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VIII Conclusion
Money was originally a physical substance like gold and silver. It could even be alive, as cattle were one of the oldest forms of money. Throughout the ages physical money in the form of objects, coins and notes has increasingly been replaced by more abstract means of payment such as bills of exchange, cheques and credit cards. Compared to e-money, the traditional cash and coin are “dirty”, “heavy”, “inequitable”, “expensive” and “obsolete” . “Money’s destiny is to become digital”.
While electronic money provides important efficiency benefits by reducing cash handling costs and improving speed and convenience for consumer, a diverse range of potential problems arise, which are not only on economic and monetary, but also on policy and law.
The legal issues are raised by issuance and circulation of e-money are numerous. On commercial law, EU and U.S all have applied a principle, which is when payments become final, liability for authorized payments completed improperly and the ability to convert electronic value as collateral for a debt. Another important element in establishing the commercial viability of electronic commerce and e-money is the development of rules of contract law and evidence regarding the validity of electronic contracts. Besides, based on the confidence principle, the qualification, business transaction and insolvent procedure of the issuer company will be no doubt to affect the company law somewhat. On criminal law, by e-money money laundering and taxation avoidance crime become more complicated, meanwhile some new categories of Internet crime are rising, such as Hacking. Finally, widespread use of Internet-tradable electronic money might internationalize money, and international law is difficult to ignore. It is re-examing the conventional rules of conflict of laws, as same as building some new international law standards.
The various electronic money are still at a relatively early stage in their development. Just as they said, e-money is more interesting than you think, which touches on a wide range of topics and the debate on its future, on the law and other regulations that will surround it, is only just beginning.
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Organisation For Economic Co-operation and Deverlopment, The Future of Money, OECD, 2002
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Jonathan Williams, Joe Cribb, & Elizabeth Errington, Money a History, British Museum Press, 1997
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Ian Christie and Duncan Goldie-Scot, E-cash is more interesting than you think: What are the key issues? Http://www.emerrald-library.com, accessed 26/2/2003
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Kerry Lynn Macintosh, How to Encourage Global Electronic Commerce: The Case For Private Currencies on The Internet, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, 1998
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