What is money?	Store of value. Value to market. pay debts. pay taxes. able to buy other money in foreign exchange.
What forms does money take?	Cash: Historic development Coins of metallic value to the claim. Coins of money whose value is fiat. Paper promises of specie payment. Paper fiat. (Paper promises of principal with interest.) Demand accounts.(checks) Credit cards. (through forward promise to pay) Accounts receivable, checks.(Cheq Dehui) Notes in Bank.
Who creates financial instruments.	Government, mint, Central bank, Financial institutions. Market. International. Stockmarket vendors.
Market Issues.	In a commercial transaction there are the goods, payment, and transfer issues. In E-business there is the problem of inability to inspect the physical goods. Also the customer does not walk away with the merchandise, it must be sent to him. So this raises the question of when does the transfer take place. In software sales this can work to the advantage of both, no discs, packaging, or risk of damage. Now how does one pay? Send cash by mail? Harry Winston used to send diamonds by mail. But there is a large risk. Receive checks? Delay in receiving. Delay in clearing. Clearing fee. Foriegn Exchange difference. Credit card? It is done with secure connections. But how honest are the receivers (whom the purchaser has probably not even met), with the credit card number and info? For small purchases this is still the most popular with minimal risks. But there are merchant costs of some % on a transaction (some have minimum transaction fees. The merchant does not know the customer. Or know that it is his card. A customer can repudiate the sale. Across borders there are exchange rate differences. A customer who orders at one price may see a different price on his statement. This may hurt consumer confidence. Special one time cards have been issued to reduce risk to merchant and purchaser.
Technologies and schema operation. Which one will be accepted depends on the interrelationship of: secure transaction Acceptance by customers. Acceptance by Merchants Acceptance by regulators of banks and currency.	Netscape. Microsoft Verifone paypal Cybercash First Virtual Bank digicash Monix SET Cybergold e-gold beenz flooz standardreserve goldeconomy
Issues of Violation of Ownership in Internet transactions.	Risk. Hardware failure, Market failure, Enforcement. Security and reduction of risk is a feature of Encotone. Encryption. Fraud and theft. Money laundering.
Links to Additional Resources.	History of Money from Ancient times to the Present Day Leslie Brock Center for the Study of Colonial Currency Comments by gold lover Currency Converter The Gold Economy Magazine primarily about the use of gold and silver as money. DigiPlus bill paying. The NetBill Project electronic commerce project at Carnegie Mellon's Information Networking Institute final paper Modeling the Risks and Costs of Digitally Signed Certificates in Electronic Commerce Ecommerce

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