On Sat, 4 Jan 1997, Robert Hettinga wrote:
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Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 17:02:52 -0500 From: Roderick Simpson <rod@wired.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <com-priv@lists.psi.com> Subject: Ecash naysayers
Anyone heard a convincing naysayer of electronic cash? Who were they?
Best, Rod
The propblem with that question is that as phrased it stacks the deck in favor of electronic cash. What is "convincing"? Find someone with a cogent critique of an electronic payments scheme or scheme, and I can guarantee that I can find someone, very likely on the WIRED editorial staff, who won't be "convinced" by it. What is a "naysayer"? Someone who presents a detailed critical technical analysis of a payments scheme? Someone who thinks that electronic payments represent the Number of the Beast and are a sign of the coming Apocalypse? Lastly, what is "electronic cash"? Chaumian anonymous digital cash? Transmission of credit card data? The question is so poorly phrased as to be almost impossible to intelligently answer "yes". Somewhere in it there is buried a real question with a real answer. Maybe Roderick Simpson will tell us what it is. PS: I'm *not* a electronic cash naysayer. Alan Bostick | To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height mailto:abostick@netcom.com | of elegance. news:alt.grelb | Jean Genet http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~abostick