[Cryptography] Time(keeping) and Crypto-Economics

[james hughes]

> On Jul 9, 2016, at 8:57 AM, g3upa9y4t9 at snkmail.com wrote:
> 
> An comments will be helpful.
> 
> Time(keeping) and Crypto-Economics
> draft
> 
> Bryant Joseph GILOT, MD CM DPhil MSc
> 
> Abstract. Economic systems with flexible monetary policies force the evaluation of time as part of many economic decisions. Common time, defined as the indefinite continued sequence of apparently irreversible events from the past through the present and into the future, is used to compute the time value of money. Until now, timekeeping has been based on predictable astronomical events or by observing a defined number of repetitions of a standard cyclical event. Such measurements of elapsed time are adequate where monetary policy and inflation are unpredictable. In contrast, crypto-economic systems possessing predictable monetary policies and inflation are rigidly and directly related to a standard cyclical event with a variable and unpredictable interval. This event, block creation, is tightly bound to all crypto-economic events. The creation of blocks rather than the interval between them is the fundamental unit of time when making crypto-economic economic decisions. The comparison of cryptographic assets not existing simultaneously requires the consideration of the total number of blocks created between the existence of the first and the existence of the second cryptographic asset. To facilitate decision making, a temporal measurement system without the need for intercalation, reflective of crypto-economic conditions, with standard nomenclature and with standard enumeration is proposed in the form of a calendar and clock.

Here is a comment. The use of a cryptoCurrency as a time stamping service seems to be significantly more complex than that provided by other time stamping services like GuardTime <https://guardtime.com/>. (I am not affiliated with GuardTime). 

Both require that you hash up your object. 

If you just want to prove existence, you are done. If not, you need to use a signature (requires a private key) and then done. 

With CryptoCurrency, you need a private key and to get the transaction to the miners. 

I honestly do not understand the value of putting the hash of the object into the blockchain when a timestamp like guardtime proves the same thing. 

Lastly, yes, common time and cybercurrencies have a notion of monotonically increasing assets.  Common time, is, well, more common. 

Anyway, if this is a serious paper, comparing and contrasting these two methods is a minimum. 

Jim

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