From: hughes@ah.com (Eric Hughes)
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 94 11:38:01 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: In Search of Genuine DigiCash
In-Reply-To: <199408210219.WAA15561@zork.tiac.net>
Message-ID: <9408271816.AA26464@ah.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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   >If there were already a fully identified digital money system,

   Is there one?

I don't think there is any digital money system at all, neither
anonymous nor fuly identified.

There certainly are digital funds transfer systems, almost all fully
identified.  These are not digital money systems, although they may be
precursors.

   Eric, for the last three months, you have said that there was no way to
   prove whether digital cash was more cost effective than other forms of e$,
   and thus potential efficiency was useless as an economic argument for its
   adoption.

I still agree that you cannot really _prove_ that it will be more
efficiently, at least not from armchair business planning.  Given a
few million for a good study though, I'm sure answers might be
forthcoming.

What is apparent, however, is that it is certainly reasonable to
examine the possibility that digital cash might be cheaper to
implement.

Eric