Re: Decentralization and exhastive searches: mutually exclusive?

From: hal@finney.org
Date: Tue Aug 01 2000 - 10:50:19 MDT


Paul Hughes writes:
> ***BTW, I strongly encourage everyone on this list to check out Mojo Nation
> Software as soon as possible. http://www.mojonation.net/

I agree, this is a fascinating and promising effort. I hope to see more
technical details on the algorithms used in order to judge how well they
can deliver on their potential, but in many ways it looks like Freenet as
designed by Galt's Gulch (Ayn Rand's fictional hypercapitalist community).

> And finally please check out Mojo Nation. http://www.mojonation.net/
> This software has the potential of creating the worlds first decentralize
> online currency - can we say anonymous e-cash? Give Mojo Nation file
> swapping a few years, and mojo bucks could become more valuable the real
> dollars.

Not only the e-cash angle, I am even more interested in the proposal for
a decentralized reputation system. People can endorse each other and
operate servers to publish reputation ratings. Here is a description
from some of their technical documentation:

: Each agent in the system will maintain its own local database of
: reputations, including a list of other agents with which it has
: communicated and information about these conversations. For example,
: if there was a failure sending a message within the system, or if one
: agent tried to cheat another by not delivering information, the parties
: should neither run a fraud detection protocol nor consult a third party
: for resolution. Instead, the agent will lessen the local reputation of
: the other, and complete the desired transaction with a different agent.

This is simple and clean - no fraud resolution protocol; if things don't
work out you publish an indictment of the other person, which will
slightly damage his reputation. If he gets a lot of such criticism,
his "credit rating" will drop. All done in a decentralized way.

Hal



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