[13007] in Cypherpunks
Re: Why Digital Cash is Not Being Used
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Wed May 4 07:08:20 1994
To: dat@spock.ebt.com (David Taffs)
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 03 May 1994 18:22:54 PDT."
<9405040122.AA05674@helpmann.ebt.com>
Reply-To: perry@imsi.com
Date: Wed, 04 May 1994 07:03:04 -0400
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@snark.imsi.com>
David Taffs says:
> From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@snark.imsi.com>
> The natural currency today is the U.S. Dollar, as transfered via
> digicash.
>
> How about a floating cipherdollar? Holders of cipherdollars would
> share in the proceeds of the investment, minus real transaction costs
> and overhead, plus transaction fees if any.
Basically, you have now combined a mutual fund with a currency, which
causes great trouble for anyone who would like to use the one without
the other.
Its true that transaction costs are often paid for implicitly by banks
lowering the interest that they pay you. However, thats a different
question.
I'd like to emphasize that Digicash is a TRANSACTION MECHANISM.
Digital cash is NOT a currency. There is no need to invent a new kind
of money -- there are already too many for the world's good as it is.
Digicash can admittedly be used to transfer shares in cattle farms as
easily as Dollars, but far more groceries take Dollars.
Perry
