An inventor has patented a way for people to send cash anonymously online.  The device is kind of like an ATM in that it both accepts and dispenses cash (as well as coins in this case).  The article is a bit sparse on the details, but I’m assuming that one would deposit cash and get a receipt with a code.  The code would then be sent to the payee who could go to another machine to obtain the cash.

I actually like the idea, since it would allow me to bypass PayPal and to avoid leaving a money trail (if I so desired).  I cancelled my PayPal account because I just didn’t trust them anymore (I also cancelled my eBay account for the same reason—I lost confidence in PayPal when eBay bought them and of course the way they changed their AUP didn’t help).  This looks like it would also be a convenient way to get money to people quickly, if needed.

As I see it, the major stumbling blocks for this concept are that this machine would need to be widely adopted (so it would be convenient to use) and I would expect that banks might not want to be involved with it (since they seem quite content to spy on you for the government; they wouldn’t want to upset their masters by contributing to anonymous payments).  There is also the fact that cash becomes inconvenient to handle in large amounts (and tends to set off alarms with the aforementioned bankers when withdrawn).

Anyway, I wish him success with the endeavour.  Anything that we can do to win back a little financial privacy is a good thing.