From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 95 20:47:30 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: USA Today on Fear of Credit Cards over Net
In-Reply-To: <AL9OmyczByUU075yn@netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199509202335.TAA05761@frankenstein.piermont.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Re: The risk of credit cards.

I suppose that indeed there are large risks elsewhere in the credit
card system. However, I think that the credit card system itself is
stupid and insecure and ought to be scrapped -- sending around account
numbers as magic keys to get payment is a stupid move. Its not
suprising how large credit card fraud is.

One of the great hopes I have for cryptographic technology is its
ability to lower the incidence of fraud, and thus lower transaction
costs a lot. Someday, hopefully, everyone will be able to be a credit
card merchant because you won't have to trust the merchants not to
steal.

Perry