4 ms·

If we only had electronic payment methods (credit cards, etc.) and someone invented cash, we'd be very impressed: No communication with a server, no approval (

If we only had electronic payment methods (credit cards, etc.) and someone invented cash, we'd be very impressed: No communication with a server, no approval (for either party), no contracts and agreements, no cut taken from the seller (and partly passed on to the buyer), no third party involved at all - just a direct transaction between buyer and seller, no chips, not even electricity is needed. Imagine just handing someone a piece of paper. Nobody is excluded, no matter their income or background. It's frictionless, anonymous, and it's very simple (for the user); the complexity is all handled by the cash-issuing party. Of course some will complain about government intruding into the payment processing marketplace.

mpweiher 8y ago
Distributed server-less anonymous payments with off-line capability! Inclusive and diverse! What's not to like?
ken 8y ago
We would also hate it. I have to do math at every transaction? There's different denominations (which make no sense), and some are paper and some are metal? How do I authenticate that it's a real bill? What happens when it wears out? Are you really going to keep inventing new designs every couple years as criminals learn to make their own? What if I want to buy something and I have enough cash but the vendor can't "make change" (actually happened to me the other day)? Cash is one of those great ideas, like bicycles and music, that I'm glad we invented long ago, because I doubt it'd ever get invented/discovered in today's ROI-above-all-else environment.
- forapurpose 8y ago
  > I have to do math at every transaction? There's different denominations (which make no sense), and some are paper and some are metal? How do I authenticate that it's a real bill? What happens when it wears out? Are you really going to keep inventing new designs every couple years as criminals learn to make their own? What if I want to buy something and I have enough cash but the vendor can't "make change" (actually happened to me the other day)? In practice, these won't be significant problems for the user. I haven't seen the focus group testing, but I'm comfortable predicting that. Some of those issues are problems for the cash-issuer, not the user.

mpweiher 8y ago

Distributed server-less anonymous payments with off-line capability! Inclusive and diverse! What's not to like?

ken 8y ago

We would also hate it. I have to do math at every transaction? There's different denominations (which make no sense), and some are paper and some are metal? How do I authenticate that it's a real bill? What happens when it wears out? Are you really going to keep inventing new designs every couple years as criminals learn to make their own? What if I want to buy something and I have enough cash but the vendor can't "make change" (actually happened to me the other day)? Cash is one of those great ideas, like bicycles and music, that I'm glad we invented long ago, because I doubt it'd ever get invented/discovered in today's ROI-above-all-else environment.

forapurpose 8y ago
> I have to do math at every transaction? There's different denominations (which make no sense), and some are paper and some are metal? How do I authenticate that it's a real bill? What happens when it wears out? Are you really going to keep inventing new designs every couple years as criminals learn to make their own? What if I want to buy something and I have enough cash but the vendor can't "make change" (actually happened to me the other day)? In practice, these won't be significant problems for the user. I haven't seen the focus group testing, but I'm comfortable predicting that. Some of those issues are problems for the cash-issuer, not the user.