[118153] in Cypherpunks
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daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Choate)
Mon Sep 20 21:16:04 1999
From: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
Message-Id: <199909210103.UAA08706@einstein.ssz.com>
To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 20:03:50 -0500 (CDT)
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Reply-To: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
----- Forwarded message from Anonymous -----
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 02:47:22 +0200 (CEST)
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
On or about 10:43 PM +0200 9/19/99, Anonymous wrote:
>Another possible form of ecash could be based on Wei Dai's b-money.
>This is like hashcash, something which represents a measureable amount of
>computational work to produce. It therefore can't be forged. This could
>be a very robust payment system and is worth pursuing further.
Spoken like someone who has access to a lot of spare cycles.
----- End of forwarded message from Anonymous -----
The problem with 'a measurable amount of computational work' is that the
amount of work goes down over time for a given computation, thus deflating the
original value of the token, leading to market inflation. As to it's being
forged, after a while who cares since it's computationaly worth nothing.
As to pursuing further, only if there is a way to scale the computational
power used on a given token, thus normalizing the market value.
From another perspective what's actualy being traded in b-money isn't
monetary worth in the traditional sense but rather a measure of physical
work to perform an operation. You're in effect exchanging watt-seconds.
____________________________________________________________________
Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft - and
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The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate
Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com
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