From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 10:54:41 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: The Continued Attack on Cash (Was: "The Right of Anonymity"...)
In-Reply-To: <v03102801b0fbbc4d4735@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <199802030242.DAA10101@basement.replay.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Tim May wrote:
> The real solution is easy.


Easier said than done.

Designing digital cash software is easy.  (Several prototypes exist.)
Getting people to accept it as having value is not.

But let's suppose that we build a complete fault-tolerant digital cash
system with multiply-redunant servers all over the world, and you can sit
at your computer and trade crypto-credits with whoever you want.

You've got a small fortune worth of e$.  What are you going to buy with it?

Seriously.

Are you going to buy groceries at the local supermarket with cypherbucks?
I doubt it.  Surely you can't use the system to pay for your house or car,
or other government-traceable assets.  And certainly not airline tickets.

Perhaps you could buy a new computer.  That would work, if you could
arrange delivery anonymously (which I doubt).  Or maybe you could pick it
up in person, but you don't need e-cash for that.

About the only practical thing you could buy would be a pre-paid phone
card.  Anything else, you'd need to arrange delivery for, and if you can
have contraband mailed to you, then you can have other things that you
don't want sent to you.

The problem is not digital cash.  The problem is delivering the goods
bought with it.  Solve the delivery problem and digital cash will follow.