At 4:01 PM 8/22/95, Robert Hettinga wrote:

Obviously, we aren't talking about the end of bookeeping as we know it (BAWKI? ;-), but it does mean that days of book-entry as a means of social control are numbered.

A good essay. Too long for me to quote and discuss, though. I worry about our--or at least my, speaking for myself--terminology. Consider these variations on the same theme: cash <--> immediate clearing <--> tokens <--> certificates vs. checks <--> delayed clearing <--> account-based systems (I'm using "<-->" as my own symbol to mean "related to.") Chaum has been harping on this exact distinction in public talks. I at first thought he was beating a dead horse, but I now see that most people just don't get it. (I don't mean people on our list, I mean journalists and writers about "digital money.") Marvin Minsky once said the history of AI is the history of grad students and researchers giving new names to old ideas. (Ironically, Minsky did this in spades when he took the ideas of "object-oriented programming" and invented the term "frame-based systems" to cover the same ground!) One hope I have for the "class library" approach, whether implemented in C++, Java, Smalltalk, etc., is that these terms and concepts will be reified in code, with browsable definitions and examples. The "financial instruments" people have been working on this "ontology of money" for a long time. I have long been surprised that the crypto and financial communities have little overlap. No, I don't mean you folks are not bridging both worlds. And I don't mean the banking and finance industry is not working on incorporating more crypto. I mean that the "Crypto" conferences have very little stuff being published on finance and money, save for the Chaum stuff. The interesting stuff for me lies in the intersection of: Crypto + Game Theory + Economics --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."