From: sameer <sameer@c2.org>
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 95 21:50:23 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: COMMUNITY CONNEXION PIONEERS PRIVATE ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Message-ID: <199512200544.VAA16051@infinity.c2.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


For Immediate Release - December 20, 1995
Contact: Sameer Parekh sameer@c2.org 510-601-9777

COMMUNITY CONNEXION PIONEERS PRIVATE ELECTRONIC COMMERCE 

Community ConneXion today announced a new service for its customers
which will make secure, private electronic commerce more accessible to
all merchants, from the small single-person business to large
corporations trying to sell goods and services over the
world-wide-web.

The new service allows its customers to accept ecash, an anonymous,
secure electronic payment system, developed by DigiCash bv, of
Amsterdam, Holland and implemented with US Dollars by Mark Twain Bank,
of St. Louis, Missouri. Customers can setup web pages on their web
sites and charge websurfers from pennies to dollars per page when
viewing their sites. The technology allows anyone on the Internet to
become a merchant, selling goods and services electronically.

Community ConneXion's President, Sameer Parekh, commented on the new
development, "Before we unveiled this service, it was rather difficult
for a merchant to offer content on the web in exchange for private,
secure payment. Our system allows our customers to add simple
configuration directives to their web pages in order to start charging
for them." Information about Community ConneXion's ecash merchant
support is available on their webserver at http://www.c2.org/ecash/.

Ecash is the only strongly private payment system available on the net
today. "All other consumer payment systems on the net are strongly
linked with the old-fashioned and outdated credit card system," said
Parekh. Ecash provides full payor anonymity and protects against fraud
using strong cryptographic protocols developed by David Chaum,
Managing Director of DigiCash.

"Community ConneXion continues to lead the world toward a more
efficient model of commerce on the Internet" said Frank Trotter, III,
Mark Twain Bank International Markets Division Director and Ecash
project leader.  "Integration of an Ecash payment mechanism into the
site is a giant step toward allowing business and research to function
and support itself efficiently.  We look forward to the continued
leadership in innovation from Community ConneXion."

Community ConneXion has been a supporter of ecash since its inception
in October of 1995, becoming the first internet provider in the world
to start accepting ecash as payment for services, less than one month
after the payment system was announced. 

Community ConneXion, founded in June of 1994, is the leading provider
of privacy on the Internet. They provide anonymous and pseudonymous
internet access and web pages in addition to powerful web services,
virtual hosts, and web design consultation. Information is available
from their web pages at http://www.c2.org/. Information about the Mark
Twain Bank ecash release is available from
http://www.marktwain.com/ecash.html.

DigiCash and ecash are trademarks of DigiCash bv. Mark Twain Bank is a
trademark of Mark Twain Bancshares.