Abstract

This chapter presents the most ambitious solution for online payment systems. In effect, digital money is a new instrument that matches the speed and the ubiquity of informatics networks, while respecting the properties of classical fiduciary money (privacy, anonymity, and difficulty in counterfeiting). What distinguishes digital from classical money is that the support of the money is “virtual,” because the value is stored in computer memory, on the hard disk of the user, or in a microprocessor card in the form of algorithms.