Anonymous access to porn or illegal activities are unintended kinks to work out. Cashalias isn’t about adult entertainment. Or drugs, or fencing stolen goods.

Being able to conduct private financial transactions online is about much more indulging a disreputable alter ego. It’s about civil liberty. About having access to information. Certainly the majority of people don’t aspire to need such information, they’re after forbidden fruit, but let’s not discount the freedom to pursue such fancies. In fact pornography could pay the bills for implementing Cash alias and obscure its real potential.

The internet has brought us to a place where your boss can know if you buy a job-hunting book. That’s the silliest example, but don’t you know what I mean? We’re heading toward a big brother who can oversee so much worse.

Let’s say you work at Walmart. What if you wanted to learn about forming a union? It’s not far fetched to imagine that the local sheriff, upholder of the status quo, could be keeping an eye out for you going one mile over the speed limit because you were on an “intellectuals” watch list. A troublemaker could be worn down by tax audits, utitility company errors, telemarketers.

Insurance companies already do this profiling.

That’s what Cashalias is about and I wouldn’t doubt there would be attempts to make something like it illegal. The service would be cash-up-front. You’d go to a participating bookstore, give them $100 for example. Give them a fictitious name. They’d start an account for you, give you a password, that’s it. Then you would have $100 to spend online. So you’d have PSEUDOCASH, PHONYMONEY, FUNNYMONEY. Those were the other possible concept names. You’d buy something through a browser plugin, the item would ship to that store, and you’d eventually saunter by with your password.