[42515] in Cypherpunks
Re: Digicash will not fly (not)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (hallam@w3.org)
Mon Oct 30 11:27:58 1995
To: Michael J Gebis <gebis@ecn.purdue.edu>, cypherpunks@toad.com
Cc: hallam@w3.org
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 30 Oct 95 10:15:35 EST."
<199510301515.KAA13367@purcell.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 95 11:20:13 -0500
From: hallam@w3.org
>What sort of charges do Visa/Mastercard impose upon merchants? I
>thought it was 3%; if so, I would suspect that this is the level of
>"off-the-top" skim that the market will sustain, and DigiCash should
>probably use a similar rate.
Not quite 3% in that sense. The rate is varfiable 35 ce3nts plus 3%
being typical. The essential point is that this is insurance on the
deal. If the buyre does not pay their bill the money is still paid
to the merchant. If the goods are faulty the buyer may have recourse
against the card co (UK consumer credit act).
The charging structure of Digicash should be different however. Digicash
is like Mondex, it effectively gives the operator a signorage rights
which can be highly profitable in themselves. The cash in the Digicash
scheme is earning interest for Mark Twain Bank.
Comment heard at the firm "It's time to make another backup of the
Internet". :-)
Phill
