On Tue, 20 Nov 2001, Anonymous wrote:
than using your Visa card because only the seller learns your address rather than a centralized agency that knows all of your purchases. But it's hardly worth it.
A friend of mine was considering a business plan for physical remailer+ "infomediary" for a class project a year or two ago. Precisely to get around this problem. Sell learns the remailer's address. More than a few remailers and you can chain them, etc. etc. He was thinking about it in terms of the single proxy model, but if the idea ever took off enough to have multiple competitors, you could try a MIX-net. I don't think I ever pointed this out to him. I'll have to ask him whatever came of the project.
technology can be useful? MojoNation is a good example. Their mojo is intended to be a cash substitute to optimize load balancing and data distribution. Unfortunately the MN network lacks compelling content
Right - it's for optimizing load balancing and data distribution. Roughly stated, it seems to me to be a DoS prevention mechanism. It's not at all clear that Mojo will ever be meaningfully convertible to "real" money, at least not to me. but then again, I'm often unclear.
and the economy is still crude. But the idea is sound; P2P networks which reward providers of information should flourish. The slashdot quota system is another example. Also, various "warez" sites work on an exchange basis, where people get credit for uploading files which gives them authorization to download.
and that in turn is a holdover from the old BBS days. BBSes seem special in that the resources available are so *drastically* limited. A BBS with one phone line could serve one user at a time. When one person is on, nobody else has a shot. So a BBS without upload/download ratios runs the risk of collapsing pretty quick under the weight of leeches and m0es. When I ran a BBS, I ended up removing the files section altogether; I thought messages were the most important part (and in any case, didn't have a large enough HD to hold files...plus didn't want to deal with the tension bewteen running a "free speech" BBS and screening for pirate warez so as to not get arrested.) I think this accounted in part for the obsession with "access level" which seemed common to many BBS users. (On the other hand, I also gave everyone a 90 minute time quota; way more than most people ever used. So perhaps this "quotas or die" doesn't hold true universally. Anyone else have anecdotal evidence from BBSing? ) Anyway, the point is that in such a resource-limited environment, quotas and ratios are basic rationing tools. Use them or die(mostly). When you move to an environment which has more resources, things seem to change. You can get away for longer with less in the way of resource control. So the principle that "networks which reward providers of information should flourish" may be tempered by less which selects for those networks over others. another question -- is Slashdot popular because of its moderation system?
If you could be rewarded for work you do online with "cash" that would allow you to request similar services from others, the monetary system can get off the ground. This might be a more promising start for a virtual currency than attempts to tie it immediately to dollars.
OK, I should *know* this, but -- what about "flooz" and "beenz" ? weren't they something along these lines before they folded? -David