-- At 02:11 PM 4/15/2001 -0700, Ray Dillinger wrote:
Tim;
One thing to consider is the role of "credit histories", or virtually any other identity-linked information, in a milieu where the people have access to the necessary techniques and programs to do those deals.
You sell Alice a credit history on Bob; Bob takes a new identity; Alice is back to square one. Why would Alice buy credit histories?
By this argument, obviously the reputational mechanism used by EBay cannot work, since it is based on freely available pseudonyms, not true names. Yet EBay is the only internet business that has been continually and heavily profitable, and its prime asset is its reputational database. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG m7GXB73nK8M1WjN8TNNa5/4yVWul271Iv4GgNzeH 46f77cWW4rMfcYkTR7iJXl63DB2kiO1QqgqD9Gdc1 ----------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ James A. Donald