Re: Creating a Currency for the (Read / Write) Web

Melvin,

I like your post. Concerning this subject, I noticed that Apostolis
Xekoukoulotakis posted to the p2p foundation mailing list with the title:
"ripple as a decentralized insurance system" (1). I also was involved in a
discussion with the Sensorica project, where I started learning more about
value networks (2).

I am a bit concerned about what David Wood said about banks. I believe that
in the future they will still play a role. In Ripple, possibly as Gateways.
I hope to get back to this soon.

Brent

(1)
https://lists.ourproject.org/pipermail/p2p-foundation/2013-May/005952.html
(2)
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!category-topic/sensorica-infrastructure/2bb_Rmv_D

On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 11:50 AM, Melvin Carvalho
<melvincarvalho@gmail.com>wrote:

> I've been thinking for a while about how to create a currency for the read
> write web.  And I thought I'd share some preliminary ideas.  Essentially
> this is bitcoin+ripple translated to the Web.
>
> *Introduction
>
> *
> For those not familiar with the bitcoin concept it's essentially a
> distributed ledger where each subject is a primary key in the ledger and
> can hold 0 or more coins.  Coins are transferred using a signed and
> timestamped PKI transaction log from one address to another, in a
> distributed data base.
>
> *Addresses
>
> *
> I think using a portable URI for addresses is the thing that makes most
> sense.  So possibilities for this may be a URN, or schemes such as di:
> (digest) or ni: (named information).  Anyone should be able to generate an
> address, and they should be wide ranging to improve liquidity.
>
> *Balances
>
> *
> Balances can be calculated by summing all inputs to that address.  You can
> additionally keep a state of balances using the payswarm vocab, or perhaps,
> goodRelations
>
> *Transactions
>
> *
> I think a distributed data base could be maintained using read / write web
> technologies, such as HTTP POST / PATCH or SPARQL Update.  The signatures
> could be added using the WebKeys spec.
>
> *Distributed Database
>
> *
> There are challenges associated with maintaining a distributed database.
> I suggest we start small and whoever opts in can become part of the
> verification process.  There are two recent methods for mitigating race
> conditions an important one of which is called "double spend".  One is
> proof of work, the other is consensus based on a unique node list.  I would
> suggest using both techniques.  I'd like it to be possible to use both HTTP
> (with self signed certificates), HTTP, and (secure) websockets too as the
> transport layer.
>
> *Coin Creation
>
> *
> This tends to be the most contentious point, with people tending not to
> like the "premine" concept where you allocate coins to yourself.  However
> companies like opencoin have successfully rolled out multi million or even
> billion dollar premine schemes.  I would suggest coin creation in line with
> bitcoin, where they are created proportionally to those maintaining the
> integrity of rhe shared database.
>
> *Spam Protection
>
> *
> Given the nature of the system, it may be easy to spam the network with
> micro transactions.  As such there should be a transaction fee where those
> that pay the highest fee are prioritized.
>
> *Trust and Reputation
>
> *
> I think it would also help to have a trust and reputation system added to
> the process, such that honest nodes benefit from acting honestly, and nodes
> which are dishonest or not up to date are considered less dubious.  The
> nature of the function should be that it's exponentially harder to gain
> trust after you have a certain score.  Similar to chess ELO ratings.
>
> *Linked Data and Exensibility
>
> *
> I think there should be a deep integration with web principles and linked
> data to promote an app eco system and allow unexpected reuse.  Also it
> should allow extensions such as the ripple protocol's trust lines, IOUs and
> distributed markets, which are not initially scoped out.  Reusing existing
> concepts such as the bitcon blockchain (e.g. so-called coloured coins),
> ripple ledger, opentransactions, payswarm and web credits should all be
> doable.
>
>
> Just some food for thought.  Criticisms welcome.  Please let me know if
> you're interested in running a node, and maybe we an get a reference
> implementation going, as proof of concept.
>