-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 9:48 PM -0800 3/25/04, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
At 09:20 PM 3/25/04 -0500, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
Fine. Make it cheaper. Moore's Law creates geodesic networks, so let's have geodesic internet bearer transactions.
Yesss! Its only taken a month or so of plonklessness, and we've got the geodesics back!
Speak for yourself. :-).
This recently occurred to me. There is a type of bearer document which is exactly like cash (anonymous, finder's keepers/spenders) *except* that it expires. Its called a concert ticket. The liquidators are called ticket agencies. I suppose if I were more cultured this would have occurred to me sooner. Apologies if obvious.
They're also called checks payable to cash. Even Travellers' Checks. :-). You just redeem them and "deposit", without reissuing like you would normally do on every transaction. Remember the *asset* is held in bearer *form*. There are no accounts required to execute/clear/settle the transaction. However a *certificate* representing ownership of that asset is redeemed/reissued on every transaction to prevent double spending and guarantee that the asset is now in the control of the certificate-holder. For instance, if someone does a transaction offline, stuff like Chaum's m-of-n where m=n=2 thing is supposed to un-blind a signature in the case of double spending, but the underwriter can't be expected to be liable anything. He just says, "here's the signature that double spent. The 'train-locker' is empty. Thank you for playing. You might consider doing your transactions on-line from now on." BTW, I forwarded a link to something from Nick Szabo about tickets (but not necessarily access control) within the last week or so. I didn't read it closely, but you may find it interesting. Cheers, RAH -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.0.3 iQA/AwUBQGQr18PxH8jf3ohaEQKOnQCgvyWVFmQhGzvSz/f+AXaF8VoSDw0AnRLy P/p4yhi1TcgouZ0iOELxhb3O =rDUK -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'