With all the talk of banking regulations etc with regard to messing with the monetary system, why dont we just create a test system where everyone emails in an amount that they are prepared to coughup if they really had to, but at the moment dont (have to). Then we can go ahead with the digital "cash" scenario and not be governed by the banking/security laws of any country because no real money is involved. The object is to get a system going, find flaws, create software and protocols and basically experiment with it. The issue of actual cold hard cash is, to me, a not important. After all it's just numbers. Eric volunteered to do this earlier and, if he still wishes to, I'd be willing to participate in it. Maybe he doesnt have the benefit of a big cushy bank trust account earning him intrest for his work, but I dont think that was a consideration for him anyway. Mark mark@coombs.anu.edu.au