Re: Will Not Happen (was: bearer = anonymous = freedom to contract)

[Wolfgang Roeckelein <wolfgang.roeckelein@wiwi.uni-regensburg.de>]

Dave Birch wrote:
> I have to say I agree: if you could just walk in with a $20 bill
> and walk out with $20 on a smart card, more people would have
> given the system a try.

That's true. But you still need shops accepting the card, otherwise you are stuck in a situation like in Germany: Lots of people have a smartcard on their ATM card, and you can easily load it (loading machines are next to lots of ATMs). But you can almost nowhere pay with the cash card (the system has a few other misfeatures, though: It does not support incremental billing, so building a pay phone for calling with these cards is a bit difficult (and even more difficult because another few oddities)). Well, next generation of the cards will have a next generation version which supports at least incremental billing.

Another regarding making thinks more available: The Deutsche Bank has recently changed its rules to the ecash pilot: You no longer need to have an account with them, any account with a German bank will do. Needless to say, I have meanwhile an ecash account...
  Wolfgang
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