From: jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald)
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 94 20:33:00 PDT
To: rah@shipwright.com (Robert Hettinga)
Subject: Re: Voice/Fax Checks
In-Reply-To: <199407211118.HAA20691@zork.tiac.net>
Message-ID: <199407220333.UAA19905@netcom5.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Robert Hettinga writes
> ... the problem we're having with identifying a market for
> digital cash. There's no unique selling proposition besides privacy. There
> are too many real good substitutes, like this one for checks. E-mail with
> the above information in it can be encrypted and signed, and would be
> secure enough to make a real good check in its own right.

All existing substitutes are either insecure (credit cards) or involve
excessive labor and transaction costs.

Electronic transactions will take off like a rocket once they 
*undercut* existing methods.

As yet, our mail encryption interface is still bad.  Convenient
crypto cash must come after convenient crypto mail.


-- 
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We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we              James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.                jamesd@netcom.com