Digital Cash application
In 1996, the Libertarian Party will apparently qualify for Federal matching funds for its Presidential political campaign. That does not mean that it will _accept_ them, being stolen goods. However, a few years ago I heard of an idea that they should accept the money, and return it to the people, a small amount at a time, to whomever asks for it. Besides returning the stolen money to its rightful owners, that would produce substantial positive publicity for the Libertarian party, embarrassment for the Democrats and Republicans, while at the same time reducing the amount of money available for the D's and the R's. But there's been a practical question of how to actively do this, economically. Issuing checks and mailing them costs money, and they're traceable, etc. The advent of digital cash suggests an answer: Make the payments in the form of digital cash, payable on the Web. This will encourage the use of digital cash, and provide a sudden infusion that will promote other uses. There's another advantage, however. Since "Netizens" are somewhat biased towards libertarianism, this will have the effect of keeping more of this money "in the family" as it were, while at the same time being open, technically, to everyone who can get on the 'net. Jim Bell jimbell@pacifier.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In article <199606190339.UAA07400@mail.pacifier.com>, jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com> wrote:
But there's been a practical question of how to actively do this, economically. Issuing checks and mailing them costs money, and they're traceable, etc. The advent of digital cash suggests an answer: Make the payments in the form of digital cash, payable on the Web. This will encourage the use of digital cash, and provide a sudden infusion that will promote other uses. There's another advantage, however. Since "Netizens" are somewhat biased towards libertarianism, this will have the effect of keeping more of this money "in the family" as it were, while at the same time being open, technically, to everyone who can get on the 'net.
Well, this has been around for quite a while: http://www.SkylineMall.com/lpva/donate.html (it's the Libertarian Party of Virginia; they accept ecash and First Virtual). - Ian -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMcg0e0ZRiTErSPb1AQFuawQAgmMtM9UK9/X6Yw3mA7I0emxCTBbcetiK bG6e9U7BCGlXI/FYC7cu0Jcj0DoGM+lRlF84nzhKBsUqL1A1lKYSIEULLxNab5nc rU/jlYQ5+PalsbO0NdkIugahg1iw6bSjto3xlbWfaoP78QldzDQ+3KoR4+DSxExc K4fyQMq0zJM= =lLyl -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (2)
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iang@cs.berkeley.edu -
jim bell