From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 95 18:09:40 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Legality of Cash Transactions
Message-ID: <ac74e578310210048bf7@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 12:05 AM 9/8/95, Tobin T Fricke wrote:
>>letting it happen, and using cash instead of credit, is the smart answer
>
>I'm somewhat surprized at how much of an issue this is.   The
>federal government prints up nice green paper for us to pay for
>things with.  It's annonymous (to a large extent), univerally
>accepted (most of the time), fairly untracably (unless you
>really want to), easily available, doesn't collect interest,
>free to use, etc.  No one is forcing anyone to use credit
>cards, etc..  Then again, being a kid, I have never bought
>anything with anything other than cash on the spot...

I agree with what I think your sentiment is, but bear in mind that "cash
transactions" are in fact limited by various laws and regulations about
reporting cash payments.

Try buying a car with cash, especially a car costing over $10,000.

Black Unicorn posted an account a while back (sometime last year) of his
efforts to pay cash for a new car.

The restrictions on cash are mostly oriented toward ostensibly stopping
"drug profits" from being used to buy expensive items. The usual cash
figure that invokes special laws is $10,000, with "structuring" of sub-$10K
cash transfers an additional issue.

I foresee more restrictions coming, not fewer.

Several of us have written extensively on this subject.


--Tim May

---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
Corralitos, CA              | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839      | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."