Year | 2013 |
---|---|
Author | Jan A. Bergstra, Karl de Leeuw |
Publisher | ArXiv |
Link | View Research Paper |
Categories |
Bitcoin |
The famous new money Bitcoin is classified as a technical informational money (TIM). Besides introducing the idea of a TIM, a more extreme notion of informational money will be developed: exclusively informational money (EXIM).
The informational coins (INCOs) of an EXIM can be in control of an agent but are not owned by any agent. INCOs of an EXIM cannot be stolen, but they can be lost, or thrown away. The difference between an EXIM and a TIM shows up when considering a user perspective on security matters. Security for an EXIM user is discussed in substantial detail, with the remarkable conclusion that computer security (security models, access control, user names, passwords, firewalls etc.) is not always essential for an EXIM, while the application of cryptography based information security is unavoidable for the use of an EXIM.
The authors of this paper experiment with the speculative notion of an exclusively informational money (EXIM), and we will perform a thought experiment with Bitguilder, a hypothetical copy of Bitcoin merely seen as a piece of software engineering. Bitguilder is uncommitted to a part of the ideological basis that Bitcoin supporters may intend or need to keep in reserve for Bitcoin. Bitguilder is classified as an EXIM.
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