Electonic Money

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Electronic Money is money that is digitized. There are typically two kinds of e-money; anonymous e-money and identified e-money. Anonymous e-money is like cash. This form of e-money leaves no trail behind that identifies the issuer or the spender. Identification comes with identified e-money. This form of e-money is associated with the identity of the person that withdrew the money from the bank and also contains a history that can be used to trace back to that bank as the money flows through the internet.

Anonymous e-money is possible because of the use of blind signatures. Identified e-money is possible because the issuer can be traced back to.

When talking about e-money, there is a big emphasis on smart cards. Smart cards are just cards that contain a chip that contains digitally signed data which stores money withdrawn from a persons account.

Below are a variety of sites that discuss e-money, their impacts on the economy, the different types of e-money, and even talks about e-money laundering.

This site contains a pretty good FAQ about e-money and how it works and just overall good information about e-money. It also talks about double spending and how this issue is resolved with the use of an observer chip.

talks about how the e-money will effect the economy and the struggles the government has in regulating this new form of transaction.

This site offers a great introduction on how eCash works and how it is transferred between the user’s account to some vendor. It also mentions the importance of an e-bank.

The Netherlands are rolling out the largest initiative anywhere in the world.Since last fall, Dutch banks have issued more than 4 million cards equipped with a chipknip, Dutch for "electronic purse." The article also talks about ways that the card can be updated(check balance, add more cash) and spent.

Instabuy offers a way to store all your e-money information so that you can shop like you would with a debit card. Creates your personal wallet ]and purchase securely with just one click.

First Union Bank has created a separate entity called the Internet Bill Payment and Presentment unit will extend First National's print, mail and remittance-processing services to include Internet originated payments. First National will utilize CyberCash's innovative InstaBuy Agile Wallet platform to load and manage payment information for billers.

Carnegie Mellon's Information Networking Institute is researching

design issues of highly survivable and secure distributed transaction processing systems, as well as accounting and access control for digital libraries through their creation, NetBill, a dependable, secure, and economical payment method for purchasing digital goods and services through the Internet.

Tulsa National e-Money Systems is a bank technology company, committed to providing a completely electronic and paperless bill presentment, payment, and remittance advice system to utilities, cable companies, and other high volume billers throughout the world.

This site has a full dissertation on e-money and how it will impact money laundering.