Strangecoin

[Troy Benjegerdes]

On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 04:26:15PM -0500, Bryan Bishop wrote:
> No proposed implementation but here's some fun ideas:
> 
> http://digitalinterface.blogspot.com/2014/03/strangecoin-proposal-for-nonlinear.html
> 
> """
> What's unique about Strangecoin?
> 
>    - Strangecoin transactions can be *nonzero sum*. A Strangecoin
>    transaction might result in *both* parties having more Strangecoin.
>    - Strangecoin transactions can be *one-sided* and can be conducted
>    entirely by only one party to the transaction.
>    - The rate of change of one's Strangecoin balance is a more important
>    indicator of economic influence than the balance itself.
>    - Optimal investment strategy in Strangecoin aims to *stabilize* one's
>    balance of Strangecoin.
>    - A universal account provides all users a basic Strangecoin income,
>    effectively unlimited wealth, and direct feedback on the overall prosperity
>    of the network.

This is exceedingly and wonderfully strange.

Let me suggest point 1 can be easily prototyped with a negative transaction fee
using an existing coin (might I also suggest a copycatcoin)

However, I think the phrase 'effectively unlimited wealth' is a dangerous phrase,
as there are some things which are effectively unlimited, like the amount of solar
energy that could be captured using existing rooftops. But what is limited is the 
*time and attention* of the people who know how to install and maintain said rooftop
solar.

I think it is wise to separate 'basic needs' from 'wealth wants' and that one can 
be quite happy and content with all basic needs met, but very little wealth. My 
view is unlimited wealth is somewhat of an inherent contradiction in terms. The very
function of 'wealth' is to provide a sorting function 
 
> ....
> 
> As the example suggests, the dynamics of Strangecoin might be usefully
> thought of in terms of a "reputation system" rather than a strictly
> financial tool, even though the basic mechanics involve the regular method
> of exchanging currency for goods perceived by both parties to be of equal
> value. Because of the nonlinear relationships among Strangecoin users, each
> user effectively draws on a network of support in each economic
> transaction, coupling its activity to the successes (and failures) of the
> that network of activity. The result is a model of the complex
> interdependencies within a community of economic agents, and the dynamics
> by which those networks develop and decay. For this reason, Strangecoin
> might have implications for quantifying the role of individual choices and
> responsibility in the context of corporate action, and for resolving other
> difficult issues in the management and ethics of collective economic action.
> """
> 
> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7494709
> 
> """
> Other comments suggest that this can be implemented with existing tools,
> which I take as a virtue of the proposal.
> 
> In any case, John von Neumann proved a long time ago that any nonzero sum
> game with n players can be modeled as a zero sum game with n+1 players,
> where the n+1 player represents the global state. TUA is simply an
> implementation of this proof.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game#Extensions
> 
> I tried to explain inhibition in another comment in this thread.
> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7496858
> 
> I give an an analogy in the proposal of the popularity of a celebrity
> couple being a nonlinear relationship to the popularity of each celebrity
> individually. I think our intuitive understanding of our social
> relationships is nonlinear in this way generally, and I think Strangecoin
> can model those nonlinear relationships well.
> 
> So, for instance, I'm imagining a family, spouses, close friends, and so on
> entering into extended coupling transactions, so that as a community their
> prosperity rises and falls together. I might also enter into such
> transactions with certain business with whom I want to couple my
> activities, and these coupling transactions might serve in lieu of direct
> billing or payment. A coupling relationship with a business is effectively
> a contract, but with traditional currency you need the whole legal
> framework of contracts to support the transaction, and with Strangecoin the
> transaction is built directly into the currency, and the interface looks
> almost exactly like a point-of-sale cash transaction.
> 
> And I can enter into less serious relationships of varying degrees with
> other parties. The effect is a way of managing not just financial
> transactions, but also reputation, investment, and other dynamics social
> constraints on the economy via the currency itself. Money is memory (
> http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/sr/sr218.pdf), but our existing
> currencies only represent some aspects of our economic activity, and
> therefore put limits on the memory stored in the economy. A nonlinear coin
> like Strangecoin can embed that social knowledge in the currency itself,
> providing a more robust memory framework on which we can conduct our
> economic transactions.
> 
> I only hint at this in the proposal, but I suspect a system like this is
> required to resolve the twisted legal artifice the corporate veil, because
> it quantifies explicitly the role individuals have in collective economic
> activity, and thereby gives a method for explicitly holding persons
> proportionally responsible (in both credit and blame) for their
> contributions to that activity.
> 
> But I think that's a much more radical proposal than the one I've offered
> for Strangecoin, and I should probably only be defending that here. =)
> """
> 
> - Bryan
> http://heybryan.org/
> 1 512 203 0507

-- 
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Troy Benjegerdes                 'da hozer'                  hozer@hozed.org
7 elements      earth::water::air::fire::mind::spirit::soul        grid.coop

      Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel,
         nor try buy a hacker who makes money by the megahash