#E-CASH: PRODUCT OR SERVICE?

Jim McCoy mccoy at communities.com
Thu Jul 18 23:38:33 PDT 1996


Lucky wrote:
> At 20:19 7/16/96, Stig wrote:
[regarding the "Ecash" trademark...]
> >It's like giving Microsoft a trademark on the term 'Email'...  It's nuts!
> >Was the term ecash not in use before DigiCash showed up on the scene?
>
> No that I am aware of. Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge, DigiCash's
> Ecash is the only ecash that I am aware of. The other "ecashs" lack various
> properties of cash, as previously explained by Bryce.

Digicash's ecash lacks various properties of real cash from the users point
of view (offline transferability, large scale acceptance, etc.) and a great
many from the issuers perspective (too many to list...), but we still seem to
want to call it electronic cash when it isn't.  It may be "Ecash" but it sure
ain't digital cash...

jim








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