Re: Voice/Fax Checks

Eric Hughes writes:

>You can still use an account mechanism, but with an intermediary whose
>business it is to aggregate small amounts as these proposed and clear
>the total periodically.  That's now one account setup for the
>customer.

How, though, would the ftp site which wants to know whether I'm "good for"
the one cent charge to download PGP do so?  Does it have to check with an
agent on the net somewhere which will vouch for me?  Aren't the communica-
tion costs then the same as an online system?  Or does it extend me the
one cent as credit and hope that I really do have an account with that
agent (or bank)?  Then that seems like a basic off-line system.  So I don't
understand the role of agents in solving this problem.

I find it confusing to imagine a situation where large numbers of goods
are sold for very low prices.  Will people tend to cheat, since it's easy
to get away with it (all those systems offering you one cent credits), or
will they tend to be honest, since the per-use cost is so low (but perhaps
adds up over a month)?  I suspect that nobody will pay if there is a way
they can use the servers without paying, even though they are only saving
a fraction of a cent each time.  Maybe that's just my jaundiced view of
human nature.

Hal

Eric Hughes writes:
   >You can still use an account mechanism, but with an intermediary whose
   >business it is to aggregate small amounts as these proposed and clear
   >the total periodically.  That's now one account setup for the
   >customer.

Hal:
   How, though, would the ftp site which wants to know whether I'm "good for"
   the one cent charge to download PGP do so?  Does it have to check with an
   agent on the net somewhere which will vouch for me?  Aren't the communica-
   tion costs then the same as an online system?  

Your agent would purchase the service and immediately resell to you.
This legal arrangement need not be the same as the communications
flows.  The service provider is selling to a large trusted customer;
they clear transactions once a day, say.  The intermediary provides
small amounts of credit to the individual customers, who clear with
the intermediary when, say, they go over a limit, like $10.

What you have here is a liability transfer from a small customer to a
larger intermediary.

Eric