One of the benefits for the user is increased convenience. Just think of road toll payments that can be made from moving vehicles. No more bulky cash to carry around, no worrying about change.
Increased convenience also derives from the freedom of individuals to obtain their card computers from any source, to use whatever hardware or software they choose, and to interface with communication systems wherever they please. This permits card computers to be adapted to the requirements of sophisticated, naive, and handicapped users alike. Most ATM machines nowadays can not be accessed by handicapped people, and even other people refuse to use ATM machines due to various reasons. Some of them think they are too complicated to use or they can't remember their personal identification number, and others just don't like to interact with a machine. They prefer to talk to a human being.
Using digital cash, people might choose never to actually see their digital pseudonyms or to be concerned with other implementation details.
The user is also protected against the bank's refusal to honor a legitimate note, since nobody is able to counterfeit the bank's digital signature on the note.
An other important benefit for the user is improved security. By requiring a password akin to the PIN (personal identification number) now used for bank cards, the electronic wallet could safeguard itself from abuse by thieves by making encrypted backup copies of its contents. A replacement card could then recover these contents if the original electronic wallet were lost.
At the same time, abuse of a lost or stolen card computer by another individual would be very difficult without the owner's secret authorizing number. The card would require the authorizing number, which might typically be about six digits long, before allowing any transactions. A reasonably tamper-resistant device within the card computer could for example
True anonymous digital cash
would also provide unconditional untraceability. The
``blinding'' carried out by the user's own device makes it impossible
for anyone to link payment to payer. But users can prove unequivocally
that they did or did not make a particular payment, without revealing
anything more, if they need to. And of course, the dangers deriving
from computerized pattern recognition techniques mentioned earlier
would be non existent.