From: blancw@accessone.com
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 13:55:55 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: the revolution of microcurrency
Message-ID: <9511112128.AA29071@pulm1.accessone.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>From Thomas Junker (in reply to Vlad):

> this same idea works with software. you don't see
> software as an end product. you see it as something that
> is evolving over time. and whenever you send money to a
> company for software, in this new system the idea is that
> "I like this software, and I want to see it grow. here
> is my contribution to that".

People as marketplace players do not think like that.  
....................................................

This is a very important point to consider:  how a person as a customer will 
_actually_ think.  

It is easy enough to propose schemes based on one's preferences of how one 
would like a potential customer to make decisions about services, products, and 
methods of payment for what is offered.  But doing the customer's thinking for 
them doesn't automatically transform them into that line of reasoning.

To better compute whether they will proceed according to how you have imagined, 
it is more realistic to consider how the other person reasons on the 
circumstance they are facing - from their perspective.    

Market researchers actually carry out tests for consumer response and 
acceptance of products or payment schemes in order to gauge their success.  And 
there are many kinds of potential customers, who will make different decisions 
in regard of the same thing:  some will find it a good idea to think about 
software in terms of "contributing to its growth" in the longterm, but some 
will have immediate needs which they are trying to satisfy and may think "I 
need a solution to my problem *right now*" and will look for the 
product/service which will solve their problem as it stands in the present.

This is another attractive feature of "the free market":  in it one can find 
all sorts of schemes & methods for solving all sorts of problems in different 
ways.  There is no single type of consumer, no single circumstance, no one 
service or product or scheme which will satisfy everyone, equally, at all 
times.  

"May the Best Man Win", and "To the Victor Belong the Spoils".  <g>

  ..
Blanc