Re: Electronic Banking

"On a related note, I noticed an article on electronic money in a recent
 issue of _the_Futurist_.  It kept on coming back to the big advantage of
 cryptomoney:  it is completely traceable.  The main point was that
 cryptomoney would eliminate black marketeering (including the drug trade)."

I don't think cash will _ever_ be eliminated. If it is, someone will make
their own ( banks did this for many decades in North America ) and these
will fill the role.

There will always be transactions which will not justify the cost of the
overhead in hardware and transaction processing, and market pressures will
reward those whom develop a way to avoid this overhead, IMHO.

-- richard

> I don't think cash will _ever_ be eliminated. 

> There will always be transactions which will not justify the cost of the
> overhead in hardware and transaction processing, and market pressures will
> reward those whom develop a way to avoid this overhead, IMHO.

You can not depend on this.  The government may subsidize the
transactions, reducing or elimintating the overhead.  For example it
may issue "free" (paid for by money extorted from you) Personal
Identitiy Cards, and install "public" Funds Transfer Terminals in most
public locations.

It may pass laws requiring every business to accept it (just write
"This Card is a Legal Tender..." on the card).

Then the only incentive for bypassing the system would be desire for
privacy, which, for the average American, is much weaker than the
economic incentive.


--
Yanek Martinson    mthvax.cs.miami.edu!safe0!yanek     uunet!medexam!yanek
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