From: "Alan (Gesture Man) Wexelblat" <wex@media.mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 11:18:41 PST
To: szabo@netcom.com
Subject: Mostly offline digicash
In-Reply-To: <199311080455.UAA20560@mail.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <9311081918.AA27998@media.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Nick asks:
> Why haven't people backed away from credit cards despite $10's of billions
> in fraud? 

A very good question.  The reason is largely because it's a very profitable
business *for the card merchants* (banks, mostly).  They get their
percentage no matter what, and losses don't eat into it all that much.

I agree with much of what Nick says, but I think we have to consider ways to
help make digicash pay for its own implementation and enforcement, or it
will not take hold.

--Alan Wexelblat, Reality Hacker, Author, and Cyberspace Bard
Media Lab - Advanced Human Interface Group	wex@media.mit.edu
Voice: 617-258-9168, Pager: 617-945-1842	PUBLIC KEY available by request
Try not to have a good time ... This is supposed to be educational.