Peter Sinclair: Opening up the virtual wallet

Micropayments in cyberspace have always been a hobbyhorse of mine.

It seems self-evident that to discover the online El Dorado everyone has so far sought in vain requires that millions upon millions of surfers are enabled to pay minuscule sums for some of the resources they now get free - 10c for a read of the front page of the New York Times, say.

The NYT is read by many millions of surfers each week. You do the maths.

Extend the concept across cyberspace, and the torrents of the web are unleashed. The fits and starts of the new economy would be ironed out and startups would stop going bust. It's called cash-flow.

"You wish!" snarls the group of more or less the same United States banks that jointly control both Visa and MasterCard and profit handsomely from the $10 minimum charge of the status quo.

It is this group of financial dinosaurs which, it is widely believed, has so far scuppered the chances of outfits like DigiCash (now eCash), the Mondex SmartCard, NetCheque and any number of others.

That this may be more than merely another paranoid socialist nightmare about international financiers, and the conspiracies to which they are allegedly prone, is perhaps attested to by the fact that the US Department of Justice, having dealt to Microsoft, at once issued anti-trust proceedings against the two credit-card companies and associated banks.

The "virtual wallet" concept, operated on a debit system with no footprints leading back to a user's credit cards or bank accounts, is universally agreed (except by the aforementioned duopolists) to be the only solution to the security anxieties of most ordinary consumers.

From the banks' point of view, the big minus is that a stack of technological problems will land in their in-tray and have to be moved across their blotters to the out-tray. It's called "work."

In Britain, the mighty Prudential has rolled up its sleeves and is revisiting the idea. Last month, despite the general disarray of technology stocks, it floated Egg, which in 1998 pioneered online banking in Britain, and will trial a "virtual wallet" system from late this month for an October launch.

Devised by EarthPort to handle payments for the International Red Cross a few years ago, the technology is also seen as having essential applications to the developing wap (Wireless Application Protocol) mobile phone market.

It lets customers enter their details at a secure site on the company's server, from which they can authorise debit payments from a PC or mobile without credit-card details.

This sort of speed to market is what established Egg's reputation in the first place, and the Pru is no doubt hoping that boldness will again be its friend in one of the most crucial areas of the cyber economy.

With a million customers and deposits of nearly £8 billion, Egg is off to a flying start, and I wish it well. But somehow I can't help worrying.

You know what they say about omelettes.

Bookmarks:

MOST REGAL: Buckingham Palace

Creep up from below stairs into one of the grandest parlours of the palace - a virtual tour of the White Drawing Room will soon give those who can't visit the palace in person a glimpse of the House of Windsor in its splendid decline. Panormania has stitched together 12 photos into a perfect panorama that lets you zoom in on some of the details. Should you encounter anyone in a coronet, tug your forelock and dart off through the secret door to be revealed to commoners for the first time

Advisory: plus a pictorial tribute to the Queen Mum at 100.

MOST IMPROVED: UBD Online

A notable online upgrade for a New Zealand institution. Hosting facilities, business search (by name, product, brand, region, locality, keyword) and a raft of e-business options harnessed to UBD's E-Directory listing nearly 150,000 businesses and 10,000 websites. Wise's E-map search engine for the main centres shot straight into my Favourites folder.

Advisory: they don't come anybetter.

MOST OPTIMISTIC: Gnome

Sun, IBM, Compaq and Hewlett Packard are behind a new outfit, the Gnome Foundation, to help Linux wage war on Windows. Gnome aims to unify competing Linux interfaces and promote programs in common - the initial set will be modelled on StarOffice software. They have a tough row to hoe - 87 per cent of desktops run Windows, 4 per cent Linux.

Advisory: run, Bill, run.

MOST RELENTLESS: Fines Online

You can run, but you can't hide in cyberspace. The pit-bulls of the Department for Courts are on your heels at this new site where you can pay fines, check if you've got any and learn about your rights and obligations. Begins with warm fuzzies and ends on a note of undefined menace suggesting that you may be hung by your thumbs over a slow fire if you don't cough up.

Advisory: tell the bailiff your computer crashed.

Links:

New York Times

DigiCash

Mondex SmartCard

NetCheque

US Department of Justice

Prudential

Egg

EarthPort

Buckingham Palace

Panormania

UBD Online

Gnome

Fines Online


E-mail: petersinclair@email.com