Closing the loop-payment on demand for interactive services

For services such as video-on-demand and pay-per-view or pay-per-play to develop, there is a requirement for general purpose digital cash: a replacement for notes and coins with the additional functionality of supporting cash transactions over networks. True digital cash will allow consumers to make impulse buys from independent content retailers without registering accounts or handing over their credit card details. With the announcement of the first such scheme in the UK, businesses can begin to develop real strategies for shifting customer-supplier cash-based transactions into cyberspace. This paper draws on some of Hyperion´s recent experience in helping to develop the Mondex digital cash scheme-and other projects ranging from the re-engineering of bank branch businesses to procuring satellite-based communications networks for developing countries-to demonstrate the radical changes that digital cash allows in infobahn-based businesses