posted on December 11, 2000 02:32:56 PM new
It seems to me that a significent barrier and cause of frustration to international transactions on the internet is the constant hassles over how payment can be made to sellers whose basic home unit of currency differs to the buyers currency.
Any difference invariably involves costs which can make the deal unviable. e.g. Purchase of International Money Orders, Bank Fees etc.
By stretching the imagination, the door is open for a financial institution to create a universal "Internet Currency".
This currency would have a value determined against say, the US Dollar. These Net Dollars could be purchased by anyone worldwide with any existing currency for a fee and kept in your "Net Bank Account".
Payment could be made to a seller anywhere in the world by simply transferring "Net Dollars" from the buyers account to the sellers account. The seller would be able to redeem their 'Net Dollars" at any time for the currency of their home country.
Now I realise that this would need to be a huge operation and my few basic thoughts will open up many cans of worms but with the technology available today it is surely feasible?
I offer these thoughts purely as a springboard for others to perhaps ponder on and enhance the concept.
posted on December 11, 2000 06:57:23 PM new
Actually, some people came up for a fantastic system for developing internet cash back in 94 or 95. Maybe ealier. Can't think of the names at the moment, but it was some of the pioneers of public/private key encryption.
With this system, there would need to be no "central bank" as there is with Paypal type schemes. The issuing institution would be 100 percent responsible for elminating fraud. You could hold the cash on your computer, on a "smart card", deposit it in any bank, and of course, many entirely new opportunities would arise. It would be completely anonymous (like real cash). It would be completely secure. The benefits were endless.
The problem -- it is absolutely perfect for money laundering, drug transactions, financing organized crime and terrorism, etc., so there have been enormous legal roadblocks. And no one has had the guts to challenge them. Yet.
