From: abostick@netcom.com (Alan Bostick)
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 94 22:06:48 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Islands in the Net
In-Reply-To: <9411182243.AA59456@elfbook.intercon.com>
Message-ID: <m4OpkyczBGnQ073yn@netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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In article <9411182243.AA59456@elfbook.intercon.com>,
"Amanda Walker" <amanda@intercon.com> wrote:
> 
> > What currency do Visa or Master Card issue, perchance? 
> 
> Little plastic tokens that are accepted more places than the government's 
> paper and metal ones.  If it quacks like a duck...

But it _doesn't_ quack like a duck; it hoots like a loon.  Credit cards
aren't fungible like cash, they aren't anonymous like cash*, they don't
operate like cash from the cardholder's point of view, and they don't
operate like cash from the merchant's point of view. 

> > Information doesn't obey conservation of mass, and so can't act as a 
> > token. 
> 
> Exactly.  On the other hand, with real-time clearing (which the Internet
> *does* provide the ability to do, with ever-increasing capacity), you can 
> construct something that acts like an "instant check", which is close enough 
> to cash for most practical purposes.

If you write a check, instant or otherwise, to provide funds to your
favorite political candidate's campaign committee, and that check is too
big, then the election watchdogs start barking.  If you pass a satchel
full of cash along to the campaign, the watchdogs sleep through the
night undisturbed.  Checks are not cash; there are important practical
purpose for which they differ profoundly.

- ------
*I don't see any reason why a credit card couldn't be anonymized, with
some kind of "Julf-style" bank account and an any-bearer-gets-to-use-this
card.  People might want some kind of PIN protection if they're
concerned about losing the card.  But the banks haven't chosen to offer
such a thing, and they just aren't available.

                          | In the other room I passed by Ellen Leverenz as 
   Alan Bostick           | someone asked her "Do you know any monopole 
   abostick@netcom.com    | jokes?"
finger for PGP public key | "Sure," she said.   "In fact, I know two of them."
Key fingerprint:          |     -- Terry Carr, GILGAMESH
50 22 FB 46 41 A3 17 9D F7 33 FF E1 4E 1C 89 79  +legal_kludge=off

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