[12970] in Cypherpunks
Re: Why Digital Cash is Not Being Used
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Tue May 3 18:48:56 1994
To: Jim_Miller@bilbo.suite.com
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 03 May 1994 16:36:36 CDT."
<9405032137.AA03018@bilbo.suite.com>
Reply-To: perry@imsi.com
Date: Tue, 03 May 1994 18:43:13 -0400
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@snark.imsi.com>
Jim Miller says:
>
> Michael V. Caprio Jr. asks:
>
> > So what is the natural currency to trade in on the Internet?
>
> Instead of charging for information, charge for time. You lose
> control of the information you sell, but you never lose control of
> the time you sell. People with spare time could perform services in
> exchange for Tacky Tokens.
Currency needs to be fungible -- your time and my time and the time of
a brain surgeon are not the same. Furthermore, I can't verify that you
are actually giving me your time. It would be a nightmare.
The natural currency today is the U.S. Dollar, as transfered via
digicash.
Perry
