From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 03:51:44 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: DCSB: The Transnationality of Digital Cash
Message-ID: <v03007801ae37a4ffab57@[206.119.69.46]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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                 The Digital Commerce Society of Boston

                               Presents

                             Tatsuo Tanaka
                  Center on Japanese Economy & Business
                          Columbia University

                  "The Transnationality of Digital Cash"


                        Tuesday, September 3, 1996
                               12 - 2 PM
                   The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston
                     One Federal Street, Boston, MA



Tatsuo Tanaka is from the Center for Global Communications at the International
University of Japan. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Columbia
University's Center on Japanese Economy & Business.

Government analysts like to stress the anonymity and security concerns of
digital cash, particularly money laundering and tax evasion.  However,
probably the most important economic consequence of digital cash to
nation-states is its transnationality.  Theoretically speaking, any bank
can issue digital cash any country's currency, even on a fractional reserve
basis, without permission from that nation-state's central bank, and
everybody in the world can use it as if that cash were issued by the
country itself. This unprecedented transnationality could make a country's
financial system unstable in terms of money supplies or exchange rates.
Tanaka goes through a possible scenario in which nation-states and
cyberspace conflict over the authority to issue digital cash, including a
possible resolution of the problem.


This meeting of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston will be held on
Tuesday, September 3, 1996 from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the
Harvard Club of Boston, One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $27.50.
This price includes lunch, room rental, and the speaker's lunch. ;-).  The
Harvard Club *does* have dress code: jackets and ties for men, and
"appropriate business attire" for women.

We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or if we *really* know
you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by
Saturday, August 31, or you won't be on the list for lunch.  Checks
payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will have to be sent
back.

Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston,
Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they *must* be made payable to "The Harvard
Club of Boston".

If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (We've had
to work with glacial A/P departments more than once, for instance), please
let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out.

Planned speakers for DCSB are:

 October     Philippe LeRoux      Stock Exchanges and the Web
 November    Philip S. Corwin     Regulatory Barriers to Internet Commerce

We are actively searching for future speakers.  If you are in Boston on the
first Tuesday of the month, and you would like to make a presentation to the
Society, please send e-mail to the DCSB Program Commmittee, care of Robert
Hettinga, rah@shipwright.com .

For more information about the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, send
"info dcsb" in the body of a message to majordomo@ai.mit.edu .  If you want
to subscribe to the DCSB e-mail list, send "subscribe dcsb" in the body of a
message to majordomo@ai.mit.edu .

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Cheers,
Robert Hettinga
Moderator,
The Digital Commerce Society of Boston


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-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender."
                -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard,
                       for Bart Simpson
The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/