Making Money in Digital Money

[Major Variola (ret)]

At 10:48 PM 4/30/03 -0400, zem wrote:
>You're assuming that resellers add zero value to the content.  They can

>make a profit by providing some service over and above the content
itself.

You are referring to the value of Editors.  Yep, they have value.  Its
all
reputations.  Some will pay for reputable editors' filtering.  Its a
valid
bizmodel.

>Take file sharing networks as an example.  Current networks are flooded

>with bogus, incomplete or poor quality files.

Not quite, empirically speaking.  And mature P2P users simply obtain the
largest file that claims
to be the desired content.  Also, there is near-zero cost in downloading

multiple copies.  See also K*Zaa's (albeit ill-used) rating system.

A nym could build a
>reputation as a validating service - a critic, if you like.  Perhaps
>something like this:

Bingo.  While retaining meatspace anonymity.  You *are* your public
keys.
Note plural.  See Vinge, Verner, _True Names_ (and thanks for the recent

posted link to that text, although I found the illustrations
superfluous)

>Alice the music critic buys copies of new content at relatively high
>prices from the creator, or close sources.  When Bob requests a copy of

>a particular file, Alice encrypts it to Bob's public key and signs the
>encrypted copy, selling him this 'reviewed' copy for reproduction cost
+
>profit.  Bob can verify he's received a good copy, but he can't
>redistribute Alice's reviewed version without revealing his secret key.

So Bob either redistributes the decrypted bits, or cruises through
the analog hole.  Game over.  All your Valentis are belong to us.


------
"Yes, we know they have logic analyzers in Hong Kong" ---A senior Sony
Engineer,
admitting defeat, in a private meeting.