On Thu, 29 Oct 2009, Roy M. Silvernail wrote:

I've often heard that a rechargeable debit card is a useful tool for maintaining financial privacy. But I looked at a number of such cards today, and all of them require an activation procedure that involves disclosing name, address and SSN. Has the market closed ranks on KYC, or are there still cards that can be charged without associating with a meatspace identity?

Simon mall giftcards can be purchased with cash at a mall near you (they are a big nationwide chain) and at any time you can register on their website your "personal information" so that you can use the cards for online shopping. You can put in any information you want. You're simply registering your "name and address" so that the card verification can go through. They do exactly what you want them to do. In fact, it's rather amazing - in a world where anonymous cash and e-currency, etc., are considered hard problems with issues across all manner of sociological/legal/technical realms, here is an up and running anonymous payment scheme that J6P can walk into a mall and pay cash for. I have no idea why this is allowed to persist. It goes against every bit of conditioning I have received concerning our post 9/11 world. (I'm not subbed to gold/crypto/rayserver/blah, but please forward along as I would like to see the ensuing discussion ... why does this exist, and what radar is it flying under ? It's Visa and a nationwide mall chain, for gods sake...)