Ecash -- Digital Money!

"Ecash" was the old terminology. I first wrote about ecash on this site back in 1996, back when I first created this website. Now cryptocurrencies have realized the potential of ecash, but controversies abound. Below, what I forecasted about ecash, unchanged from when I first posted this. Note that of the list of those early companies seeking to get rich on ecash listed below, only one, Netchex, is still in business.

 

What I wrote in 1996:

The advent of ecash promises to revolutionize commerce. On the negative side, some analysts argue that, in conjunction with strong encryption and other security techniques it will make tax evasion and money-laundering trivially easy. But on the positive side, it will enable electronic data interchange (EDI) systems to become totally integrated.

Ultimately, ecash promises to usher in a single global currency backed not by governments, but by a set of voluntary standards backed by an network of international companies.

---

Companies that were providing ecash or ecash software in 1996:

Checkfree

Cybercash

Digicash

First Virtual Holdings Inc.

Mondex

NetChex

Premenos Corp.