From: Bryce Wilcox <wilcoxb@nagina.cs.colorado.edu>
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 95 13:54:47 PDT
To: perobich@ingr.com
Subject: Re: An article for Wired magazine
In-Reply-To: <199508142009.AA07344@poboy.b17c.ingr.com>
Message-ID: <199508142054.OAA18740@nagina.cs.colorado.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



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> True. On the other hand, many of these other companies are actually doing
> commerce Right This Minute. As a vendor, my primary interest is availability.


I understand what you mean, although *my* primary interest is 
techno-enthusiasm and near-future sociological speculation.  :-)


> Digicash stands to lose out in the marketplace. Why? Because you can't
> actually buy and sell real goods for real cash right now. One day,
> sure, but not now. By the time they deploy their system, consumers who
> aren't as concerned, or knowledgeable, as cypherpunks will have made
> some other system the market leader.


I'm afraid these words will turn out to be prophetic.  On the other hand, the
nature of this market is such that the industry leadership can turn-over
quickly.  I expect that the factor which has the most inertia in this game is
consumer mind-share.  The other factors-- capital, technology, skilled labor,
publicity-- can all be quickly gained by any aggressive new start-up that
wants them.


> Chilling thought. I hope DC can get a backing bank sometime soon.


According to Steven Levy (in his Wired mag story on David Chaum), Chaum
refuses to make deals with companies that would cut corners on his privacy
provisions.  I don't know how accurate that story is, but if it is true it
would explain why DigiCash is the technological leader and the marketplace 
dark horse.


(Hm.  "DC" -- "DigiCash" -- "David Chaum".  I just noticed that...)


Bryce
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