[43564] in Cypherpunks
Re: credit card conventional wisdom
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Frantz)
Fri Nov 17 14:14:31 1995
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 11:06:34 -0800
To: Arley Carter <ac@hawk.twinds.com>
From: frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
At 15:22 11/16/95 -0500, Arley Carter wrote:
>3. I'm getting tired of seeing posts this list about what is more dangerous
>cyberspace or restaurantspace. Let's focus on the real mechanics of how
>the ground rules of credit card clearing will operate in cyberspace. The
>credit card consortiums can advance the cause of electronic commerce by
>stating in unambigous terms what their views are of these ground rules.
>Developers, cardholders and merchants can then make a judgement on whether
>those risks are acceptable to each party respectively.
I agree. I doubt we can completely eliminate the risk by technical fixes.
I do think we may be able to reduce the risk below what it is in
non-cyberspace commerce. (e.g. phone orders and in-person card
presentation). If we can do that, and a significant part of commerce moves
to cyberspace, then we can see a reduction in the fraud premium that we all
pay (no matter who "offically" pays for it).
While cash-like instruments will be an important part of cyberspace, I
think that credit arangements may be more important. In non-cyberspace
commerce, almost all big-ticket purchases are made with time-payment
credit. Whether the total of the "candy bar" transactions will exceed the
total to the big-ticket transactions, I don't know. Certainly if we are
dealing with tangable goods, shipping costs encourage large orders.
Bill
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Bill Frantz Periwinkle -- Computer Consulting
(408)356-8506 16345 Englewood Ave.
frantz@netcom.com Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA
