From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 05:29:56 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: TrustBucks
In-Reply-To: <htrb56rmj9@nowhere.com>
Message-ID: <199608041939.MAA03317@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


An interesting idea.  It reminds me of a barter system, with the similar
problem of trying to put together a complex trade which is mutually
acceptable.  I wonder whether it could be automated if people posted
their holdings and what they would accept.  Then software could go into
this database and try to put together a set of trades that will let
someone make a purchase.  However it would seem to be very harmful to
privacy to have to post all this information.

There are some "lightweight payment" schemes out there which have the
property that people only accept cash that is "for them".  Sometimes
there is a broker involved who actually issues the cash on behalf of the
merchant (the merchant trusts the broker to do this) so that customers
need only go to a smaller number of brokers.  Then these systems can be
based on heavier payment systems like digicash or credit cards which
people use to open accounts with the brokers.

I do like the decentralization idea, but these lightweight schemes have
some of the same advantages.

Hal