For Immediate Release - November 17, 1995 Contact: Sameer Parekh sameer@c2.org 510-601-9777 COMMUNITY CONNEXION BECOMES FIRST INTERNET PROVIDER TO ACCEPT ECASH Community ConneXion today announced that it has become the first and only Internet Service Provider in the world to allow for payment using ecash, a digital cash system developed by DigiCash bv, of Amsterdam, Holland, released jointly with Mark Twain Bank, of St. Louis, Missouri. On October 23rd, DigiCash bv announced jointly with Mark Twain Bank that they would be issuing ecash denominated in real U.S. Dollars. In the past DigiCash had been running a trial "CyberBucks" payment system, which was not backed by any strong currency; it was a form of "Monopoly Money". The ecash system provides full payor anonymity. Consumers can use ecash tokens to pay for goods on the Internet, with full anonymity from the merchants. This lets consumers buy things without fear of merchants compiling and selling databases of their spending habits. It also allows for a convenient and safe mechanism for payment through the Internet. Sameer Parekh, President of Community ConneXion, said that ecash is a significant improvement over the payment systems widely in use on the net today. He described one example, "Currently people usually just send their credit card numbers over the net to the merchant if they want to buy something. This opens up the security risk of having the merchant's computers broken into; every consumer's full credit limits are then subject to attack. With ecash, only the limited sums that have been spent are at risk." Community ConneXion has begun accepting ecash as payment for its services, offering a five percent discount for customers who pay with ecash. "It simplifies our accounting and protects the privacy of our clients; it is to everyone's benefit to use ecash," said Parekh. "Ecash has greatly simplified account creation procedures for our anonymous accounts. In the past someone creating an anonymous account would need to wait until their payment arrived, and their check cleared, before the account could be created; now, the account is created automatically, immediately after the ecash payment is made over the world-wide-web." Community ConneXion is the leading provider of privacy on the Internet. They provide anonymous and pseudonymous internet access and web pages in addition to powerful web service, 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, CyberBucks, and ecash are trademarks of DigiCash bv. Mark Twain Bank is a trademark of Mark Twain Bancshares. Monopoly is a trademark of Parker Brothers, Division of Tonka Corporation.