[148550] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: [Cryptography] Decentralized, global, irreversible,
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (ianG)
Sat Dec 21 16:56:17 2013
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2013 09:52:58 +0300
From: ianG <iang@iang.org>
To: cryptography@metzdowd.com, robertjchristian@gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <E01B8B7C-0652-47FD-B451-E23069C6D627@gmail.com>
Errors-To: cryptography-bounces+crypto.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@metzdowd.com
On 21/12/13 01:48 AM, Robert Christian wrote:
> =93It also might be possible to refactor and restructure Bitcoin to separ=
ate
> out the key new idea, a decentralized, global, irreversible transaction
> database."
>
>
> This was referred to sometime back in 2008, shortly after Satoshi
> announced the first release of BitCoin. Is anyone aware if this is
> being worked on?
Google on 'colored coins' ... the general idea is to layer a protocol =
over the top of Bitcoin transactions using the inbuilt smart contracts =
feature, and in particular to use the transaction database to handle =
other currencies and to extend its capability to do more of the heavy =
lifting in the formation of contracts, especially atomic trades.
The idea is basically plausible because Bitcoin implements smart =
contracts already, this was how zerocoin was implemented to add blinding =
to Bitcoin. The smart contracts idea was pioneered by Nick Szabo in the =
1990s, and was not credited in the original paper. It's now credited by =
Mike Hearn in a wiki post:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Smart_Property
It's early work so far, they are concentrating on the technicalities of =
getting the information flowing. Once that happens, there is still a =
vista of work to do. E.g., the idea runs slap-bang up against Gresham's =
Law, and little work has been done on the semantics of each new unit =
(shameless plug for Ricardian Contracts).
iang
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