--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: rah@shipwright.com Delivered-To: clips@philodox.com Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:12:44 -0500 To: "Philodox Clips List" <clips@philodox.com> From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com> Subject: Re: [Dgcchat] Totalitarian Force Monopoly and Geodesic Capital (was Re: [Clips] The Economics of the Rise of Ahmadinejad) Reply-To: clips-chat@philodox.com Sender: clips-bounces@philodox.com --- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: rah@shipwright.com Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:02:21 -0500 To: dgcchat@dgcchat.com From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com> Subject: Re: [Dgcchat] Totalitarian Force Monopoly and Geodesic Capital (was Re: [Clips] The Economics of the Rise of Ahmadinejad) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 7:22 PM +0000 2/26/07, Darren Rhodes wrote:
The battle is one between fiat currency vs FC
I don't think so. I think that the contents of say, a digital bearer certificate are, orthogonal to the method of execution, clearing, and settlement. They're, heh, immaterial. (Okay, bad financial operations joke, that.) As an underwriter, I don't care whether I'm issuing certificates backed by anything: dollars, pounds, quatloos, a share of stock, a debenture (or just the principal, or just one interest coupon thereof), gold, opium, a car on a transporter in the middle of a the pacific, a toaster in a container on a container ship in the middle of same, a transporter or a container *ship* in the middle of same, a bushel of grain in an elevator, beef on the hoof in a stockyard... or any derivative thereof. Or a wager on the price of anything. Or a wager on an event, like, say me betting that I'll die next year for a million bucks (speaking of Mr. Heinlein...). Or the future performance of services. Or the current, real-time, performance of services, surgery, theater, or, um, other things. Well, you get the idea. In theory, if someone wants to trade assets in digital bearer form, and I can make money at it, then I'll underwrite certificates representing those assets. If the transaction cost is low enough compared to book-entry settlement, we might be able to issue digital bearer certificates representing clear title to any asset in creation, trade them for each other, at the protocol level, exclusive of national origin. Or extra-national origin. Or whatever. That, I claim, will lead to the abolition of transfer-pricing, the collapse of hierarchical into geodesic society, abolition of force-monopoly, the reduction of nation-states to the status of sports franchises (and other religious affiliations), dogs and cats living together, world peace, perfect forward security (but not p=np), perfect pseudonymity representing functional anonymity, Measurable Improvement In The General Welfare And The Progress Of Humanity In General. (My definition: more stuff, cheaper, today more than yesterday, tomorrow more than today, forever and forever, amen. What's yours?). But that's just me claiming stuff. I want to actually see this stuff deployed to see whether it *works*, first. "Works", for me, means that an underwriter can make a profit, which means that buyers and sellers profit, too, to the extent that it costs them less to buy and sell those assets my way than any other way. Otherwise, we're just waving our hands, here, even if we're doing it more enthusiastically than usual. Cheers, RAH -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP Desktop 9.5.3 (Build 5003) wj8DBQFF4zxXw/EfyN/eiFoRAsp1AJ406BXA/wnlMRsBycstI3G6ppucQACePPbJ v27RQwsLXDX4UDjeUY6RJ6w= =gj4p -----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' --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- 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' _______________________________________________ Clips mailing list Clips@philodox.com http://www.philodox.com/mailman/listinfo/clips --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- 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'