Exit Cash, enter Beenz and Flooz
All children in their fantasy world play imaginary games in which they have houses, cars, jobs, food and of course money with which they buy things. Now imagine the net to be the fantasy world of somewhat larger kids - they too have all the ingredients necessary for the imaginary world - virtual jobs, games, cars, houses and of course-money. True to form, geeks have named their currency -- beenz, Flooz! These cuties are interchangeable universal web currencies to facilitate commerce over the net.
A baby of beenz.com, a website launched by the company founded in March 1998 by Charles Cohen. The basic idea behind beenz was to create a universal, incentive-based currency for on-line merchants. Beenz.com had set out to create a globally acceptable alternative to money that would influence and reward on-line consumer behavior. As a universal currency of the web, beenz could be earned and spent globally with no geographical restrictions.
Unlike other existing incentive programs in either the on-line or off-line markets, beenz could be earned and spent at virtually any participating website worldwide. The company believed that the simplicity and planned ubiquity of the beenz currency would eventually make it an attractive global marketing tool for on-line merchants and consumers. For on-line merchants, it was a highly focused yet relatively inexpensive way to attract consumers to their web sites, increase sales, develop long-term relationships and stimulate continuing interest in their products and services. For consumers, it would be the first currency designed for the Internet economy.
Like with real money, beenz can be earned for performing "e-work" on-line activities such as visiting a web site, interacting with on-line businesses, shopping or simply accessing the Internet through a service provider. Beenz can be spent at participating web sites on hundreds of thousands of products and services. Consumers can then spend their beenz with participating traders on DVDs, sporting goods, vacations, books, downloadable music, clothing and more than 2,000 other products and services by paying with beenz. In order to provide the market place for transactions beenz.com, has entered into many strategic business alliances to launch beenz in Italy, Greater China, Japan,and of course UK and Europe. Beenz.com has also entered into a technical and marketing agreement to develop a beenz-enabled smart-card with Mondex International.
And in the true spirit of tom foolery-Fool.com, the
personal finance and investing site, also offers the web's currency to United States and
United Kingdom users who register for The Motley Fool's services through beenz.com.
"Offering the web's currency through beenz.com is another great way to expose
Foolishness to a wider audience and give those new Fools a fun way to increase their
personal worth while accessing useful
investing tools." say the brains at fool.com.
In November 99, Flooz.com who were the creators of Flooz-
another web currency used as a fun and convenient way to give gifts and shop on-line,
announced that beenz users can now exchange beenz for Flooz. In this partnership, beenz
account holders would be able to convert their beenz to Flooz gift dollars through
www.beenz.com, thus enabling beenz holders to shop at the more than fifty on-line stores
that accepted Flooz as
payment.
Unlike beenz, which could be earned, consumers purchased Flooz with a credit card, and then instantly send it by e-mail to a friend, family member or business associate. Recipients could spend their Flooz gift dollars right away at the Web's best stores, or keep it in reserve in their personal Flooz account. Like with beenz, flooz too had alliances with over eighty on-line merchants to accept Flooz as a form of payment.
Beenz is also amongst the first web currency or
micropayment method which is WAP-ready. It has fantastic mobile commerce potential too.
Soon consumers can earn beenz just for viewing a WAP page or accessing a real-time stock
quote! This will merge the web's currency™ "earn and spend" model into the
wireless Internet environment and will have beenz jumping from the Internet into the
wireless Internet space.
So where are all these beenz and flooz going to lead commerce……..
With public-key cryptography and digital signatures (both blind and non-blind signatures),
digital money has become very possible. The term digital money refers to various proposed
electronic payment mechanisms designed for use by consumers to make retail payments.
Cryptographically sealed digital streams of cash stored on a microchip-loaded "smart card" (a plastic card with a microchip), a palm-sized "electronic wallet" (a calculator-sized reader and loader for those cards), or the hard disk of your computer, wired for buying sprees at the virtual mall are today a reality. Banks of course have taken to this e stream with great ease. Real money - the trillions of dollars handled each day by banks, other financial institutions, and government clearinghouses – are already digital. No physical tokens are exchanged: all transactions are conducted using streams of bits. But digitizing the final mile of electronic money, where the coin and dollar bill go the way of the vinyl LP, will be the tough part and will make all the difference in the world.
The enthusiasts of e money point out the problems of hard cash. "The advent of high-quality color copiers threatens the security of paper money. The demands of guarding it make paper money expensive. The hassles of handling it (such as vending machines) make paper money undesirable. The use of credit cards and ATM cards is becoming increasingly popular, but those systems lack adequate privacy or security against fraud, resulting in a demand for efficient electronic-money systems to prevent fraud and also to protect user privacy."
Already we have e commerce merchants as well as highly competitive industries like the airlines, big departmental stores, credit cards etc. issuing frequent flier miles, reward points, etc. which can be redeemed for cash. Websites also offer points for viewing pages, logging on, registering etc which can be redeemed for gifts. This is a form of payment i.e. currency isn't it? So a move to a unique web currency is not a dream but a reality which will possibly take a couple of years to really take off. In the mean time happy beenz collecting.
Aru Srivastava