Paranoia and the Outlawing of Cash

[Eric Hughes <hughes@soda.berkeley.edu>]

>In Denmark practically everybody has a 'DAN-card', [...]

Universality.

>[...] all purchaces, no matter how small, can be charged [...]

Arbitrarily small transactions.

>There is no charge for using [...] the card

Subsidized.

The Dan-card system uses dial-up authentications for a large part (if
not all) of its transactions.  The telecom charges are causing the
system to run at a large loss; this wouldn't be a commercially viable
system.  The Danish government is looking at making 'DAN-coin', which
would be a smart card system that relies upon the physical security of
the device.  Since no on-line telecom charges incur, the coin system 
will be much easier to deploy.

Eric