e$: WSJ, CyberCash, and the Falling Barometer

[rah@shipwright.com (Robert Hettinga)]

On the front page of today's (9/13/94) Wall Street Journal Marketing
section (Page B-1, lower right hand column) is an article about internet
commerce. It talks about a group of companies who formed a consortium
called CyberCash. The companies and players include the guy who started
Interop, and RSA.  They are claiming the ability to do credit cards and
bank drafts and they say they are in negotiations with Chaum about
licencing digital cash. Anonymity was specifically mentioned as a
distinguishing marketable feature of digital cash. They still don't get it,
but they will soon enough, I suppose.

BTW, there was a veiled reference to Bibliobytes(?).  At least the WSJ got
their story straighter than the Times did.

Like I said before, Secure Mosaic meant that "Wallets" and "Cash Registers"
for digital cash were imminent.  They're not imminent anymore, they're
here, and they were just announced at Interop this week.

I should have realized something was up, the barometer was falling at a
pretty good clip.

It started when I was chatting offline with someone from buyinfo and they
said that they were under non-disclosure about something very big, but that
I would know about it when Interop opened.

Then, last Tuesday, I got an interesting cold call from a stringer for a
largeish venture capital outfit in Menlo Park. He was doing due dillegence
and wanted to ask me some questions about Internet Commerce, and in
particular, about digital cash. I told him what I knew, and referred him to
some of the senior members of these lists for much better information. I
bent his ear a bit about off-line cash underwriting, and I hope it's
healing now.  I also sent him all of the traffic I had archived since I
subscribed to cypherpunks having to do with the internet and the economics
thereof. He had the buyinfo and imp-interest archives already.

He seemed to think a "schmooze" conference on e$, including invitations to
all the usual crypto suspects, plus people in financial operations,
regulatory, political, and the institutional investor community might be a
good idea.

When I came back from a hike(!) in the White Mountains this weekend, I
found at long last a reply to my query to DigiCash, Inc. for information.
I answered the beta test questionnaire they sent me and sent it back.

The barometric pressure was going down very fast all last week, and I
didn't even realize it until this morning.

My wife got a membership at the Harvard club.  A couple of months ago we
decided it was time for me to exercise (I push 350), so I work out in the
morning there and walk back to the office in my house here in Roslindale
(about 7 miles) about 3 or 4 times a week. (ever see the senior senator
from Massachusetts' bare butt? You will... at the Harvard Club)

This morning, when I looked at the Journal in the locker room, I let out a
whoop. (not from seeing Teddy. From seeing the WSJ e$ article.) I was born
in El Paso. I whoop a lot. Everyone in the locker room looked at me like I
was from Yale, or something. Jeez. I hope we don't get blackballed.


A very happy Tuesday to you all,
Bob Hettinga

Oh. If anyone's crazy enough to want to work on the technology part
(development and integration and eventual operations) for very small
startup offline digital cash underwriter, let me know. I've already started
talking to a finance guy and a (very) part-time treasury management person.


It also looks like the legal stuff has been figured out, or CyberCash
wouldn't have done a triple-gainer into the pool like that.

Any job offer would be contingent upon funding, of course. ;-).



-----------------
Robert Hettinga  (rah@shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone
Shipwright Development Corporation     who eats too little and sees Heaven and
44 Farquhar Street                       someone who drinks too much and sees
Boston, MA 02331 USA                       snakes." -- Bertrand Russell
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