Many new telephone services have recently become available for which micropayments are made electronically. Tap in the numbers for call return and for an electronic micropayment of about 75 cents the phone company will call that caller back for you. Not so in many other countries. In Japan, for example, local calls are metered resulting in a micropayment for each phone call. Transaction costs for these micropayments are kept low through automation and minimizing accounting costs.
Automation replaces high priced labor costs with more productive computer costs.
Both approaches are being pursued for commerce on the Net. The new trusted medium is called electronic cash. It will take time for people to become confident using electronic cash. For electronic commerce, the second method, low cost automated accounting systems, is actually the same as the first. Electronic cash can be viewed as a low cost accounting system.