Pricing Mojo, Integrating PGP, TAZ, and D.C. Cypherpunks

[Steve Schear]

At 05:04 PM 11/20/2001 -0700, Anonymous wrote:
>Some thoughts on digital cash.
>
>First, using anonymous cash to purchase physical goods online means giving
>up much of the benefit from the anonymity.  If you have to give a delivery
>address, they obviously know who you are.  It's still slightly better
>than using your Visa card because only the seller learns your address
>rather than a centralized agency that knows all of your purchases.
>But it's hardly worth it.

Coin (or better yet eGold) operated rental, non-USPS, parcel delivery 
locker business.

>Second, using digital cash for purchases in the real world (grocery stores
>etc) is pretty much impossible today and relatively pointless anyway since
>physical cash exists.  There might be some slight advantages in terms of
>not having to carry cash, resistance to theft, etc., but from the privacy
>perspective, things are about as good as they are going to get in the
>physical world.  It's only going to go downhill from here.  It may not
>be as bad as Scott "Get Over It" McNealy claims but realistically the use
>of surveillance cameras and face recognition systems is going to increase.

ATMs dispensing currency for ecash


>Fourth, the significant exception is of course pornography, and
>we've had debates about whether it would make sense to create a
>privacy-protecting electronic payment system that catered to the porn
>market.  It's profitable, it's information, and there are significant
>privacy considerations for some customers.
>
>Unfortunately the greatest sensitivity to privacy comes with illegal
>products like child pornography.  And the Reedy case has to be a
>significant cautionary tale.  Thomas Reedy was proprietor of an age
>verification service which had a couple of overseas child pornographers
>among its customers; he ended up with life imprisonment for what was
>essentially a payment collection service.  Any digital cash system
>for the porn market would therefore have to screen its clients (the
>sellers) very closely.  It's the buyers to whom you are selling privacy,
>not the sellers, so this is not inconsistent with the business model.
>But it could be expensive.  And by eliminating illegal porn you would
>be turning away much of your potential business, leading to a constant
>temptation to cross the line as Reedy did.

Offshore operation from less prudish countries.


>Can we identify other markets, other applications where cash or cash-like
>technology can be useful?  MojoNation is a good example.  Their mojo is
>intended to be a cash substitute to optimize load balancing and data
>distribution.  Unfortunately the MN network lacks compelling content
>and the economy is still crude.  use

Automated publication from file names and meta-data. Removal of limitations 
of file size enabling publication of high quality video content.


>Imagine if all these systems could be served by a single virtual currency,
>where resources and work donated in one forum earned points which would
>entitle you to privileges in another.  Eric Hughes proposed something
>similar back in the days of the text-based MUD and MOO online games, so
>that you could transfer quota from one system to another.  Or consider the
>example recently where several people expressed interest in having someone
>go back to the early cypherpunk archives and select interesting threads.
>What if each of us had some virtual cash we could transfer to whomever
>did the work.

eGold is already available.


>The point is that there is a possibility today for an online market in
>informal, peer to peer style information services.  There is work to be
>done, services to provide which remain entirely in the virtual world.
>If you could be rewarded for work you do online with "cash" that would
>allow you to request similar services from others, the monetary system
>can get off the ground.  This might be a more promising start for a
>virtual currency than attempts to tie it immediately to dollars.

eGold has shown a substantial and profitable, though still not mainstream 
market, exists for an unregulated electronic currency.  A similar system 
tied to dollars, pounds or marks, is greatly desired.

steve