The year is 2005. I wake up after a long dreamless night. My head feels still dizzy as I put on my clothes and prepare to leave my apartment. About to close the door, I suddenly realize that I forgot to take along my electronic wallet. I quickly open the drawer of my desk, grab it and put it into my inside pocket. Impatiently, I wait for the express elevator to surmount the 45 floors that separate me from the subway station.
At the gate, I type my personal identification number into my electronic wallet, which then contacts the ticket machine using an infra-red link to prove my identity and verify my subscription: access granted. Exhausted, I drop down on the first free seat. My thoughts deviate, the suburban landscape and the city traffic are passing by.
The rumbling of my stomach brings me back to reality. I get off the subway, enter my favorite fast-food restaurant and order a breakfast. The cashier gives me a choice of monetary units which are both displayed on the flat-panel screen for me to view. My scrambled eggs, ham and coffee will cost me US $50 or 5 pvu. The monetary symbol ``pvu'' is an abbreviation for ``private value units'', which now compete in most commercial settings with the US Dollar and have stayed remarkably stable since their initial issuance in mid-1996.
Having payed with wireless digital cash, I take a seat. The pressure in my stomach loses in strength, while I recall the old times, where people used to pay using real cash. Inconvenient and even dangerous, for everyone always had to carry some money around. Nowadays, nobody would steal your electronic wallet, since without the personal identification number it is useless. Besides, it is also tamper resistant and self-destructs if someone tries to get valuable information from it the hard way. I remember a scandal in 1999, when some American professor managed to break into one of the first electronic wallets by using high precision explosives and liquid nitrogen to freeze the contents of the memory right after opening the case before it could delete its contents. Fortunately, this problem has been fixed and the device is now considered perfectly secure.
I get up and leave the restaurant. Small refreshing raindrops fall on my face. Across the street, the administrative building of the DigiCash concern attracts all my attention. I have to be there at work in about 15 minutes. I donŐt need to hurry, there is still plenty of time.