[42508] in Cypherpunks
Re: Digicash will not fly (not)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Timothy C. May)
Mon Oct 30 02:24:14 1995
Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 23:36:31 -0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
At 5:41 AM 10/30/95, M. F. (Pat wrote:
>"James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com wrote:
>>While Chaum is a brilliant cryptographer, he is an incompetent businessman
>>
>>He has demonstrated this in numerous ways.
>>
>>The latest being "Cash" where the bank skims off 4% to 10% every time.
>>
>>No one is going to use digicash under these kinds of terms and
>>conditions.
>
>
>Doesn't just about everyone do precisely this when they pay sales tax?
>Every time a buck arrives or departs a hand one pays a tax yet the system
>(you and I)continues accepting these terms albeit painfully.
Many types of business dealings are exempt from sales tax, through
arrangements for resales.
I don't know if the "skims off 4% to 10% every time" point accurately
describes how the current Digicash model works, but certainly this will not
fly as a long term rate. So many monetary transactions happen in the course
of business that even a 4% fee _per transaction_ would rapidly wipe out
most of the value.
--Tim May
Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
