It is a truth universally acknowledged that an infant media-distribution network in possession of a large audience must be in want of a way to cash in on it. Case in point: the World Wide Web, the interconnected computer universe that teems with affluent consumers whose only means of spending money online is to surrender their credit card to insecure networks--hardly a recipe for success.
This week CyberCash, based in Reston, Virginia, launches a product that could change all that, and turn the Web into one giant vending machine. The company's CyberCoin system will allow online "microtransactions" of as little as...