From what I can tell: Mondex appears to be a rather agressive attempt at an open system for digital cash. The three major players are NatWest, Midland Bank and British Telecom. Unlike many other efforts,
Recent articles on Mondex: The Economist, 1/29/94 NewsBytes, "The Cashless Card: UK Banks Introduce Mondex", 1/6/94 they are using a completely anonymous method rather than auditing all transactions. The cards are smart (IC chips embedded on a credit card sized card. I am not sure of the security specifics. They will be capable of representing 5 core currencies and many more temporarily. The "Mondex" name has been reserved in 30 countries and market research has been done in Japan, the US, Germany and France as well as the UK. They are piloting in the British town of Swindon (not sure of the size). Other interesting moves along these lines: Electronic Payment Services/MAC Network are piloting prepay Lufthansa/German Post/2 German Banks looking at multi-app card patrick breitenbach patrickb@panix.com