r are specified to get success exit
	 code on valid but partially checked stamp.  Similarly can use with  -n,
	 -l, -w with same effect.

     -M  When checking stamps, allow wildcard * matching in the resource name to
	 make it simpler to specify multiple email addresses and to allow match-
	 ing  catch-all  addresses  and addresses including subdomains.  This is
	 the default.  See also -S, -E and -C

     -S  When checking stamps use simple text compare to compare resource  names
	 to those in stamps.  See also -M, -E and -C.

     -E  When  checking stamps use regular expressions to specify resource names
	 to make it simpler to specify multiple email addresses,  catch-all  ad-
	 dresses,  classes of extension addresses and addresses including subdo-
	 mains.  Note regular expression syntax is POSIX style: special  charac-
	 ters  do  not need to be quoted to have their special meaning; but they
	 do have to be quoted with \ to that character in the  searched  string.
	 The regular expression automatically has ^ added at the beginning and $
	 added	at the end, if they are not specified.	The special characters ^
	 matches the beginning of the resouce, and $  matches  the  end  of  re-
	 source.

	 (Note even if compiled with BSD regular expressions, POSIX style syntax
	 is used; also note BSD regular expressions do not support ranges {}.)

     -C  By  default resources are canonicalized to lower case on minting and on
	 checking.  The -C flag overrides this so that resources are treated  as
	 case sensitive on checking, and not canonizalized on minting.

     -P  Print	progress  info	(number of iterations, expected iterations, per-
	 centage done, best stamp size found so far).

     -O core
	 Select hashcash core with that number.  Currently 0-9 are valid  cores.
	 Not  all cores work on all architectures.  Eg some are x86 specific as-
	 sembler, others PPC specific assembler.  If a core is not  valid  hash-
	 cash returns failure and explains what happened.

     -Z nCompress  the stamp.  This is a time vs space trade off.  Larger stamps
	 are faster, but arguably slightly ugly.  For fastest  stamps  (the  de-
	 fault)  use  -Z 0; for partly compressed stamps use -Z 1; for very com-
	 pressed, but somewhat slow stamps use -Z 2.  (Note: due to a late  dis-
	 covered bug, -Z2 is the same as -Z1 for now until I can fix that.)

EXAMPLES
     Creating stamps

     "hashcash -s"
	 Print	timing	information about how many preimages the machine can try
	 per second.

     "hashcash -sv"
	 More accurate but quite slow benchmarking of different  processor  spe-
	 cific minting cores.

     "hashcash -s -b default"
	 Print	how  long  it  would take the machine to compute a default sized
	 preimage (but don't actually compute a preimage).

     "hashcash -s -b 32"
	 Print how long it would take the machine to compute a 32  bit	preimage
	 (but don't actually compute a preimage).

     "hashcash -m"
	 Mint  a  stamp.   Will  prompt  for resource name and mint with default
	 value (number of preimage bits).

     "hashcash -m foo"
	 Compute preimage on resource foo.  Will mint with default value (number
	 of preimage bits).

     "hashcash -m foo -b 10"
	 Compute 10 bit preimage on resource foo.

     "hashcash -a -3d"
	 Subtract a random time of between 0 days and 3 days  from  the  stamp's
	 creation  time.   This is the same fuzz factor used by mixmaster to re-
	 duce risk of timing-correlations.

     Examining Stamps

     "hashcash -w 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 Report the value of the stamp (how many bits of  preimage)  there  are.
	 The  example is a 24 bit preimage, which takes on average 25 seconds to
	 create on a 3Ghz P4.

     "hashcash -mq -b 10 foo | hashcash -w"
	 Create a stamp in batch mode, pass to hashcash on stdin to verify, have
	 it print how many bits there were.

     "hashcash -n 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 Report the resource name from the stamp.  The resource name in the  ex-
	 ample is foo.

     "hashcash -l -e 30y 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 Report  how long until the stamp expires if it expires in 30 years from
	 its creation date.  (Note dates too far into the future  run  into  the
	 2038 end of Epoch, which is the unix time analog of the y2k bug).

     Verifying Stamps

     "hashcash -c 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 Check	if the stamp is valid.	Note as we are not checking the stamp in
	 a double spend database, and did not specify a  resource  name  or  re-
	 quired  number of bits of preimage and hashcash will consider the stamp
	 not fully checked, and it  will  report  it  as  valid  but  not  fully
	 unchecked, or as invalid if there is any problem with the stamp.

     "hashcash -c -b24 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 Check that the value of the stamp is greater or equal to 24 bits.  This
	 example has 24 bit value.  If you increase the requested number of bits
	 or  replace the stamp with one with less than 24 bit preimage the stamp
	 will be rejected.

     "hashcash -c -b24 -r foo 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 As above check if the stamp has sufficient value, but in addition check
	 that the resource name given matches the resource name in the stamp.

     Double Spending Prevention

     The examples given in "Verifying Stamps" can be modified to keep  a  double
     spend  database  so that the same stamp will not be accepted twice.  Note a
     stamp will only be checked in and added to the database if it is  otherwise
     valid  and  fully	checked  (a required number of bits of preimage has been
     specified and a resource has been specified).

     "hashcash -cd -b 10 -r foo 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 Check the stamp and add to double spent database  if  it's  valid  (has
	 correct resource name and sufficient value).

     "hashcash -cd -b 10 -r foo 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 Try to double spend the stamp.  It will be rejected as double spent.

     Stamp Expiry

     To  prevent  the  double spend database growing indefinately, the recipient
     can request that stamps be no older than a specified period.  After  expiry
     old  stamps  can  dropped	from  the  double spend database as they will no
     longer be needed -- expired stamps can be rejected based  purely  on  their
     old date, so the space taken by expired stamps in the double spend database
     can  be  saved  without risk of accepting an expired though otherwise valid
     stamp.

     The third field of the stamp is the UTC time since 1st January  1970.   The
     default  time  format is YYMMDD, time rounded down to the nearest day.  The
     default validity period is 28 days.

     You can provide an alternative validity period with the -e option.

     "hashcash -cd -b 10 -e 2d -r foo 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 Try verifying an old stamp, the above stamp was created 11 Aug 2002.

	 We gave option -e 2d so the stamps expiry date is  2  days  after  cre-
	 ation, which is now in the past.

	 Note:	if the creation time is expressed in the stamp in days, the pre-
	 cise creation date is the begining of the specified  day  in  UTC  time
	 (similarly for alternate units the creation time is rounded down to the
	 begining of the unit it is expressed in).  For units in days, for exam-
	 ple,  this  may mean depending on your time zone that the stamp appears
	 to be considered invalid in under the specified expiry period	in  days
	 relative to your relative view of what day it is, as the calculation is
	 based on current time in UTC, and the creation time of the stamp is ex-
	 pressed in UTC time.

     "hashcash -cd -b 10 -r foo 1:24:040806:foo::511801694b4cd6b0:1e7297a"
	 Test  whether	the stamp is otherwise valid, apart from having expired.
	 Omitting the -e tells hashcash that the stamp will  never  expire.   An
	 expiry  period  of  forever can also be given explitly like this: -e 0,
	 where an expiry period of 0 means forever.

     Purging old stamps

     If the -c, -d options are used together, each time a stamp is  checked,  if
     it  is  valid  and  all  of the mandatory aspects of the stamp are verified
     (preimage bits check, resource name check) then the stamp	and  its  expiry
     period  is  written  to the database file.  The default expiry period if an
     expiry period is not given explicitly with the -e option  is  28  days  (ie
     stamps expire after 4 weeks).

     First mint and then add a stamp:

     "hashcash -m -b 10 foo -e 1m > stamp"
	 Note: we specified an expiry on minting in this example, to ensure that
	 the stamp creation time is given in high enough resolution in the stamp
	 that  the  stamp  will  not  be considered expired at time of creation.
	 (Recall the default resolution is in days, a stamp created with a  cre-
	 ation	time  rounded down to the beginging of the day is unlikely to be
	 considered valid 1 minute later unless you  mint  it  at  midnight  UTC
	 time.)

     "hashcash -cd -e 1m -b 10 -r foo < stamp"
	 The  stamp  expires in 1 minute.  Wait 1 minute and then explicitly re-
	 quest that expired stamps be purged:

     "hashcash -p now"
	 Then try resubmitting the same stamp:

     "hashcash -cd -e 1m -b 10 -r foo < stamp"
	 and the stamp will be rejected anyway as it has  expired,  illustrating
	 why it was not necessary to keep this stamp in the database.

	 With  the  default  database (the sdb format) the database contents are
	 human readable, so you can view their contents by cating  them  to  the
	 terminal:

     "cat hashcash.sdb"
	 to  see  that	the  stamp  really is added and then after puring subse-
	 quently purged due to expiry.

     Purging old stamps on Demand

     As a convenience you can purge at the same time as checking stamps by using
     the -p option with the -c option.

     "hashcash -m -b 10 foo > stamp"
     "hashcash -cd -p now -e 1 -b 10 -r foo < stamp"
	 It may be inefficient to purge stamps on every use as the entire  data-
	 base  has to be scanned for expired stamps.  By giving a time period to
	 the -p option, you can tell "hashcash" to purge no more frequently than
	 that time period since the previous purge.

	 For example:

     "hashcash -cd -p 1d -e 1 -b 10 -r foo < stamp"
	 tells "hashcash" to purge any expired stamps no more than once per day.

     "hashcash -p 1M -j foo"
	 tells "hashcash" to purge only expired  stamps  matching  resource  foo
	 once per month.

     "hashcash -p now -k"
	 tells "hashcash" to purge all stamps (expired and unexpired) now.

stamp format (version 1)
     The  current stamp format is version 1.  This tool can verify hashcash ver-
     sion 0 stamps also, but version 0 stamps are no longer created as they  are
     being phased out in favor of the more extensible v1 stamp format.

     ver:bits:date:resource:[ext]:rand:counter

     where

     ver = 1
     bits = how many bits of partial-preimage the stamp is claimed to have
     date = YYMMDD[hhmm[ss]]
     resource = resource string (eg IP address, email address)
     ext = extension -- ignored in the current version
	 Format of extension:

	 [name1[=val1[,val2...]];[name2[=val1[,val2...]]...]]
	     Note  the	value can also contain =.  Example extension (not a real
	     one):

		     name1=2,3;name2;name3=var1=2,var2=3,2,val

	     Which would be extension name1 has values 2 and 3; extension  name2
	     has no values; extension name3 has 3 values "var1=2", "var2=3", "2"
	     and  "val".   The hashcash extension may interpret the values as it
	     sees fit eg "var1=2" could be the value of an option to the  exten-
	     sion name3.

     rand = string of random characters from alphabet a-zA-Z0-9+/= to avoid
     preimage with other sender's stamps
     counter = to find a stamp with the desired number of preimage bits need to
     try lots of different strings this counter is incremented on each try. The
     Counter is also composed of characters from the alphabet a-zA-Z0-9+/=.
     (Note an implementation is not required to count sequentially).

FILES
     hashcash.sdb
	 default double spend database

EXIT STATUS
     "hashcash"  returns  success  (exit  code	0)  after successfully minting a
     stamp, after fully checking a stamp and finding it valid, and after a  tim-
     ing test.

     If when checking a stamp it is found to be invalid (due to being malformed,
     being  expired,  having insufficient value, having a date in the future, or
     being double spent), "hashcash" returns failure (exit code 1).

     If insufficient options are given to fully check a stamp, if the  stamp  is
     otherwise	valid  return  unchecked (exit code 2).  If the -y flag is given
     and hashcash would normally return unchecked, exit code success is returned
     instead.

     If any exception occurs (file read failure for database  checking	or  cor-
     rupted database contents) an exit status of 3 is returned.

AUTHOR
     Written by Adam Back <adam@cypherspace.org>

SEE ALSO
     sha1sum(1), sha1-hashcash(1), sha1(1), http://www.hashcash.org/

1.22				   2006-04-07			     HASHCASH(1)

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