"Hallam-Baker, Phillip" <pbaker(_at_)verisign(_dot_)com> wrote:
Sure we could do clearing. Any idea what it would take to set up
such a system?
A fair bit, which is why I was concentrating on the "conceptual"
portion. "If we did it, ignoring the costs, it would look a lot like
system FOO, so why don't we just do FOO from the start, and avoid the
costs?"
The actual figures would be rather different and go through a
clearing center:
Not necessarily. Clearing centers are used when independent parties
wish to exchange information through an accredited service. On the
net, people can talk to each other directly, without using an
accreditation service for each transaction.
e.g. I don't need to contact Verisign to check someones credentials,
if I see that their certificate is signed by Verisign.
In a theoretical e-postage system, parties can sign messages
indicating consent to nullify mutual "costs" for e-postage. Those
costs don't have to be real money, they can be e-postage tokens. The
only need for a central clearing house is then to deal with the final
portions of the costs which aren't mutually negated.
But again, if such a system is set up, the end result of e-postage
is pretty much a central accreditation service. So why not just set
up an accreditation service, and stop the pretense that e-postage is
useful?
Alan DeKok.
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