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bluesky - Re: distributed immutable namespace

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Subject: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems

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  • From: hal AT finney.org
  • To: bluesky AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: distributed immutable namespace
  • Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 19:59:30 -0800


Peter Todd writes:
> On Wed, Mar 07, 2001 at 07:13:01PM -0800, hal AT finney.org wrote:
> > Hashcash is rent dissipation in action. It doesn't make economic sense
> > to sell assets for hashcash.
>
> What do you mean by "rent dissipation in action"?

Let's suppose that of the $21 billion that Network Solutions went for,
half was for .com, so it is worth $10 billion. Then when we make .com
available to the highest hashcash bidder, it makes sense for potential
bidders to waste up to $10 billion in cycles in order to generate their
hashcash. Anyone who wastes less than this won't get it. Therefore there
will be $10 billion wasted in order to acquire an asset worth $10 billion.
Net benefit to society: zero.

Whereas if the $10 billion had gone into a fund to do something useful,
there would be a net positive benefit to society.

> > Better to set up some kind of global fund and let buyers pay real money,
> > then distribute the proceeds to everyone on earth. Or maybe use the
> > money to reduce global warming, or to save the whales. Anything is better
> > than flushing the money down the toilet, which is what hashcash does.
>
> But hashcash doesn't need any centralized authority to work. Find
> something else that doesn't.

Well, this could be a DEcentralized authority, similar to what Adam
was proposing. But authority it is.

Hal




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