Proof of Work -> atmospheric carbon

[Bill Frantz]

johnl at iecc.com (John Levine) on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 wrote:

>You know those crackpot ideas that keep showing up in snake oil crypto?
>Well, e-postage is snake oil antispam.

While I think this statement may be true for POW coinage, because for a bot
net it "grows on trees", for money that traces back to the international
monetary exchange system, it may not be completely true.

Snail mail postage limits, but does not eliminate junk mail. I think,
without proof, that most people can live with the amount of junk mail they
receive. At least I don' hear a lot of conversations about the "Junk mail
problem".

Now it is certainly true that if machines have a small amount of money
stored within them for "postage", someone who 0wns that machine could steal
some of that money. There is a limit to the amount that can be stolen based
on the person who pays for the machine noticing and being bothered. There
is probably safe profit in skimming small amounts from large number of
machines just like there was profit in skimming the round off in payroll
calculations.

Cheers - Bill

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz        | The first thing you need when  | Periwinkle
(408)356-8506      | using a perimeter defense is a | 16345 Englewood Ave
www.pwpconsult.com | perimeter.                     | Los Gatos, CA 95032

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