[Cryptography] What has Bitcoin achieved?

[Jonathan Thornburg]

> (I realize nobody uses checks in Australia any more, but substitute 
> whatever you use to tell your bank to pay bills.)

Two other contemporary-use-of-cheques notes:
* BC Hydro, the main electricity utility in the province of
  British Columbia, Canada, does not currently offer online payments.
  (I think they'll allow you to use a 3rd-party online payment system,
  who of course charges a fee for that "privilege", quite apart from
  any security issues.)  So, I mail a paper cheque to BC Hydro every
  2 months to pay my electricity bill.
* Typical international wire-transfer fees between (say) the USA and
  Canada are around $50-$75 per transfer.  Depending on your financial
  institution's fee schedule and exchange-rate policies, mailing a paper
  cheque can be significantly cheaper than an international wire transfer.

-- 
-- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]" <jthorn at astro.indiana-zebra.edu>
   Dept of Astronomy & IUCSS, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
   currently on the west coast of Canada
   "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched
    at any given moment.  How often, or on what system, the Thought Police
    plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.  It was even conceivable
    that they watched everybody all the time."  -- George Orwell, "1984"