RE: MONEY: cryptocash is transaction money

[Chris Knight <cknight@crl.com>]

On Sat, 19 Feb 1994, Pat Farrell wrote:

> I've been following the digital money issues here for quite some time,
> and I do not understand this distinction at all. Sandy said essentially the
> same thing in different words, and that too was beyond me.
> 
> Except for tangible money (i.e. 99.99% pure gold coins) I don't see that
> any money is anything other than a mutially agreed upon way of moving
> "barter tokens" between folks. Sometime the government (or Fed) can define
> the true value of the barter tokens, and othertimes their attempts fail.
> When the attempt fail, the usual course is to have a "devaluation" that
> reflects market realities.
> 
> I don't see how digital money is fundamentally different than
> private bank notes that were common in the US in the last century. They are
> good if they are accepted, and useless if not.
> 
> If this is really a critical distinction, since I don't see it, I'd
> appreciate a more concrete explaination.

  It may or may not be a critical distinction...  Do you consider a check 
to be "money"?  Or is it exchangable for money?  Does a wire transfer 
count as money, or is it simply a transfer of funds from one account to 
another?

  I don't see CypherBucks as true money.  It to me is a secure means of 
transferring cash from one account to another.  If you see a chech as 
money, I am pretty sure you won't agree with me.

  A check in itself is almost useless until rendered to a bank.  It is 
not legal tender.  You can't use a third party check at the store.  You 
can only deposit (transfer funds) or cash it (exchange for legal 
tender).  CypherBucks will probably go the same way.  If you issue me a 
transfer token, I won't be able to pass it off to Sandy since she won't 
be able to validate it's value, only the CypherBank will; so there will 
be no third party CypherBucks.  This brings it a little farther from 
legal tender.

  Of course, this is just my $ 0.01  It's too early on a saturday to put 
in a full 2 cents!

-ck