From: bryce@digicash.com
Date: Sat, 18 May 1996 11:22:49 +0800
To: Wei Dai <weidai@eskimo.com>
Subject: Re: marginal cost of ecash transaction
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.93.960516174550.3310A-100000@eskimo.com>
Message-ID: <199605170130.DAA11940@digicash.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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 Wei Dai probably wrote:
>
> That brings up an interesting question.  What is the marginal cost to
> MarkTwain of such a one-cent ecash transaction?  If everyone started
> sending each other these pennies, will MarkTwain go broke? 


Good question.


Speaking unofficially and off-the-top-of-my head, I estimate the
marginal cost to be "really really small".


I mean, if you really want to know the marginal cost of
something you have to determine which costs are considered
marginal and which aren't.  Is Frank O. Trotter's salary a
marginal cost?  I mean, if everyone in the world started sending
each other Mark Twain Bank pennies, MTB might have to hire a
second or third banker-type like Frank to keep an eye on things.


But disregarding such speculation, what is the marginal cost of a
kilobyte or so on Mark Twain Bank's internet connection?  Or
(snicker) a handful of CPU cycles on bank.marktwain.com?


The biggest "marginal cost" is probably the salaries of the
employees who keep those two things running.


Regards,

Bryce




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