12.7.1. Uses for digital cash? - Privacy protection - Preventing tracking of movements, contacts, preferences + Illegal markets - gambling - bribes, payoffs - assassinations and other contract crimes - fencing, purchases of goods + Tax avoidance - income hiding - offshore funds transfers - illegal markets - Online services, games, etc. + Agoric markets, such as for allocation of computer resources - where programs, agents "pay" for services used, make "bids" for future services, collect "rent," etc. + Road tolls, parking fees, where unlinkablity is desired. This press release excerpt should give the flavor of intended uses for road tolls: - "The product was developed by DigiCash TM Corporation's wholly owned Dutch subsidiary, DigiCash TM BV. It is related to the firm's earlier released product for road pricing, which has been licensed to Amtech TM Corporation, of Dallas, Texas, worldwide leader in automatic road toll collection. This system allows privacy protected payments for road use at full highway speed from a smart card reader affixed to the inside of a vehicle. Also related is the approach of the EU supported CAFE project, of which Dr. Chaum is Chairman, which uses tamper-resistant chips inserted into electronic wallets." [DIGICASH PRESS RELEASE, "World's first electronic cash payment over computer networks," 1994-05-27] 12.7.2. "What are some motivations for anonymous digital cash?" + Payments that are unlinkable to identity, especially for things like highway tolls, bridge tolls, etc. - where linkablity would imply position tracking - (Why not use coins? This idea is for "smart card"-type payment systems, involving wireless communication. Singapore planned (and perhaps has implemented) such a system, except there were no privacy considerations.) + Pay for things while using pseudonyms - no point in having a pseudonym if the payment system reveals one's identity + Tax avoidance - this is the one the digicash proponents don't like to talk about too loudly, but it's obviously a time-honored concern of all taxpayers + Because there is no compelling reason why money should be linked to personal identity - a general point, subsuming others
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