This is an April Fool's post: it is a humorous work and it does not describe actual developments.

As we on the Apache OpenOffice project put the final touches on our 4.1 release, we've started planning for our next major release, version 4.2, hopefully out sometime mid-year. One of the exciting new features we're looking forward to is support for the OpenCash Protocol, the new open standard for on-demand funding and delivery of both traditional currencies as well as the new cryptocurrencies.

For several years it has been possible, with expensive proprietary systems, to do convenient on-demand funding and printing of postage stamps.  The OpenCash protocol advances this to the next level, extended to currencies, and in an way that makes it accessible to users on all platforms.

We're still early in the design phase for this feature, but the gist of it can be seen in the following UI prototype:

The basic flow would be:

  1. User selects desired currency, denomination and number of copies.
  2. User specifies a funding source.
  3. User confirms the desired settings, via the integrated print-preview, and prints the currency. 

No special hardware is required for traditional currencies, beyond a typical color inkjet or laser printer.  Additionally, if the user has a 3D printer then they can "print" Bitcoins, just like you see in the news.

By embedding OpenCash into Apache OpenOffice, the leading open source office productivity suite, we do more than just increase convenience by reducing trips to the ATM.  Since OpenCash permits pluggable funding sources, the integration into OpenOffice enables new models in areas like micro-finance and even fiscal stimulus.  The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!