快猫短视频

MONEY makes the world go around, but not always as conveniently as one might wish. There鈥檚 never enough cash in your wallet; the coins in your purse only weigh you down. Then there is the pile of bank cards to squeeze in, and as if that weren鈥檛 enough, store cards just keep multiplying.

But that is all set to change. A raft of new technologies is appearing that will suck up that cash and dump it into a handy electronic device, liberating our pockets from crumpled notes, jangling change and wads of cards. These electronic alternatives are promising to bring about an explosion in the number of ways of paying for things and perhaps usher in currencies that work quite differently from dollars, pounds and euros.

We are already used to paying with credit or debit cards rather than cheques or cash. But what if you want to make a payment online that is as anonymous as cash? An international system now being developed could do the trick. Other times you might buy goods with your frequent-flier miles. Or if you commute every day, you might use a payment card that will net you a discount on your next subway ride. You might even choose a payment system that鈥檚 designed to benefit your community. And because it will all be computerised, the pain of managing all these accounts will be handled automatically.

Today most currencies are issued by national central banks. But there is no fundamental reason it must be this way. Anyone can legally issue a currency. All it needs to make it work is a large enough community of people who respect its value. For that to happen, there have to be safeguards against counterfeiting 鈥� for an electronic currency this means cryptographic protection.

And what about the hardware that will make wallets, purses and cards obsolete? In Japan, millions of people are already getting a taste of electronic cash in the form of a service run by the cellphone operator NTT DoCoMo. The company sells handsets with built-in wireless electronic payment systems for small cash transactions. It looks as though in the near future the mobile phone will double as a personal banking device, keeping track of your money and maintaining order in your electronic wallet.

The coming of cards

Is it really possible that the way we pay for things will change so dramatically that the need for cash might completely evaporate? The story of credit cards suggests that this is not a pipe dream. Just two generations ago, they did not exist: they arrived in the US only in 1958, the UK had to wait another eight years, and Australia eventually caught up in 1974. Yet worldwide, there are now more than 1.7 billion credit cards in circulation. Credit cards, and their younger siblings debit cards, dominate our payment habits.

But they are no longer alone. Other payment options have begun to appear on the scene, and some have many key attributes of an alternative currency. Take frequent-flyer miles. As well as buying flights, AirMiles 鈥渆arned鈥� with British Airways can be used to pay for shopping at Sainsbury鈥檚 supermarkets in the UK. Frequent-flyer miles given to Cathay Pacific passengers can even be used to pay for surgery at one private hospital in Thailand.

While credit cards are used mainly for large or medium-value purchases, other options are starting to appear for 鈥渕icropayments鈥� down to just a few pence. In Hong Kong, a smart card called Octopus, which was designed to speed access to public transport systems, has since 2000 also been accepted in shops as a way to buy low-value items like newspapers and drinks. And in London, the Oyster card now widely used to pay for journeys on London鈥檚 buses and underground trains will soon go on trial in a similar system.

Yet despite the high-tech alternatives, cash has proved remarkably hard to dislodge from our lives. In the mid-1990s there were high hopes for e-money systems such as Mondex and Visa Cash, but they failed to catch on. At the time, it was argued that electronic money was more convenient than cash. But it turned out that most people did not agree.

Perhaps these attempts were too ambitious. 鈥淥ne thing that Mondex did wrong was that it tried to be everywhere,鈥� says Jean Camp of Harvard University, the president of the International Financial Cryptography Association. On the other hand, a new payment system can鈥檛 afford to be too small, either. It鈥檚 the chicken-and-egg problem: merchants won鈥檛 accept a new currency or payment method unless they know that customers are going to use it; customers won鈥檛 use it unless they know merchants will accept it. As Camp puts it, 鈥淭o succeed, you have to pick the right kind of 鈥榚verywhere鈥�.鈥�

鈥淚s it really possible that the need for cash might completely evaporate?鈥�

For the Oyster card, 鈥渢he right kind of everywhere鈥� means the nearest bus stop or station. With 150 tube stations and 8000 buses across London accepting it as payment for journeys, 3.2 million people already use one. In January payment devices in 3850 London shops will allow people to use an Oyster card to pay for such things as newspapers, food and drink. At the same time the cards are expected to entirely replace cash on buses.

That large pool of existing users is why Oyster might succeed where Mondex failed. But it started out with humbler ambitions. Originally it was seen as a straight replacement for the magnetic-stripe cards previously issued as tickets, says Charles Monheim, director of the Oyster project at Transport for London, which oversees public transport services. Oyster cards are read simply by waving them in front of a pad, and these 鈥渃ontactless鈥� reader pads were deemed more reliable than the magnetic readers they are replacing. But they also allowed passengers to charge up a card with credit for multiple journeys, and to have free travel once they鈥檇 spent a certain amount in one day. It鈥檚 that flexibility and adaptibility that gives Oyster extra potential.

According to Leo Van Hove, an economist at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), commuters in Hong Kong use their Octopus cards on average 24 times a month, and 15 per cent of those purchases are for items other than transport tickets. That works out at one retail purchase a week on the Octopus card.

Like Octopus and Oyster, other e-payment systems are concentrating their efforts on a limited geographical range. In the mid-1990s, when Renah Persofsky was the chief executive officer of the Bank of Montreal鈥檚 e-commerce division, she witnessed the failure of numerous digital cash schemes. 鈥淚 felt that I knew how to make it work,鈥� she says, and the electronic micropayment system she has since set up has drawn on that experience. Called Dexit, it began by blanketing downtown Toronto. Now the system counts about 50,000 users and 500 merchants in the area.

For users, one of the big advantages of the Dexit card over ordinary cash is that it can recharge itself automatically. 鈥淲e鈥檒l move funds for you from any bank in Canada,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat way you are always sure that there is something in your wallet.鈥� It鈥檚 like having a wallet that goes to the cash machine for you.

Strictly speaking, the Dexit card isn鈥檛 even a card any more. The chip that started out at the heart of the smart card can now be built into a keyring tag, or a sticker that you attach to your cellphone or PDA. And customers can sign up to be sent an SMS message to remind them when their account needs a top-up.

All this activity has not gone unnoticed by the giants of traditional electronic payment. After watching from the sidelines for a decade, Visa, MasterCard and American Express have started issuing cards that can be used to pay sums as small as a few pennies simply by waving them in front of a reader. No signature or PIN required.

鈥淚n Japan you can use your mobile phone to pay for public transport trips or your shopping鈥�

Japan shows where these payment cards may be going. Last year NTT DoCoMo began selling mobile phones containing chips based on Sony鈥檚 FeliCa smart card system (快猫短视频, 24 July 2004, p 26). Today there are more than 3.7 million of these i-mode FeliCa phones in circulation. Users can use the phones to pay for transport or goods at hundreds of locations across the country. Other mobile phone companies are following suit. Nokia and Philips are developing their own versions of the technology, and the three companies have signed agreements to make their systems compatible.

Electronic payment systems may also help alternative currencies grow. Many such socially or politically motivated currencies have been around since long before e-payment systems became practical. Ithaca Hours, a currency circulating in the college town of Ithaca, New York (population 30,000), is one well-known example. Founded in 1991 by a social activist called Paul Glover, Ithaca Hours reflects the idea that an hour of labour should always have the same value, no matter whether it鈥檚 for babysitting or running a company. The currency itself is printed on locally made paper by a local printer. There are over 12,000 Ithaca Hours in circulation, and around 600 members are listed in the Ithaca Hours directory, including both individuals and merchants who accept Hours as payment. Ithaca Hours has spawned well over 30 imitators in the US alone. And there are other organisations with similar objectives, such as Time Banks.

Ithaca Hours has inspired a new generation of high-tech currencies. 鈥淐onventional money is, in my view, not designed for social purposes,鈥� says Bernard Lietaer, who worked for Belgium鈥檚 central bank on the introduction of the euro but is now based in the US. 鈥淚t is more appropriate for competitive purposes.鈥� Lietaer thinks the solution to many social problems lies in linking economic reward to social behaviour. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been throwing money at social issues for a long time, but it just doesn鈥檛 work.鈥� As an example, he cites the paradoxes thrown up by the US healthcare industry. 鈥淚t makes money when you鈥檙e sick, and it鈥檚 remarkably effective at doing that,鈥� he says. But if you stay healthy, only the health insurance companies win out. 鈥淚magine that you could earn a currency by doing healthy things. That is one of the projects I鈥檓 working on, a health-promoting currency that would tie in with insurance companies.鈥�

鈥淚magine you could earn currency by doing healthy things鈥�

The root of all evil?

Lietaer believes that social currencies will soon go mainstream. It鈥檚 a matter of merging two separate concepts: local currencies that have the social goals but not the means to implement them, and business currencies such as airline miles and customer-reward programmes that have commercial backing but no social purpose. 鈥淚 can tell you that they are about to merge,鈥� says Lietaer, who is now a visiting professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. He predicts that the breakthrough will happen in the next three years, and that when it does it will be in the form of an electronic currency.

Lietaer isn鈥檛 the only one developing a high-tech social currency. Agnes Koltay, a Hungarian based in Dubai, and Daniel Nagy, who lives in Toronto, are treading a middle path between Lietaer鈥檚 idealism and the profit-oriented pragmatism of Oyster, Dexit and their ilk. The two have come together in their spare time to create ePoints, a system that people can use to create their own electronic currency. Unlike the ill-fated internet currencies of the 1990s, the payment system itself is not intended to make a profit; that will come through the distribution of enabling software, allowing the payments themselves to be fee-free, just like cash. 鈥淪ome other systems make the mistake that they want to keep it very centralised, to make a profit on exchange rates and service,鈥� Koltay says. By contrast, ePoints will be totally decentralised, much like the internet itself. Anyone can set themselves up to issue electronic ePoint 鈥渘otes鈥�, and anyone can use them (see 鈥淎n e-currency of your own鈥�).

That might sound radical, but in fact a world full of different currencies is nothing new. As far back as the 17th century, privately printed currencies coexisted with, and often outnumbered, government-issued cash in Europe and America. In the future the single currency economies we鈥檝e been living in might seem like a quaint hiccup.