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Banknotes Go Electronic To Outwit Counterfeiters
suraj.sun writes "Modern banknotes contain up to 50 anti-counterfeiting features, but adding electronic circuits programmed to confirm the note's authenticity is perhaps the ultimate deterrent, and would also help to simplify banknote tracking. From the article: 'A team of German and Japanese researchers created arrays of thin-film transistors (TFTs) by carefully depositing gold, aluminum oxide and organic molecules directly onto the notes through a patterned mask, building up the TFTs layer by layer. The result is an undamaged banknote containing around 100 organic TFTs, each of which is less than 250 nanometres thick and can be operated with voltages of just 3V. Such small voltages could be transmitted wirelessly by an external reader, such as the kind that communicates with the RFID tags found on many products.'"
Why do we still carry money anyway?
It's hard for me to imagine any security measure economical enough to implement in $20 bills could not be replicated by a really well-funded forger, such as a foreign intelligence agency. If there is any "ultimate" deterrent, it would involve tracking the movement of funds from one individual to another, i.e. marginalizing the use of cash, or making it equivalent to electronic banking, so Big Brother can keep an eye on it.
All that money won't be worth the paper it's printed on in a few years anyway.
Supporter of the +1 Over Dramatic mod option. In memory of apk.
Thives get RFID readers with antennas, check how much you are carrying and only pick high value targets.
Oh, and no use carrying a "fake" wallet with low bills. They'll scan you just to make sure they got everything once again after you hand over the wallet.
I wonder if their new banknotes will survive the US money test.
:)
Assuming it does and gets adopted by countries, it'll be time for the shielded wallets that are RFID proof.
I figure a flame war will start over this somewhere
Here are just a few of those sites you can get those shielded wallets from for the more paranoid amongst you : )
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/8cdd/
http://www.idstronghold.com/
http://www.tamperseal.com/rfid-blocking-leather-wallet-p-332.html
http://rfidwallet.org/
And how durable is the circuitry? Abrasion, water, folding, chemicals (ex. laundry soap), etc are usually hazardous to circuitry. Seems like there will be a few false positives, assuming of course they could even manufacture such notes in a cost effective and reliable manner. The US is already having problems printing its own money.
This is nothing a few seconds in the microwave won't fix.
Of course, I had to use a hammer to fix my passport's problem.
Part of the problem, particularly in the US, is there isn't a good person-to-person electronic payment system that is easy to use, secure, and low cost. So let's say you pay for lunch on your credit card, how do I pay you back? Paypal requires we both have accounts, go to a computer, transfer, incur a fee, wait, and so on. Unless you happen to be a business owner you yourself don't accept credit cards. So cash is the only easy way.
Can also apply to businesses. Like when I had a local plumber come out to fix a broken faucet. They would take a credit card, of course, they have to in this day and age, but they didn't want to pay the retardedly expensive fees to have a full on wireless, battery powered, unit in their trucks. So I would have had to call their office and give them the number, they run the card, call back the plumber and tell him "It's good write him a receipt." Or, I could do what I did, get some cash and just pay him on the spot.
We need a some more advances in electronic currency before it'll be feasible to not need paper anymore.
At the moment, cash is basically the only (mostly) anonymous means of payment available. Since when is less anonymous is a good idea?
seriously though, once cash is traceable, it ceases to be useful. unless they only use it on very large bills and they reinstate the higher denomination bills
Poorer countries such as Nicaragua, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Kuwait use them, so why have other countries not caught up?
This isn't just the US, but the EU and UK as well. Why stick to paper when much more advanced tech has been around for over 20 years and is being used by third world countries?
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
if they have gold in them now this little bit of otherwise worthless paper actually has a minuscule bit of value
I’ve heard they already contain measurable levels of cocaine.
Distributed Denial of APK: It takes 15 seconds to reply to him anonymously, but wastes tons of his time if we all do it.
"Mr. Petersko, we have a record of you receiving this bill at 5:00 p.m. from the ATM. At 5:40 p.m. a marijuana dealer was arrested and he had possession of that bill. Can you explain that?"
"No, sir, I cannot. From 5:00 p.m. until 5:58 p.m. I was fucking your mother in the alley by the ATM. I can't count it as an alibi because she'll deny it, but if you'll examine her anus you'll find some compelling evidence. Alternatively, take your suspicion and go away."
And then I'll pray the L.A.-style cop beating will be caught on cell phone.
Don't make it optional. When you stop printing paper bills in favor of polymer, and remove all the paper bills from circulation as they return to banks (same process that happens now with existing bills), people will use them.
And I have approximately zero sympathy for the argument that we should give up on a solution that's more economical and harder to counterfeit because "people don't like the way they feel".