-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I hereby offer to be arbiter and escrow agent for cypherpunks bet settlements. My conditions: 1. I won't deal in old-fashioned currencies. Mark Twain U.S. Dollar ecash or Merita Bank of Finland Finnish Mark ecash or First Digital Bank cyberbuck ecash only, please. 2. I don't handle bets larger than USD300.00, or FIM1500.00, or cyb300,000.00. These are just my arbitrary comfort limits. (It's also large enough to cover the kinds of things that go on here, IMESHO.) 3. My fee per bet is USD5.00 or FIM50.00, or cyb7000.00. This is for "simple", winner-take-all bets. For other arrangements, make me an offer. 4. I have to have an explicit description of how the bet will be settled which is acceptable to me. This will be known as the "bet description". a. It has a dearth of loopholes and ambiguities, both with regard to the subject of contention and with regard to the settling procedure, including settling agents and settling schedule. b. It doesn't require me to be the "settling agent" who does the research or performs the experiment or whatever. Before I am committed to the job I will require 3 items to be submitted to me: 1. Acceptable digital signature upon the "bet statement" from each bettor. (Note that PGP signatures from PGP key pairs which are not connected to me via the Web of Trust, or which are not verifiable by me via an out-of-band connection, are not acceptable digital signatures. This is because of the MITM attack problem, not because I need True Names to be connected to the signatures.) 2. My fee. (I don't care who pays it-- One or both bettors or spectators.) 3. Amount of the bet from each bettor. This chunk of money will be known as the "ante". Note that depending upon the details of the "bet statement", each bettor may submit a different ante. (Yes, up front. Yes, I get antes from both bettors. Yes, I keep them while the bet is being settled. Why do you think my fee is so low?) Final Notes: 1. I reserve the right to reject any bet for any reason. Although my fee is non-refundable, the antes are refundable in this case. If I exercise this right after the antes have been delivered, I will return them to their respective owners. 2. The bettors may _not_ unilaterally or unconditionally reserve the right to cancel the bet after having signed the bet statement and submitted their antes. Provisions for cancelling the bet after that point, if desired, should be written into the bet statement. 3. I don't do currency exchange. If your betting partner submits his ante in Finnish Marks and you win then you are getting Finnish Marks. If you submit an ante in cyberbucks and then I cancel the bet, you are getting cyberbucks refunded to you. Please contact me via e-mail (PGP preferred) if you wish to engage my services. Cordially, Bryce, Escrow and Arbitration Agent Serving the cypherpunks Mailing List Since 1996.  -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i Comment: Auto-signed under Unix with 'BAP' Easy-PGP v1.1b2 iQB1AwUBMX4VUkjbHy8sKZitAQGOQwMAzsITvGj54RvUnwr0DWXbtbiQeMRIOZMv igN2qUVArkP8TsC8/KkMaSlxD1jEVdGcDj+UGegLIO8Jfq62NCkz41LSUSNi1nWY 0/pNUikhSAFZ2DAh6u42K45HmhPAypeC =eS7Z -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----