CASH: Lone Star Cards

[Karl Lui Barrus]

The State of Texas rolled out a new cash card today (at a demo, the
real rollout is Oct. 1), intended to replace food stamps over within
two years.  This card is to be used like bank ATM card, so none of the
parties are private, and thus this isn't digital cash in the
strong crypto/cypherpunks sense.

A user swipes the card at a grocery store and then enters a PIN, which
causes a transfer of funds from the Department of Human Services (or
something like that) to the store.  The Comptroller states that this
system will lower costs through reduced paperwork and reduced fraud.
Who knows, perhaps the checkout scanner logs can be sold for a profit
to various companies too!  ;)

Anyway, just thought I'd mention it - this fits in with various
predictions by Tim that an outright ban on cash will begin with steps
like this.

-- 
Karl L. Barrus: klbarrus at owlnet.rice.edu         
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"One man's mnemonic is another man's cryptography" - K. Cooper