Network Money

The Future of Banking and Commerce on the Internet

Every day, millions of people become more comfortable using the Internet to communicate and to access information. While most of us are still struggling to get a grip on what we can do on the Net right now, scores of programmers, researchers, bankers, and businesspeople are working on systems that have the potential to revolutionize another of our daily habits: spending money. These folks hope that we will soon be submitting electronic payments over the Internet with the same comfort with which we presently drop coins into a public phone or hand over our credit card at the gas station.

Getting people to use an electronic money system will be a monumental challenge. Nevertheless, before developers of electronic money systems can focus on users, they must confront another monumental challenge: Internet security. It remains one of the great ironies of the Internet that the protocols that have made it possible for the Net to explode in size also make it pathetically open to hackers, thieves, and other assorted mischief-makers.

Cryptography has become the primary means used by developers of electronic money systems to thwart potential thieves. One goal of Network Money: The Future of Banking and Commerce on the Internet is to explain the basics of the cryptographic systems that will be at the heart of electronic commerce on the Internet. The larger goal, however, is to get people thinking about the social impact of electronic money: How will it change our lives in the coming years?

An Introduction to Electronic Commerce by Jason Solinsky

A look at the payment vehicles of the future and the encryption tools that will make them possible.

Banking on the Internet by Arnold Kling

Would you be willing to pay a few cents for each article you download from the Internet? Arnold Kling shares his thoughts on the future of banking and small money transfers on the Net in Banking on the Internet.

Banking on the Internet Reader Survey Report

At the end of Banking on the Internet, Arnold Kling asked "Would you have paid 20 cents to read this article?" This report presents the results of the survey along with a fascinating collection of reader comments.

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet: An Interview with Allan Schiffman

The Chief Technical Officer of Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT) discusses the importance of transaction security to the future of the Internet in this feature interview with GNN Personal Finance Editor Abbot Chambers.

Network Money Sites on the Internet

An annotated collection of links to the most interesting electronic commerce sites on the Net.

• Reader Response (through 25 Oct 94)
• Send Your Own Response

2) Will the encryption methods discussed in the articles really be secure from a determined hacker?

• Reader Response (through 25 Oct 94)
• Send Your Own Response