However, the public has become comfortable with credit cards and debit cards. Private cash has a potential market, but it may not be as large as people today are thinking. Return to the Top Electronic Cash and the Web Systems such as Digicash and NetCash allow the customer to deposit cash into a bank account then use that cash to purchase items off the internet. Digicash customers receive an encoded 64 bit number for each nickel they convert to ecash, which is then transferred to the user's hard drive. The vendor then returns the ecash to the bank in exchange for real money.
Electronic cash is untraceable.
The bank does not link the numbers to a particular person, therefore it is impossible to link payment to payer. The customer does not have to worry about being added to dozens of mailing lists. Unless of course, the customer has ordered actual merchandise that needs to be sent to their home, instead of information that can be sent over the internet. Since the bank does not link the money to your name they would have no way to reimburse you. However, Digicash's ecash is revoverable if your hard disk crashes.