The Great Simoleon Caper by Neal Stephenson
"The Great Simoleon Caper" is a short story by Neal Stephenson that appeared in TIME on March 1, 1995. It deals with concepts familiar to Stephenson's fans: encryption, digital currency, and distributed republics.
It appears to be set in a United States that precedes the events in Stephenson's novel Snow Crash (1992), using an early version of his Metaverse.
Source: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982610,00.html
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