How many e-bucks does it take to make an industry? A lot more than are in circulation right now.

Seven competing digital cash schemes sprouted in 1995 from companies such as First Virtual, CyberCash, DigiCash, Digital Equipment and Wave Systems. Last year, three of the companies held public stock offerings worth $1.4 billion combined.

But the number of merchants accepting any one form of virtual cash is still only in the hundreds, and those same three companies that scored big on the stock market have done less than $3 million worth of business in total, the Economist reported this May.

So what's all the fuss? Probably the result of over-eager journalists, who did a quick calculation and realized they could make a fortune on microtransactions if each reader were willing to pay ten cents for an article.

In reality, consumers appear to be pretty satisfied to simply use their credit cards, along with secure payment systems, to shop online.

 1. Push
 2. Windows CE
 3. 56K
 4. Cable Modem
 5. Web-TV
 6. Net Magazines
 7. Apple's Demise
 8. Mac Clones
 9. E-Cash
10. Comdex '96

 1. Dynamic HTML
 2. New Domains
 3. Metered Bandwidth
 4. Web-TV
 5. Rich Ads
 6. The Big Chill
 7. Middlemen
 8. Digital Detente
 9. Cybercommerce
10. Web standards