Paranoia and the Outlawing of Cash

In Denmark practically everybody has a 'DAN-card', [...]

Universality.

[...] all purchaces, no matter how small, can be charged [...]

Arbitrarily small transactions.

There is no charge for using [...] the card

Subsidized. The Dan-card system uses dial-up authentications for a large part (if not all) of its transactions. The telecom charges are causing the system to run at a large loss; this wouldn't be a commercially viable system. The Danish government is looking at making 'DAN-coin', which would be a smart card system that relies upon the physical security of the device. Since no on-line telecom charges incur, the coin system will be much easier to deploy. Eric