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

[Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>]

cman@communities.com (Douglas Barnes) writes:

>A technically-oriented NBFI
>could have done a much better job, without a lot of the "real bank"
>baggage, such as minimum deposits ($250, not $2,500, but still
>pretty steep for someone wanting to spend $.10 on something.)

I don't believe this is correct.  The $250 refers to foreign currency
accounts and is not relevant for ecash users.  The ecash account has an
account opening fee of $11 and a monthly fee of $5 for the low volume
user.  That is all the minimum there is, as I read it.  You can reduce
the per-month fee by paying more up front, but it isn't a net savings
until you've had the account open for about two years.

>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.

It seems that there are three places "your" money can be: in the "World
Currency Access" account, where it is insured; in the "ecash mint", a
separate account at the bank, where it is not insured and in fact is
considered withdrawn (?); and in your ecash wallet on your computer disk.
You can transfer funds back and forth between your wallet and the "mint"
freely, but transfers are limited between the World Currency account and
the "mint" account.  It does seem like an odd approach, but perhaps there
are some legal reasons for doing it like this.

Hal