Re: Digital Cash

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

On Tue, 3 May 1994 smb@research.att.com wrote:

> This underscores what I've said in the past about anonymous digital
> cash:  it's not going to go anywhere unless folks are willing to pay
> a premium for privacy.  There are too many sound reasons for keeping
> audit trails (debugging, fraud detection, marketing analysis, etc. --

Something overlooked in the real world that encourages the maintenance of
private payment systems (cash) is th existence of a large number of people
with bad credit.

About 20% of the US population has neither credit cards nor checking
accounts.  Some of this is because of personal preference but a lot of it
is because these people can't handle something as abstract as a checking
account without wrecking it.  They *need* cash which will enable them to
use the simple budget process of adjusting to declining balances.

Thus, we see the recently introduced computer phonecards which you can use
to buy long distance phone service in advance for cash.  No hassles with
telephone account which tend to require a fixed address in any case.

Note also the popularity of secured credit cards which are now issued by a
score of financial institutions.

There will continue to be a big market for "cash" to serve this market.

DCF

"If I had recently proposed to increase the American people's taxes by
$600,000,000,000 a year, *I* wouldn't want them to have assault rifles
either." -  DCF

Note - Last October, William Jefferson Blythe Clinton proposed to increase
our taxes by $600,000,000,000 a year or so.