On the issue of digital cash and remailers tcmay writes:
Banks, escrow services, etc. will all have "reputations"...
Note that a good reputation is good as gold. Now, when I get my remailer up and running, I'll run it for a while in "free mode" (while I get the bugs out) and then I'll put it into "reputation sharing mode" which works as follows: Every time I get a message to be re-mailed, I remember the sender's site name. Later, when I desire to mail something, I may choose to send it through that site. If operating in free mode, it passes through. If it is not a remailer or doesn't accept my message (via a bounce) I take it off my list of friendly mailers and and begin bouncing messages that it sends to me. This should, of course, all happen automagically. I realize that I am describing this somewhat poorly (it's late and I'm tired) but the basic concept is to get everuyone who wants to send mail through a re-mailer to become a remailer, or perhaps buy "friendship" with one through external means. This propogates remailers. The simplest form of barter is one for one. Fen