Paper based cash as a medium of exchange has been under assault by electronic processing of checks, credit and debit cards for years. However cash has anonymity, an indelible quality that other forms of payment cannot match. And as the use of electronic networks grows, from CIRRUS to the internet, so do concerns about fraud and the privacy of personal transactions.

New ideas are now emerging from innovative technologies and encryption schemes, to new businesses designed to create a new kind of "digital cash" suitable for conducting cash like transactions in the information age. But questions about electronic money remain such as who will `back' digital dollars? Who will regualate them and how secure will they really be? What impact would electronic money have on financial markets. monetary policy, law and tax enforcement? Resolution of these issues must come about if electronic money will compete with cash on a wide scale.