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Conclusion

In this report we tried to compare the different electronic commerce schemes and their impact on society. After a careful study of the various implementations and systems, we must state the following observations:

• Because considerable sums of money are involved in the electronic money market, some companies prefer to enter the market as quickly as possible, even with a mediocre system.
• The consumer is not well enough informed on all the risks involved. The inherent complexity of the domain forbids the greatest part of the population to see the threats and risk on their own.
• The risk of a possible disclosure of the bank's private key was not addressed in any of the documents we read. The publication of the secret keys would have catastrophic impacts on the society, as everybody would then be capable of producing money.
• An introduction of digital cash in a large scale will certainly alter the way people handle money, but may also trigger fundamental changes in modern society.

These elements show that we must be very careful when choosing or implementing an electronic money scheme. Many of the risks involved are not clear to the common user. Further, the amount of money involved makes it profitable to criminals to invest considerable amounts of money to break the system.

Digital money, a divine gift or Satan's malicious tool? Keeping the exponential growth of the Internet in mind, it is clear that we will need an electronic payment scheme in the near future. It is everybody's responsibility to face the critical issues and decide for a reliable and secure system. The coming years will show whether or not this responsibility was recognized and all of the problems have been solved by the creators of the digital money.