-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In article <9411182243.AA59456@elfbook.intercon.com>, "Amanda Walker" <amanda@intercon.com> wrote:
What currency do Visa or Master Card issue, perchance?
Little plastic tokens that are accepted more places than the government's paper and metal ones. If it quacks like a duck...
But it _doesn't_ quack like a duck; it hoots like a loon. Credit cards aren't fungible like cash, they aren't anonymous like cash*, they don't operate like cash from the cardholder's point of view, and they don't operate like cash from the merchant's point of view.
Information doesn't obey conservation of mass, and so can't act as a token.
Exactly. On the other hand, with real-time clearing (which the Internet *does* provide the ability to do, with ever-increasing capacity), you can construct something that acts like an "instant check", which is close enough to cash for most practical purposes.
If you write a check, instant or otherwise, to provide funds to your favorite political candidate's campaign committee, and that check is too big, then the election watchdogs start barking. If you pass a satchel full of cash along to the campaign, the watchdogs sleep through the night undisturbed. Checks are not cash; there are important practical purpose for which they differ profoundly. - ------ *I don't see any reason why a credit card couldn't be anonymized, with some kind of "Julf-style" bank account and an any-bearer-gets-to-use-this card. People might want some kind of PIN protection if they're concerned about losing the card. But the banks haven't chosen to offer such a thing, and they just aren't available. | In the other room I passed by Ellen Leverenz as Alan Bostick | someone asked her "Do you know any monopole abostick@netcom.com | jokes?" finger for PGP public key | "Sure," she said. "In fact, I know two of them." Key fingerprint: | -- Terry Carr, GILGAMESH 50 22 FB 46 41 A3 17 9D F7 33 FF E1 4E 1C 89 79 +legal_kludge=off -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQB1AgUBLs2EbOVevBgtmhnpAQHRlwL/cjz7DqVnv5H8v9E1cpTKvw3EQMMl8OVd PN21Xbyzc7XeyK6VUmCRsfD0l+is1+bkaGJrs5RqLv1Mq8pWaTb+ifNsQ8lypKkF pFDE6J09z3Ew4Qy8k0/9h515huvn9BQX =PrvQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----