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Rapid advances in technology have conferred vast benefits upon modern societies. Money can be wire transferred in an instant. The Internet has dispensed with the need to send faxes across telephone wires. The days when one was required to carry multiple currencies to travel across international borders have all but disappeared. The day is fast approaching when societies will be cashless and we will be able to carry so-called smart cards1 that contain all of our funds in the form of electronic cash. Smart cards have the technical ability to facilitate transfers of electronic cash from one smart card to another. We can use electronic cash to shop on the Internet and even gamble there if we wish. The shares of a company could be bought and sold on multiple stock exchanges through electronic cash transactions. When the London stock exchange is closed, for example, a person in the United Kingdom might transmit electronic cash to New York and buy publiclytraded shares because the stock exchanges in New York will be open. If a citizen of one country loses faith in the national currency, he might use an electronic cash transaction to convert his assets into the stronger currency of another country in a foreign bank account. The examples of how modern technology will continue to benefit us are numerous.
Recommended Citation
Richard T. Preiss, The Consequences of Anonymous Access to the Financial Payment System, 16 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev. 619 (1998).