--- begin forwarded text ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 17:02:52 -0500 From: Roderick Simpson <rod@wired.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <com-priv@lists.psi.com> Subject: Ecash naysayers Anyone heard a convincing naysayer of electronic cash? Who were they? Best, Rod R o d e r i c k S i m p s o n rod@wired.com A s s o c i a t e P r o d u c e r T h e H o t W i r e d N e t w o r k www.braintennis.com www.wiredsource.com ------------------------------ --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox, e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "The cost of anything is the foregone alternative" -- Walter Johnson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/ FC97: Anguilla, anyone? http://offshore.com.ai/fc97/
On Sat, 4 Jan 1997, Robert Hettinga wrote:
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Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 17:02:52 -0500 From: Roderick Simpson <rod@wired.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <com-priv@lists.psi.com> Subject: Ecash naysayers
Anyone heard a convincing naysayer of electronic cash? Who were they?
Best, Rod
The propblem with that question is that as phrased it stacks the deck in favor of electronic cash. What is "convincing"? Find someone with a cogent critique of an electronic payments scheme or scheme, and I can guarantee that I can find someone, very likely on the WIRED editorial staff, who won't be "convinced" by it. What is a "naysayer"? Someone who presents a detailed critical technical analysis of a payments scheme? Someone who thinks that electronic payments represent the Number of the Beast and are a sign of the coming Apocalypse? Lastly, what is "electronic cash"? Chaumian anonymous digital cash? Transmission of credit card data? The question is so poorly phrased as to be almost impossible to intelligently answer "yes". Somewhere in it there is buried a real question with a real answer. Maybe Roderick Simpson will tell us what it is. PS: I'm *not* a electronic cash naysayer. Alan Bostick | To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height mailto:abostick@netcom.com | of elegance. news:alt.grelb | Jean Genet http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~abostick
At 9:56 AM -0800 1/4/97, Alan Bostick wrote:
On Sat, 4 Jan 1997, Robert Hettinga wrote:
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 17:02:52 -0500 From: Roderick Simpson <rod@wired.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <com-priv@lists.psi.com> Subject: Ecash naysayers
Anyone heard a convincing naysayer of electronic cash? Who were they?
Best, Rod
The propblem with that question is that as phrased it stacks the deck in favor of electronic cash. What is "convincing"? Find someone with a cogent critique of an electronic payments scheme or scheme, and I can guarantee that I can find someone, very likely on the WIRED editorial staff, who won't be "convinced" by it. What is a "naysayer"? Someone ...
I think the problem is even more obvious: the "Brain Tennis" forum is a crystallization of the worst tendency in journalism today: having two opposing views on any issue. As on television, where two talking heads take opposite postions, suggesting a roughly even split in popular opinion (even if popular opinion--not to mention the underlying actual truth--is tilted 95-5). Caveat: I've only followed a few of these "brain tennis" things, which is what I assume Simpson is recruiting for, and I was sorely disappointed. But not surprised. --Tim May Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside" We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
participants (3)
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Alan Bostick -
Robert Hettinga -
Timothy C. May