To: cypherpunks@toad.com
even "poor people" will then have credit or debit cards. This eliminates the last practical argument for allowing cash. <<<
However, there is another major argument in favor of cash - that it provides a concrete and absolutly enforcible accounting system for people who are totally unable to use any other system (illiterate, mentally defective, spendthrift, non-abstract thinkers, etc). A fair chunk of the population can't handle an electronic payments system to save their lives.
There will be the usual objections, but the "War on Drugs" and the war on the underground economy, money laundering, etc., will be cited as a more pressing concern than the "freedom" to use cash.<<<
Hopefully we will have radically restructured the system before them.
An insistence on using cash, when electronic transactions are *so much more convenient* will be see at best as an eccentricity and at worst as grounds for further investigation.<<<
Do they have enough cops. There is so much "wrongdoing" out there (and it is on the rise) that the cops will have their hands full just keeping a lid on things without being able to pursue such "thin" investigatory leads. The other point usually ignored is that even an EPS can provide anonymity. As electronic payments become more common and necessary, a market is created to help those with lousy access to the systems to complete these transactions. Check cashing services are booming and they are starting to offer various sorts of EPS services (phone bills, etc). The private payphone companies (and AT&T) are starting to sell 'debit' phonecards that are now making it easy to complete anonymous LD calls without a pile of quarters. Secured credit cards are being issued by everyone from Western Union to Citibank. These secured credit cards are designed for people with no credit history. Non-existent people (created to serve one's own purposes) have truly non-existant credit histories. Credit and debit cards acquired from banks in Haven jurisdictions overseas can also be used domestically. The First Digital Bank of Cyberspace (SM) will issue debit Visa cards as one of its first marketing ploys. You pick your own name.
We Cypherpunks need to ensure our plans for digital money are not closed off by these sorts of moves. (I'm not sure what we need to do, or can do, but it's worth thinking about.)<<<
No doubt about it. Duncan Frissell Did you know that it is still possible -- in 1993 -- to open a bank account in the United States in a nome de guerre? Like all rulers, William Jefferson Blythe Clinton is a libertarian for himself. By the appropriate application of technology, we can force him, the Mrs., and all the other rulers to grant us the liberty that they arrogate to themselves. 7 X