On Sun, 15 Apr 2001, Tim May wrote:
As presented, I think she's probably right. Nobody in conventional business is going to want to do a deal with someone when they can't create a legally enforceable contract.
Widespread black markets, for drugs, betting, etc., suggest otherwise.
That doesn't really kill the argumetn. The key word is enforceable. Black markets do it directly by guns, the society at large needs the legal system to mediate. The lack of legal enforceability *is* a problem. OTOH, one could imagine reputations being built without them being linked to a fixed pseudonym. Whether the necessary crypto exists, or if the resulting web of trust can be made strong enough, I have no idea. Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy, mailto:decoy@iki.fi, gsm: +358-50-5756111 student/math+cs/helsinki university, http://www.iki.fi/~decoy/front