According to Duncan Frissell:
A digital cash economy doesn't have to be separate from the regular economy.
1.) You mail cash/MO to First Digital Bank of Cyberspace (at an offshore maildrop) together with a public (unique if you like) key and anonymous email address (on Julf's remailer perhaps).
Then DC is actually backed by "legal" currency? Then, what's to keep someone from opening a digital bank, and takeing the money and runing?
4.) You find someone to accept the digital cash. Initially it can be used for gambling and telecoms/storage fees, eventually buying digital goods (software, print, audio, video, VR) will be easy. Remember, within a few years 100 million homes in OECD countries will have 1.5 megabit lines into them. This is a huge market for digital entertainment.
OECD? Obviously, DC can lead to quite a few opportunities for corruption, taxes for example. This will hinder (or help, in Washington D.C! ;^]) the spread of DC. Is there any arguements for DC, to offer to counter this major drawback? +-----------------------+-----------------------------+---------+ | J. Michael Diehl ;-) | I thought I was wrong once. | PGP KEY | | mdiehl@triton.unm.edu | But, I was mistaken. |available| | mike.diehl@fido.org | | Ask Me! | | (505) 299-2282 +-----------------------------+---------+ | | +------"I'm just looking for the opportunity to be -------------+ | Politically Incorrect!" <Me> | +-----If codes are outlawed, only criminals wil have codes.-----+ +----Is Big Brother in your phone? If you don't know, ask me---+