The impetus for the coming revolution, of course, is the Internet, which big business hopes to turn into a borderless shopping mall. As is so often true with technology, reality lags behind the hype. Despite the talk of 40 million Internet users, most traffic is in e-mail not commerce. And most users are male nerds between 20 and 40. The predictions of commerce on the Internet definitely are over-hyped.
Security needs to be improved.
One reason Internet shopping has not caught on is that people are loath to send credit card numbers into the ether. For digidollars to work, people must believe criminals can't access accounts. No security code will ever foil a determined hacker with a supercomputer and a lot of time on his hands, but soon encryption should be adequate to placate most people. Credit card companies are working with CyberCash and Netscape Communications to develop and implement the new Secure Electronic Transaction protocol for online credit card commerce. SET is expected to become the standard for secure online transactions.