经济学人下载:电子支付(3)

These problems have three remedies. First, governments need to ensure that central banks’ monopoly over coins and notes is not replaced by private monopolies over digital money. Rather than letting a few credit-card firms have a stranglehold on the electronic pipes for digital payments, as America may yet allow, governments must ensure the payments plumbing is open to a range of digital firms which can build services on top of it. They should urge banks to offer cheap, instant, bank-to-bank digital transfers between deposit accounts, as in Sweden and the Netherlands. Competition should keep prices low so that the poor can afford most services, and it should also mean that if one firm stumbles others can step in, making the system resilient.
这些问题有三个补救措施。首先，政府需要确保央行对硬币和纸币的垄断不会被私人对数字货币的垄断所取代。政府必须确保支付通道向一系列数字公司开放，而不是像美国可能允许的那样，让少数信用卡公司牢牢控制数字支付的电子通道。政府应该敦促银行像瑞典和荷兰那样，在存款账户之间提供费用低、即时的银行间数字转账服务。竞争应该使价格保持在低水平，这样穷人就能负担得起大部分的服务，这也应该意味着，如果一家公司遇到困难，其他公司也可以介入，使这个系统具有弹性。

Second, governments should maintain banks’ obligation to keep customer information private, so that the plumbing remains anonymous. Digital firms that use this plumbing to offer services should be free to monetise transaction data, through, for example, advertising, so long as their business model is made explicit to users. Some customers will favour free services that track their purchases; others will want to pay to be left alone.
其次，政府应该保持银行对客户信息保密的义务，这样银行的信息管道才能保持匿名。使用这种管道来提供服务的数字公司应该可以通过广告等方式自由地将交易数据货币化，只要他们的商业模式对用户明确。一些顾客会倾向于使用免费的服务来跟踪他们的购买行为；另一些人会想要付出代价让自己独处。

Last, the phase-out of cash should be gradual. For a period of ten years, banks should be obliged to accept and distribute cash in populated areas. This will buy governments time to help the poor open bank accounts, educate the elderly and beef up internet access in rural areas. The rush towards digital money is the result of spontaneous demand and innovation. To pocket all the rewards, governments need to prepare for the day when crumpled bank notes change hands for the last time.
最后，现金应逐步淘汰。在十年的时间里，银行有义务在人口密集的地区接受和发放现金。这将为政府争取时间，帮助贫困人口开设银行账户，教老年人使用，并加强农村地区的互联网接入。对数字货币的狂热是自发需求和创新的结果。为了把所有的奖励都装进口袋，各国政府需要做好准备，迎接皱巴巴的钞票最后一次易手的那一天。