On Nov 16, 2005, at 11:02 AM, Wouter van Ooijen wrote:

> When I get a bank transfer from a public person I get his bank number,
> as part of the transaction information. This is the normal practice in
> my country, and AFAIK in most of western europe...

Yes, I've noticed that there seems to be quite a difference between
europe and the US in this respect.  Along with a difference in the
frequency of use of direct transfers vs checks or credit cards.
I'm not sure I understand it; As someone pointed out, sending someone
a check gives them the same numbers (in the US), but we don't usually
worry about that.  What additional info gives someone in europe the
ability to withdraw vs deposit into accounts?

I think part of the issue is that in the US, it's very rare for there
to be personal transfers into or out of bank accounts - if someone is
going to withdraw funds directly from your account, they tend to be
a big institution rather than another individual.  The US tends to
be either cash oriented or credit oriented, with EFT not even on the
playing board.  most of the time, anyway.  Sort of.

A clear application for public key cryptography.  Sort of.  I wonder
why it hasn't caught on (aside from the keys generally being terribly
unwieldy for human use...)

BillW
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist