Internet currency was a form of electronic money for the Internet. Most sites offering Internet currency have either shut down or been acquired.[1]
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The idea of Internet currency could date back to 1995, when the first major website that used Internet trade was opened, eBay. The idea of trade over the Internet slowly got more popular, and more websites began opening stores over the Web.[2]
Three of the corporations providing Internet currency, InternetCash.com, Flooz.com and beenz.com, were shut down in August 2001. InternetCash used pre-paid cards, either in physical or electronic form to distribute money which could then be used anywhere on the Internet or on specific site(s) (such as store-specific pre-paid cards). This proof of concept created a lot of customer demand and was followed up by several pre-paid store-specific cards. Flooz gave customers only four days to spend all of their money. If the money was not spent, the remaining money was rendered useless as the companies had shut down, thus transactions could not be processed. Many users of Internet currency lost money, and some complained to the site, and, specifically, to Whoopi Goldberg, who had been the spokesperson for Flooz.com.[1]