Electronic Currency

Electronic currency is a digital equivalent of paper currency and coins which enables secure and anonymous purchase of low-priced items, typically below US$10. In addition, electronic currency is applied in e-micropayment system. There are many different types of currency such as cash, personal checks, cashier's checks, money orders, credit cards, debit cards, bearer bonds, and so on. Typically, electronic currency involves the use of computer networks, internet and digital stored value systems.

Electronic currency payment system has brought numerous advantages to the users. One of the main advantages is the confidentiality and privacy of the users is protected. Current electronic currency systems vary in their effects on privacy from total anonymity, in which personally identifiable records are not created to audited systems that collect and store every aspect of each transaction. One of the most attractive features of electronic currency is that, unlike real cash, it is anonymous. In this case, when an electronic currency amount is sent from a customer to a merchant, it is not possible to obtain information about the customer. Unlike credit card companies that are able to collect a customer's spending habits and sell this data to third parties. Thus, by using electronic currency, the bank is unable to obtain personal information about the consumer and this adequately protects the privacy rights of the customer.

One of the ways of e-micropayment system is through Peppercoin. Peppercoin is an innovative payment platform that allows consumers to use credit or debit cards for small transactions. This will help merchants to avoid high processing fee for those consumer buying below $10 using credit cards. Besides that, Peppercoin aggregates small transactions to increase efficiency and lower merchants' cost.

As usual, every system also has disadvantages and electronic currency system is also not excluded. A major disadvantage to electronic currency is fraud. If a consumer somehow misplaces his private key and a perpetrator uses it to withdraw funds, the bank would never know and will not be able to track the perpetrator and the consumer would be liable.

In conclusion, electronic currency is has made it convenient for the consumer to purchase goods and services using currency such as credit card without the need to bring cash. This can lessen the possibility being rob and loss of cash. The implementation of electronic currency has not been fully accepted by the consumer due to internet breakdown, lack of skill and confidence and so on. However, once the electronic currency industry is able to ensure consumers that these transactions are secure and trustworthy, it will change the way we conduct our daily lives.

For further information, please refer to:

http://www.nextbillion.net/blogs/2005/12/13/cashless-transactions-at-the-bop-peppercoin

http://projects.takingitglobal.org/ecurrency