We have learned that Steve Crocker, one of the three founders of CyberCash Inc and a computer industry pioneer has left the company, where he held the position of chief technology officer. Crocker told us that he is just taking a few months off and that it is the first real break he has had for thirty years. According to the company he has not taken any position with another company, nor will he stay on as a consultant: he’s just enjoying life, and finished work at the end of last quarter, said Maureen Loftus, VP merchant service at CyberCash. His role will now be shared between Eric Buchbinder, a founder of ICVerify Inc, that CyberCash bought last year and Brian Boesch, VP internet interfaces. Crocker was the person who on April 7 1969 produced a document called Host Software about the software to be put on four computers called Information Message Processors (IMP) to enable them to talk to each other across what was then known as the Arpanet, the precursor to the internet that Crocker was instrumental in establishing while at UCLA. The document was called Request for Comments number 1 – RFC 1. RFCs have since become the way most standards in internet computing are formed. Crocker went on to write some of the most important RFCs throughout the 1970s and beyond and contribute to numerous standards bodies, including the IETF and the IAB. He co-founded CyberCash in 1994 with CEO Bill Melton, Dan Lynch and Bruce Wilson.
