The Pulp Theorem (Re: Digital Cash)

[Morlock Elloi]

> Then we have an issuer of one use (and hence unlinkable) credentials
> representing the reputation of the mint.  So these are reputation credential
> issuers.  My thought was that there would similarly be reputation credential
> issuers -- (potentially) everyone a reputation credential issuer.

*WHO* do you beat up if they lie ?

If you *can* beat up someone, so can the government.

We are back to the basic fallacy of cyberspace, that somehow crypto and
networks will switch the address space under Men with Guns, so that they will
be left in their own empty pages while we roam the virtual memory.

This is an excellent example why some things need to be addressable in
gov-pages (meatspace) and therefore pulpable.


> This seems like a technology trust issue.  It seems just to do with
> branding, advertising and common acceptance.  A mag-swipe card could fail, a
> bank could empty your acount, their security could fail and someone else
> empty your account via ATM.  People trust the systems because their friends
> trust them and seem to use them without incident and they want to use the

This is patently false.

If something goes wrong with my account I deal with meat in the bank. 

In US of A you are not liable for stolen card use. In US of A you can say "no,
I did not withraw this cash" - EVEN IF YOU DID - and bank does not have much
choice - some hoofed cpunks may know the exact case name.

Technology in banking is just a tool, a helper. You can dispute any and all
charges. Cards and ATMs are just tokens and machines with no property or
ownership. Companies behind them, with very well known coordinates, are the
ones you do the business with.


> higher than purely as a immediately cleared payment mechanism.  With the
> reputation system you could even have insurance.

Any e-cash system that has shared address space with Men with Guns will be run
by Men with Guns.

Take, for example, the Anon Mint Insurance Company. How would it assess the
risk in order to determine the premium ? There are *no* established anon mints
and there can be no insurance for anon startup mints(1). Unless you disclose
some meatspace addresses, and then we have MwG, and so on.

It's easy to bring life to moon by providing all support from Earth. But we
have *no* "Earth" in anon e-cash, and MwG will take care that it remains so.
Which is exactly why there is no anon e-cash today.

(1) if there is, I'll become rich in no time.



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