| Abstract | An individual's survival and comfort depends on the goods he or she possesses and the skills with which he can adapt the environment to his needs. His surrounding community may volunteer to add to his store of possessions or offer services. Beyond that, the individual can meet his needs only through trade with others. To negotiate a trade, the individual and a trading partner must agree upon a real-numbered value assigned to goods and services. Then monetary tokens that represent this value are exchanged for the goods or services.<br /><br />Through electronic commerce, i.e. the use of a computer network to enhance trade, physical distance is no longer a barrier to the search for a trading partner. A widely-held view of the future is that computer networks will increase an individual's chances of finding trading partners with goods or services that meet his need. Besides information about needed and offered goods and services, the network can transmit electronic monetary tokens that cannot be falsely generated, so they truly represent a value in lieu of goods. In some cases the goods and services themselves can be transmitted across the network, such as digital multimedia products, or organizational or reasoning services. Thus electronic commerce is a natural tool for procuring goods and services that improve our survival and comfort. |
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