I'm wondering is anonymous electronic credit is possible. At first, it seemed to me to be an unlikely thing. Banks and credit companies usually want to determine if a person is a good risk, before extending them credit. If a person has a bad credit history, they have a hard time getting credit cards and loans. How could a bank determine your credit history if they don't know who you are? Assuming you did get a credit card using an anonymous id, if you abused your credit and lost the use of the credt card, you could just re-apply under a different anonymous id. There would be no continous credit history under a single identity. After thinking about this a little is now seems to me that anonymous credit is possible, but it wouldn't work like current credit cards. A few assumptions... 1) there will be more people who pay their bills than people who don't pay their bills. 2) some people will pay their bills late and be subject to fees and interest. 3) there will always be some people who try to cheat the system by getting an anonymous credit line, spending it, then disappearing. Given these assumptions, I can see anonymous electronic credit working as follows: Anyone can get an anonymous credit line. You purchase an anonymous credit line by forking over some anonymous digital cash up front. The more you fork over, the higher the initial credit line. In return for the upfront cash, you get an anonymous credit id and an credit line to accompany it. Your initial credit line will be equal to the amount of your upfront money, perhaps minus a startup fee. You can increase you credit line by paying your bills on time, thus establishing a mini-credit history with that credit company. The *rate* of increase is the important factor, which I'll get back to later. Instead of working like current credit cards, which give the credit companies a detailed record of what you purchased, where you purchased, and when, anonymous credit will work more like a generic loan. To tap your credit line, you will use your anonymous credit id to make withdraws, converting a portion of your credit line into anonymous cash using a Chaum-ian anonymous cash withdraw protocol. You can then spend the anonymous cash anywhere you like, without revealing the details of your spending habbits to the credit company. The credit company would only by able to track your withdraws and your repayments. The credit company might charge a service fee for each withdraw. They would most likely charge interest, fees for late payment, and perhaps also a yearly fee. Basically, it works much like an anonymous bank account, except you can establish a good repayment history and increase your credit line. The rate at which the credit company increases your credit line will depend upon the credit company's assement of the risks invovled in carrying anonymous credit lines. The credit company knows that you can simply disappear at any time, therefore it won't want to increase your credit line too fast. However, the higher your credit line, the more interest it can earn. Also, competition between different credit companies will affect the rate of increase. If most people repay their credit lines, the credit company will make money. If credit lines don't grow too large, too fast, the credit company will not lose too much money from cheaters. The credit company should be able to determine a rate of increase that will make them a profit. Does any of this sound reasonable? Jim_Miller@suite.com