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Cyphernomicon 15.8

Reputations and Credentials:
Practical Examples


   15.8.1. "Are there any actual examples of software-mediated
            reputation systems?"
           - credit databases...positive and negative reputations
   15.8.2. Absent laws which ban strong crypto (and such laws are
            themselves nearly unenforceable), it will be essentially
            impossible to stop anonymous transactions and purely
            reputation-based systems.
           - For example, Pr0duct Cypher and Sue D. Nym will be able to
              use private channels of their own choosing (possibly using
              anonymous pools, etc.) to communicate and arrange deals. If
              some form of digital cash exists, they will even be able to
              transfer this cash. (If not, barter of informations,
              whatever.)
           - So, the issues raised by Hal Finney and others, expressing
              doubts about the adequacy of reputation capital as a
              building block (and good concerns they are, by the way),
              become moot. Society cannot stop willing participants from
              using reputation and anonymity. This is a major theme of
              crypto anarchy: the bypassing of convention by willing
              participants.
           + If Alice and Bob don't care that their physical identies
              are unknown to each other, why should we care? That is, why
              should society step in and try to ban this arrangement?
             - they won't be using "our" court systems, so that's not an
                issue (and longer term, PPLs will take the place of
                courts, many of us feel)
             - only if Alice and Bob are counting on society, on third
                parties to the transaction, to do certain things, can
                society make a claim to be involved
             - (A main reason to try to ban anonymity will be to stop
                "bad" activities, which is a separate issue; banning of
                "bad" activity is usually pointless, and leads to
                repressive states. But I digress.)
   15.8.3. Part of the "phase change": people opt out of the permission-
            slip society via strong crypto, making their own decisions on
            who to trust, who to deal with, who to make financial
            arrangements with
           + example: credit rating agencies that are not traceable, not
              prosecutable in any court...people deal with them only if
              they think they are getting value for their money
             - no silly rules that credit rating data can "only" go back
                some arbitrary number of years (7, in U.S.)...no silly
                rules about how certain bankruptcies "can't" be
                considered, how one's record is to be "cleared" if
                conditions are met, etc.
             - rather, all data are considered....customer decides how
                to weight the data...(if a customer is too persnickety
                about past lapsed bills, or a bad debt many years in the
                past, he'll find himself never lending any money, so the
                "invisible hand" of the free market will tend to correct
                such overzealousnesses)
           + data havens, credit havens, etc. (often called "offshore
              data havens," as the current way to do this would be to
              locate in Caymans, Isle of Man, etc.)
             - but clearly they can be "offshore in cyberspace"
                (anonymous links, etc.)
 

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