Digital Cash Payment Systems

The recent explosion in the popularity of the Internet has been accompanied by considerable interest in using this worldwide collection of interconnected computers as a medium for commerce. While electronic commerce in general is not itself a novel concept, the dizzying pace of change in the computer networking landscape of late promises to bring with it exciting new ways for individuals and companies to conduct business. In this paper, we begin by presenting a broad overview of current electronic commerce technologies. We then focus on one particularly interesting form of electronic payment: digital cash. We deene speciically what is meant by digital cash, what a digital cash system entails, how such a payment system compares to other existing and proposed payment systems, and discuss the challenges that must be addressed in implementing digital currency on a wide scale. We provide a detailed description of several emerging digital cash systems, and address the advantages and disadvantages that the proliferation of a such a system might entail.