Re: This is not "cash" if the government demands a report...

[azur@netcom.com (Steve Schear)]

At 4:51 PM 4/29/97, Kent Crispin wrote:
>On Tue, Apr 29, 1997 at 01:01:59PM -0800, Tim May wrote:
>> At 11:26 AM -0800 4/29/97, Kent Crispin wrote:
>> 
>> >I was refering to your purchase of the 'vette -- presuming the dealer
>> >followed the law, the sale would be reported, and the amount, and
>> >hence the transaction is not anonymous, even though you paid cash...
>> 
>> Ah, Kent, so you are citing the government's intervention in cash
>> transactions (part of the War on Some Drugs, of course) as evidence that
>> cash has flaws. Well, I wouldn't call this cash, not if the government
>> demands that True Names be taken down and reported.
>
>OK.  What would you call it, then? Perhaps you could think of another
>catchy, short name for those greenish bits of paper and circular metal
>objects I have in my pocket that I use to pay for lunch?

The coins in your pocket are 'legal tender' or currency, a non-intrest bearing bearer bond issued by the treasury.  Ecash and its ilk are private currencies, similar in some ways to traveller's checks and money orders which are unsecured and uninsured debts of the issuer, but legally closer to the tokens issued at an amusement park or or the premium stamps (like Blus Chip or S&H Green) which have all but disappeared.  Constitutionally, the government has only limited rights to restrict private the issueance and use of private currencies (Stamp Act of 1861 and its current codification under Title 18.)

--Steve


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