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Cyphernomicon 12.14

Digital Cash and Net Commerce:
Cyberspace and Digital Money


  12.14.1. "You can't eat cyberspace, so what good is digital money?"
           - This comes up a lot. People assume there is no practical
              way to transfer assets, when in fact it is done all the
              time. That is, money flows from the realm of the purely
              "informational" realm to the physcial realm Consultants,
              writers, traders, etc., all use their heads and thereby
              earn real money.
           - Same will apply to cyberspace.
  12.14.2. "How can I remain anonymous when buying physical items using
            anonymous digital cash?'
           - Very difficult. Once you are seen, and your picture can be
              taken( perhaps unknown to you), databases will have you.
              Not much can be done about this.
           - People have proposed schemes for anonymous shipment and
              pickup, but the plain fact is that physical delivery of any
              sort compromises anonymity, just as in the world today.
           - The purpose of anonymous digital cash is partly to at least
              make it more difficult, to not give Big Brother your
              detailed itinerary from toll road movements, movie theater
              payments, etc. To the extent that physical cameras can
              still track cars, people, shipments, etc., anonymous
              digital cash doesn't solve this surveillance problem.


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