Electronic money (or digital money) refers to cash and transactions using electronic means, encompassing the use of computer networks (such as the Internet) and digital stored value systems. It is also a collective term for financial cryptography technologies enabling it.
While this has been an interesting problem for cryptography (see e.g. David Chaum's work), the use of digital cash so far has been relatively low. One rare success has been Hong Kong's Octopus card system, which started as a transit payment system and has grown into a widely used electronic cash system.
See also: money, e-commerce, anonymous internet banking, cypherpunks
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