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bluesky - Re: distributed immutable namespace

bluesky AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems

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  • From: Peter Todd <retep AT penguinpowered.com>
  • To: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems <bluesky AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: distributed immutable namespace
  • Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 20:46:36 -0500

On Thu, Mar 08, 2001 at 12:48:51AM -0400, Adam Back wrote:
> Even though ecash to pay for names in a namespace is
> several steps removed from content some of which RIAA
> may dispute, I doubt a court will feel this any reason
> not to rule that the mint be shut down. Perhaps there
> is even a precedent of sorts in the MPAA decision
> ruling that links to DeCSS source code should be
> removed.

We have to assume that we are living in a dictatorship where the mear
possession of such software is illegal. Looking for loopholes in law
is a fruitless venture in the long term.

> Hashcash may burn resources, but it appears to be all
> that we have in the way of distributed DoS resistance.

It's a really great way to get past the centralized authorities needed
for standard monetary systems that's for sure, probably the only way.

The problem is the inflation issue. The inflation we're going to get
is very extreme. Not really a problem in itself but designing
algorithms to automaticly update pricing, *without* human
intervention, isn't going to be easy. Secondly the inflation will be
tough for humans to comprehend. What was worth 100 hashbucks a month
ago would now be worth 1000 hashbucks. The interface would have to be
constantly making comparisons to the cost of other resources. So
instead of saying x will cost y hashbucks instead say x will cost the
same amount needed to buy 1meg of bandwidth or something.

Hmm... Given a perfect market, which is what we will end up with, the
value in hashcash of *any* service is always going to be as low as it
possibly can before average costs exceed profit. Sorry if I'm not
explaining this well but because *anyone* can mint new money they are
only going to bother to offer a service if it's more profitable to do
that then just mint new hashcash. This will drive up inflation even
more...

On the good side the high-inflation is self-limiting. At a certain
point it becomes easier to make the hashcash "legitimitly", IE by
trading it for bandwidth for instance, then to simply create it
because not including Moores law the "cost" to make new hashcash stays
constant even if it's value goes down.


BTW How excactly is this hashcash supposed to work as a generalized
currency? I've got some ideas that I just came up with while trying to
figure that out but others almost definetely have better ones. I
understand how it can be used to limit access to resources, but what
about as a virtual gold item that can be moved and distroyed and is
hard to create?

> Also hashcash would typically burn resources that would
> be revving away idle anyway (modulo the difference in
> power saving state some hardware may switch to if the
> processor is idle). Unless it got really heated and
> people started building expensive custom hardware purely
> to escalate the race on desirable namespace. Another
> risk for hashcash apart from custom hardware races is
> virii -- imagine a virus or worm with a payload which
> computed hashcash collisions.

That'll happen. It's going to be really nasty when it becomes very
profitible to steal computing power.

--
retep AT penguinpowered.com http://retep.tripod.com

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