Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Electronic currency (week5)

Electronic currency or electronic money refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Example of e-currency is e-micropayment which is the equivalent of paper currency and coins which enable secure and anonymous purchase of low priced products, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit.

With the use of electronic currency, one can be benefits by it. It provide the individual with lots of convenience, and it also increase the process of transactions to be more efficiency by having a lower transaction fees, No less than that , it also provide more business opportunities with the expansion of economic activities by using Internet.

Although, electronic currency provide lots of benefit, but there are many potential issues with the use of this digital cash. The transfer of digital currencies raises many issues such as how to levy taxes and the possible ease of money laundering. There are also potential macroeconomic effects such as exchange rate instabilities and shortage of money supplies (total amount of digital cash versus total amount of real cash available, basically the possibility that digital cash could exceed the real cash available). To prevent all this issue, proper cyberspace regulations or laws has to be addressable to regulate and monitor the transactions of electronic currency.