Rules are different from country to country though. 'Always on' for a flat monthly fee isn't available in many Asian countries yet - but is bound to come, of course. > > I go to the counter > and put my phone next the phone of the merchant. > My concerns would be (1) you need two phones that communicate directly with each other and (2) there is handset resident software involved.
(1) If you ever tried to beam a phone number from a Samsung handset to one of the Ericson, Nokia, Sony, etc. brand, then you know what I mean. In theory at least three of the brands are supposed to be compatible with each other, but more often than not they are aren't. (2) Software installed on a particular handset, would make the handset identifiable, tracable and there goes the privacy aspect. Worse, if the handset is used as identifier, e-gold becomes stealable. The techs on the list are likely to confirm that there is no such thing as an unhackable software. This in turn would create all sorts of headaches for e-gold themselves, which is why they would be likely not to go for it. Ultimately, I believe that providers outside e-gold will develop a system on the same or similar principle as JP's 1MDC.com which is then likely to come up with a subscriber-based solution. But, to avoid eroding privacy during transactions there would need to be a way to spend quasi-cash. Meaning, as soon as you know the amount, you make a spent which is assigned a temporary batch number. This temporary number is what the merchant uses to accept the payment. Once accepted the temporary number is erased and your account history only shows 'mobile spent'. But all that would need to be possible from 'any' handset, PDA, notebook, etc. I fear, there is still some distance to cover before it would become feasible for an operator to develop, market and operate such a system. Cheers, Robert. budget & privacy website hosting http://www.cyberica.net budget & privacy domain registrations + mail http://www.u2planet.com/cfdomaintrust.html --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
