Banking on electronic money

摘要

Imagine a world where no one remembers what purses were for, money is just an icon on the computer screen, and the First Bank of Microsoft knows what you ate for lunch. Kurt Kleiner explores the frontier territory. "Welcome to the Digicash home page," screams the bold text on the computer screen. Click on any of the icons and a list of goods and services appears, each with its own brightly coloured logo. There's Encyclopaedia Britannica offering information searches, a Dutch author selling samples of his "lifestyle" book, and Ricky's Junk Shop hoping to sell anything that people might find interesting. Click again with your mouse and you are now shopping on the Internet.