ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the financial context within which the dematerialization of the means of payment takes place. The power of money can be transferred from one economic agent to another with the help of a means of payment or a payment instrument. The chapter introduces classical forms of money, and shows evolution in several industrialized countries based on comparative data collated by the Bank for International Settlement. In each country, cash constitutes the fiduciary money that the central bank and the public treasury issue in the form of notes and coins. Among the classical means, the choice for face-to-face commerce is limited to cash, checks, and payment cards. In systems where the payment is directly given to the merchant, clients transmit the coordinates of their account to the merchant. Electronic purses and electronic Jeton holders have already proved their economic effectiveness in proximity commerce and payment through automatic machines.
