Mark Twain Bank (was: Anonymity: A Modest Proposal) (fwd)

[sameer <sameer@c2.org>]

> pretty steep for someone wanting to spend $.10 on something.) My
> understanding is that the _bank account_ is FDIC insured, but not
> the ECash. I could be wrong -- their materials are extremely confusing
> and hard to follow.

	My understanding is that the accounts are "WorldCurrency
Access" accounts-- which appear to be Money Market funds, which can be
denominated in one of 25 currencies. (Ecash-linked accounts must be
denominated in dollars.) Being a money market fund, a positive return
is -not- guaranteed, and it is not FDIC insured. It is an "investment"
account, not a "savings" account. (That is my understanding, which
could very well be flawed.)

	Does anyone understand their non-merchant pricing structure?
It had me very confused. Also, what is the difference between a
merchant and a non-merchant. I saw nothing on the pages describing
that. Suppose Community ConneXion wanted to accept ecash. Could we get
a non-merchant account?

> 
> As one of my co-workers said today, "It will be interesting to sit
> back and watch them take regulatory mortar fire." Indeed.
> 
> I'm really hoping that they pull their act together -- I've already
> sent in my account application -- but things look really grim at
> the moment. There are certainly a lot of projects list members are
> working on that would be greatly enhanced by functioning, popular
> e-cash. I encourage everyone to give them lots of helpful feedback
> so that they can turn this around.
> 
> On another note, I'm hoping that some of you will also bite the
> bullet, get accounts, and join me attempting to win valuable
> prizes in Sameer's "Hack Digicash" promotion. I'd rather see one
> of us find holes in this than see the whole thing melt into the
> ground.
> 
> This extremely unprofessional, bungled launch does, I admit, make
> Mondex (with scads of beautiful marketing literature) look better all
> the time, although based on some conversations on Sunday, it appears
> that they may have _extremely serious_ architectural security problems.
> We'll see how things play out.
> 
> Later,
> 
> Doug
> 
> >        With the release of digicash I hope that we can soon make this
> >stuff for-pay and much of the spam problem will be fixed. (Not all of
> >it, of course.)
> >        (I am rather hesitatnt to setup an account with Mark Twain
> >though.. $2,500 min balance and not FDIC insured?)
> 
> 


-- 
sameer						Voice:   510-601-9777
Community ConneXion				FAX:	 510-601-9734
The Internet Privacy Provider			Dialin:  510-658-6376
http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest")			sameer@c2.org