Re: distinctive properties of ecash, netbill, cybercash and iKP

[J�ri Kaljundi <jk@stallion.ee>]

 Sat, 11 May 1996, Jon Moore wrote:

> Bert-Jan said:
> 
> >=B7 Monetary value: it must be backed by either cash (currency), bank
> >authorized credit, or a bank-certified cashier's check, so that it is
> >easily accepted by others.
> 
> The banks/cash-issuing corporations are likely to support anything
> that is secure enough, and looks like a runner, because any e-money
> scheme is profitable to them (they earn interest on the
> corresponding real cash while the e-money is in circulation). 

This is one question why the central bank in Estonia (I am not sure about
other countries) does not allow issuing e-cash here in Estonia. While the
banks issue e-cash to people, they get some real cash from people.  This
leads to actually doubleing the money in circulation, each monetary unit,
either dollar or kroon, can at the same time be used by owner of e-cash
and at the same time by the bank. The central banks are afraid that when
the amount of e-cash in circulation gets big, this could lead to
devalvation of money, especially a small country like Estonia is afraid of
such development.

Anonymity of monetary transactions is another thing that Bank of Estonia
has declared illegal.

Juri Kaljundi
jk@stallion.ee
AS Stallion