From: Richard Johnson <johnsonr@spot.Colorado.EDU>
Date: Wed, 4 May 94 11:15:39 PDT
To: "Michael V. Caprio Jr." <mikecap@wpi.edu>
Subject: Re: Why Digital Cash is Not Being Used
In-Reply-To: <mikecap@WPI.EDU>
Message-ID: <199405041815.MAA01813@spot.Colorado.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


  From the keyboard of:  "Michael V. Caprio Jr." <mikecap@WPI.EDU>
> BTW, what is fungible?  I've seen this term used several times, but have no
> idea what it means.

When I don't know what a word means, I grab for a dictionary. :-)

If we're going to implement digital cash, we need to understand at
least the basics of monetary systems, and the terms involved.
Accordingly, the American Heritage Dictionary brings you:

fungible (fun-jih-bull) adj.
  1. Law. Returnable or negotiable in kind or by substitution, as a
  quantity of grain for an equal amount of the same kind of grain.
  2. Interchangeable.

fungible (fun-jih-bull) n.
  Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Often used in the
  plural. [Medieval Latin fungibilis, from Latin fungh (vice), to
  perform (in place of).]  - fungibility n.


Richard