Plug (was Re: Micropayments, redux)

[R. A. Hettinga]

At 12:55 AM -0500 on 12/17/02, John R. Levine wrote:


> Micropayments have two problems.
> The minor one is that technically we have no idea how to implement
> them.  The major one is that users hate the idea.

Oddly enough, and speaking of the Financial Cryptography conference :-),
Nicko's running a panel this year:

http://ifca.ai/fc03/index.php?page=schedule

<...>

Monday, 27-Jan-2003

<...>

    14:00 - 15:30 Panel: Does anyone really need MicroPayments?
    Moderator: Nicko van Someren (nCipher)
    Participants: Bob Hettinga (IBUC), Andrew Odlyzko (University of
Minnesota) and Ron Rivest (MIT, PepperCoin)
Many cryptographers have tried to develop special technology for
transferring tiny amounts of value; the theory being that the computational
and/or administrative costs of other payment schemes render them unsuitable
for small value transactions. In this panel we will discuss two major
questions: firstly are the existing systems really not useful for small
values and secondly might other models such as flat rate or subscription
systems be more suitable anyway, and be possible without the need for small
payments?

By the way, statistical process control is nothing new, and probabilistic
settlement is one of the first things they teach you in elementary
economics classes to explain the use of statistics -- railroads billing
each other statistically for boxcar hauling by sampling bills of lading,=
as the canonical example.

Cheers,
RAH
Who, having just seen who else Nicko's put the panel, can't wait to see
Andrew and Ron discuss, um, things in light of the the list traffic this
morning...
-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at wasabisystems.com