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.