All our eggs in one basket?

["Alan (Gesture Man) Wexelblat" <wex@media.mit.edu>]

It seems we're worrying about something that is between a non-problem and a
simple copy of an existing problem.

Today we use paper cash and paper forms.  I go to the bank to make a
withdrawal, I fill out a paper form requesting money.  They take the form,
fail to give me cash, claim that I have been given cash.  What recourse do I
have?  (Several is the answer, but the point is that it's not a problem new
to digicash.)

Today I order from a supplier.  I send a paper form of payment (P.O., check,
paper copy of my CC #, etc.).  They cash such form and do not send me goods
(or claim that they did and they were lost in transit).  What recourse do I
have?  (Again, several.  Again the point is that digicash does not seem to
be introducing new problems; rather it's giving us new forms of old ones.)

As a side note: one of the reasons I use credit cards (even though it gives
a record of my purchases that can be used for marketing and other unintended
purposes) is that the CC company does a large volume of business and
guarantees my transaction.  If I dispute a charge with the merchant, the CC
company automatically takes my side.  They take it out of the merchant's
hide.  Plus, since the merchant doesn't want to be in a bad way with a big
customer (Visa, say) -- there is a huge incentive for him to make good, much
more incentive than if he were dealing with me directly.

For these reasons, I think that something like CC houses will still prosper
under a digicash regime.

--Alan Wexelblat, Reality Hacker, Author, and Cyberspace Bard
Media Lab - Advanced Human Interface Group	wex@media.mit.edu
Voice: 617-258-9168, Pager: 617-945-1842	PUBLIC KEY available by request
Try not to have a good time ... This is supposed to be educational.