[tahoe-dev] notes from the Tahoe-LAFS Weekly Call

[Andrew Miller]

I am sad I missed yesterday’s call! But I’m delighted this topic was
discussed. I’m a big fan of the story that Brian told - my favorite
version is from David Graeber [1]. I also agree with the implications
for designing an accounting scheme. I have only one point to add.

To summarize the notes, there are two revelations arising from the vignette:
- Money isn’t (quite) a universal medium of exchange
- Exchange often involves a residual social relationship

These lead to the two suggestions about how to proceed:
1. First begin with a ‘credit’ mechanism, with three features:
     a. Issuable: you can grant someone a credit/quota for some storage
     b. Redeemable: if you have a credit, you can use it to store some data
     c. Visible: a user should know whether he has a credit or not
(public visibility is useful too)
2. Postpone decisions about balance and reciprocity (economic policy),
as they are secondary.

So that’s my summary of what you discussed, based on the scribe’s
notes (but please point out if I interpreted this wrong).

The point I want to add is simple in comparison to what you already
covered. It follows as a corollary from the above. You should also
prioritize an additional feature:
d. Transferable: there should be a way to split off some of your
storage quota and dedicate it to someone else. Obviously this is
possible when Alice gives Bob her root cap. But finer grained
delegation is preferable.

[alternate story ending]…. After dinner, Grandma does the dishes
herself while the granchildren go next door to and clean all the
viruses off Grandma’s neighbor’s computer. There’s ice cream for them
when they return.

The corollary is that exchange can act along transitive links of
social relationships. ‘Transferable’ is the only required mechanism
for this to work within a credit/quota system. It doesn’t require a
reciprocation policy, or even any particular explanation for the
motivation behind the transfer.

[1]. David Graeber. 2011. Debt: The First 5000 Years.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1933633867

-- 
Andrew Miller