To: Censored Girls Anonymous <carolb@barton.spring.com> From: davidm@iconz.co.nz (David Murray) Subject: Re: Why emoney? Why not a web of debt? Cc: Bcc: X-Attachments:
Many companies are already founded on "a web of debt". "Sallie Mae (Student Loans), Ginnie Mae (General Loans), and Freddie Mac (Real Estate Loans)," all come to mind at the moment. They're nicely formatted, processed and make even more money for investors as the interest rates change.
Of course the ultimate IOUs these webs of debt are (implicitly, if not explicitly) based on are those of the American taxpayer -- which means Uncle Sam is playing collection agency, which the usual supporting cast of guns and goons.
So maybe the remailer IOU's, could be traded for the data haven IOU's, and so forth. I think someone does have a credit card IOU situation. The systems, and precedence for debt trading are there (and interest rates are going up again soon, indicated the Fed last week!).
Of course, someone's going to have to package up those IOUs (and make people pay interest if anyone is going to make money out of it... (Even students pay interest.) Which is why I'm pushing (endlessly, tediously) the idea of a special purpose corporation whose job it is to issue IOUs (in return for an equivalent amount of cash). The people who buy the IOUs get anonymous ecash that anyone (remailers, data vaults, data havens) will accept (because it is credible that it will be repaid), and the corporation that issues the IOUs gets to use the money it got paid to earn interest until the IOUs are cashed in.
I just wonder who wants to play "collection agency"?
Which is the big problem for community action generally -- as the community gets bigger (and more anonymous?) the effectiveness of communal disapprobation diminishes (:-)). A special purpose corporation, on the other hand, not only has a reputation to protect, and can be sued, but has an interest in making its financial/credit rating details as public as possible (reassure the customers, and make more intersest income -- although the real income is likely to come from fees...)
Cheers,
D.