[12911] in Cypherpunks
Re: Virtual Cash
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eli Brandt)
Tue May 3 02:15:25 1994
To: cypherpunks list <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Date: Mon, 2 May 94 23:11:37 PDT
From: Eli Brandt <ebrandt@jarthur.cs.hmc.edu>
In-Reply-To: <199405030501.BAA21247@duke.bwh.harvard.edu>; from "Adam Shostack" at May 3, 94 1:01 am
> Money has value because we agree it has value. As long as
> noone is willing to give me a meal, a nights lodging, or 30 minutes
> CPU time for some number of tacky tokens, they will be just that;
The simple model: I offer to accept U.S. dollars and hand out tokens
at a one-for-one rate. I also promise to redeem them at the same
rate.
Unfortunately, nobody would trust me, and they'd be smart not to.
I'm not an established financial institution. Not only might I
abscond with the money, I don't have the financial reserves to
cover redemptions and still make money on a no-fees system. And
I don't know the laws involved, so you might lose out when I get
hauled off to jail.
Poll: assuming you had a use for FedNote-backed 100%-reserve digicash,
what service fee would you be willing to pay, and how much money
would you be willing to leave in the hands of some random individual?
Eli ebrandt@hmc.edu
