In the chinese curse department, Simon's blog also reports that the Dutch tax authorities are now charging to accept cash for tax payments.
As he points out, this is the thin end of the wedge; when the government stops supporting its own free loans from the people, they start thinking about alternates.
This is like that old chinese curse - be careful with what you wish for, you might get it... This is not the first step. For a long time, governments have been adding barriers and restrictions to cash transactions of larger value.
Great news for alternate currency fans.
Posted by iang at March 3, 2004 09:13 AM | TrackBackThe banks, gradually making cash uneconomic.
My 2 cents worth is, When oh When is somebody going to produce an AR/AP device that enables peers to maintain reciprocal obligations?
This is so freakin' simple, I'm baffled why it isn't happening.
Basically think of this as fixing your Quicken or Quickbooks, so that it will not post any payable or receivable or transfer of goods, etc. unless it's signed by the reciprocal party. There are dozens of different protocols and semantics for this, both proprietary and open. And code bases.
This is *not* rocket science folks...
respectfully,
Todd
here. read this. http://www.ledgerism.net/arapcloud.htm
the illiquidity of cash: http://www.ledgerism.net/nonquantified.htm