From: Jim McCoy <mccoy@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 00:40:45 PST
To: bugs@netsys.com (Mark Hittinger)
Subject: Re: re: re: digital cash
In-Reply-To: <199403160417.AA06399@netsys.com>
Message-ID: <199403160840.AA26796@tramp.cc.utexas.edu>
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Mark Hittinger <bugs@netsys.com> writes
> >Mark Hittinger writes:
> > [...stuff about gold and what digital currency will represent in "real
> > value"... ]
[...]
> Another thought, could digital cash become more valuable than other
> forms of cash because of its unique characteristics?

Yes.  There will be nothing more liquid than information in an information
society.  Nothing.

> As more people see
> the advantages of digital cash then there might be bidding for the 
> available pool.  If digital cash supply is restricted in some way,
> early converters would gain advantage.

Limiting the pool is harder than you would think.  Use all the numbers you
want, we'll make more :)

Seriously, the secret is to remember that the net transcends geopolitical
boundaries.  All you need is _one_ bank that can/will convert cash to
digital money and then _everyone in the world who can get an internet
connection can use it_.  The sun never sets on the string of machines I
have accounts on (I think...there is never a globe handy when you need
one...), and with the secure communications systems that are possible how
could any government hope to stop us?


> I'm not advocating gold, or 1972 dollars, or 1974 dollars, or 1979 dollars,
> or .....

But it would be possible.  That is the real danger digital cash poses to
government authority over the monetary system.  Once I can get my dollars
or dinars, or donuts exchanged into digital cash it is possible for me to
do things to it never before dreamed of.  I can take my locally exchanged
digital-donuts, put them on the net, and send them over to a bank in some
small island nation with lax banking laws for instant conversion at the
moments rate to some other international currency and transferal through
several anonymous accounts, and then zip them over to a network gold server
that will create a certified bullion deposit for me in a real bank.  

I can untracably convert my paycheck into a gold deposit in a foreign
nation while sitting in my living room wearing nothing but my socks. I can
conduct intricate financial transactions that are completely outside the
realm of my governement to regulate, imagine what would happen to the
governement if _everyone_ could hide and launder assets as easy as criminal
syndicates.  If this does not cause some federal banker an ulcer or two
then they have no idea what the future will bring them, all the better for
us... 

jim