Several people on this list seem interested in the idea of setting up a digital cash system. A while back someone was dumping legal info on the legitimacy of running your own bank. I have an idea that would allow for "fun" use of digital cash systems while allowing a platform to test out ideas and put the system into a somewhat "real" environment. All that is needed for a digital cash environment is a way to earn money and a way to spend money. The ideas proposed so far seemed to be "send me real money and we'll give you credits." How about putting the digital money in a game/bbs environment? Example: mud's could allow people to transfer their funds between different games, to give away some of their game money electronically to others, etc. BBS's might let you spend your digital cash earned from a MUD for more time or other services. Maybe they'll let you earn money from them in special ways. A bank could be set up, and fixed sized donations could be sent out to each service (BBS, MUD, etc) participating. Each service could then award its participants with earnings as they play. How could something like this actually come about? Banking routines for transfer of funds would have to be written in portable code, with an easy interface for software authors to use in their packages. Most people running BBS's, MUD's and other services on the net have the technical knowledge to patch something this simple into their programs. I am not a big fan of MUD's, and hardly BBS around, but I think this might be a good way to get a system up and running. This will enable flaws in the system to surface, and even under very bad circumstances, no one loses real money. Tim