Here's a question we recently received:

Are the only electronic cash payment methods available today account based methods, e.g. PayPal?

Or are there available any forms of true electronic cash which have to be issued by a third party, e.g. the technique developed by DigiCash's ECash?

Barron's this weekend has a cover story on eBay looking into the recent decline in the price of the company's stock.

As is often the case in stories about eBay, PayPal is mentioned as one of the key growth engines for eBay.

Another wild card for eBay's growth rate will be the ability of PayPal to spread beyond eBay to become a commonly accepted payment mechanism for online commerce.

It's making headway. Payment volume grew 44% in the first quarter, while total accounts increased 57% to 71.6 million.

There are more PayPal accounts now than there are American Express or Discover accounts.

Visa USA has updated its website to include more information about its Visa Contactless cards including providing an FAQ and a page listing issuers of Visa Contactless cards. Currently, Chase is the only Visa Contactless issuer listed.

Visa has also defined an identifying mark that is to be placed on the front and back of Visa contactless cards by the card issuer identifying the card as having the RF chip technology embedded in the card.

Q. Is this a “Smart Card"?

A. Visa contactless cards are a new form of smart card technology. Like smart cards it uses an advanced computer chip embedded in the card’s plastic to perform secure transactions. Thanks to the radio frequency interface, Visa contactless cards are easier and faster to use than more traditional smart cards.