"Nomen Nescio" writes:

Not so fast. How easy is it to fake your own death?

Very easy. It's been done numerous times in murder-for-hire cases.

You have to come up with a fake death certificate.

I'm sure the authorities will be more than happy to comply. By the way, Nomen, what do you know about death certificates? Don't you think someone going to the courthouse and asking to see one would come under some unwanted attention under the circumstances?

Obviously in a game such as AP, verifying death is one of the most important aspects.

Duh. That's just ONE of the reasons AP won't work.

It might be that only certain Death Certificate Authorities (DCAs) come to be accepted for players in AP.

So now AP needs a new entity to be workable (check out Occam's razor, Nomen). Please explain who would become a DCA and how they would make money being a DCA. I'm sure I (or most any other Cypherpunk, for that matter) will be able to point out the holes in your argument in a couple of minutes.

This could be a lucrative new business op for RSA/Verisign.

Have they expressed an interest? It is naiveti in the extreme to seriously think they would even consider it.

In addition it may be agreed that the payoff doesn't happen right away, but only after the party has been gone for some minimum period of time, say a year or two. Not many targets will be willing to disappear for two years from public view solely in order to cause trouble for the AP game.

Close, but no cigar. Another 30 seconds of thought on the matter reveals the flaws. So first you need a DCA to make AP work. Now you need a hitherto not required delay for the theoretical DCA to do it's job. So a potential hit man has to think, "Maybe this guy is dead, maybe not. Maybe the people who've pledged money will pay me if I off the guy, maybe not. Now that it looks like he's dead, I can either wait up to two years or I can assume he's dead, put myself at considerable risk trying to find him (under heightened security if he IS alive), kill him without getting caught and wait two years to collect my bounty. Oh wait, if I kill a guy who everyone already think is dead, I'll a) have to prove he was alive, b) prove that I killed him, c) prove that the day I killed him was the correct date and d) still wait two years for the imaginary DCA to verify the death." Oh yeah, that'll work.

And even if it does happen, investors in the removal of Mr. Target will enjoy at least the partial satisfaction of getting him out of the way for a couple of years.

Mr. Target only stays hidden for two years if he wants to collect the reward himself. If you just wants to fuck with the AP system, he disappears for a few weeks, reappears and does it again. Rinse and repeat as often as needed. What hit man it really going to run the risks involved? What "investors" (you said pledges, that's not an investment) are going to stay on for the long haul? And what about the "free rider" problem?

Then if he does reappear, follow-on bets will be established with even more stringent conditions for verification and payoff.

Yeah, that'll really motivate a hit man. Next. S a n d y