Sounds no different than cash, except a central control could control
the public's ability to spend it more tightly than with cash. . .

Because I care,
|<+]::-)  (Cyberpope(the Bishop of ROM!))


On (27 Nov 06) Steve Asher wrote to All...

 SA> London gets ready for contactless payments
 SA>
 SA> No PIN, no signing, no touch required
 SA>
 SA> By Chip Mulligan: Saturday 25 November 2006, 19:41
 SA>
 SA> DETAILS WERE ANNOUNCED of the initial London roll out of a new wave
 SA> of contactless debit cards, credit cards and pre-pay cards for
 SA> payments
 SA> under [Pounds]10.
 SA>
 SA> An extension to the existing Chip and PIN EMV network, Maestro /
 SA> MasterCard's PayPass and Visa's contactless system will allow users
 SA> to pay for small goods such as rail tickets, newspapers and beers by
 SA> waving their card in front of an RFID sensor on a point of sale or
 SA> vending machine.
 SA>
 SA> [...]
 SA>
 SA> Initial trials in Scotland, and elsewhere across the world, have
 SA> shown very positive feedback from customers and merchants alike,
 SA> with cardholders liking the ease-of-use and speed, and merchants
 SA> the reduced hassle, especially having to haul less cash around at
 SA> the end of the day.
 SA>
 SA> The London roll out, itself, will be quite an ambitious affair, with
 SA> over half a million new cards issued, and 4,000 updated chip and pin
 SA> readers with built-in RFID sensor sent to over a thousand shops within
 SA> the central city area and Docklands, starting from September 2007.
 SA>
 SA> By the beginning of 2008 it will start to be rolled out across the
 SA> whole of the UK, provided any bugs that have been shown up in the
 SA> initial launch have been ironed out.
 SA>
 SA> [...]
 SA>
 SA> One thing is certain: the government and banks are serious, and see
 SA> this as a war on cash. Official figures estimate that handling of
 SA> physical cash is a [Pounds]4 billion drain on the economy. We can
 SA> only hope that it goes slightly better than their war on terror
 SA>
 SA>                               -==-
 SA>
 SA> Full article at "The Inquirer"
 SA> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35968
 SA>
 SA>
 SA> Cheers, Steve..
 SA>
 SA> ---
 SA> (3:800/432)
 SA> 138/146


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