Wow guys....
just came accross that thread, a lot of intriguing ideas.
Just the moment before, I stumbled over this thread and commented:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1043586Basically what I wrote there fully applies to this discussion here as well...
We should not try to develop "applications" or even "killer applications". This will just carry us away into diversification.
Rather, this topic should be approached similar to the layered network architecture, which was so successfull with the Internet.
Foundation layers.... pick as you see fit. Internet, cell phone, smoke signals, who cares...
Network layer: Bitcoin network + namecoin network or a hybrid / linked approach
Transport layer:
this is what we try to put together hereApplication layer: basically any administrative / governmental protocol can be built on top.
What would be the service provided by this "transport layer"?
a timestamped, provable, irrevocable administrative act, linked to other prerequisite administrative acts. Note: the actual content and meaning of these administrative acts is application-dependant, just like the actual meaing and specific protocols in the internet are application-depentant.
Certifying trust would be an example for such an act. In most cases, such an act would not happen out of thin air. Rather, it would require some prerequistes, like some kind of "payment", or "title" or "approvement" or some other act provided in exchange.
To repeat my example of the "
Anonymous insurance".
You pay and acquire insurance tokens in return.
Some incident happens, forcing you to draw on your insurance: now you contact a survey report service, which confirms the incident/damage and signs a sufficient amount of insurance tokens. These signed insurance+survey tokens now allow you to receive payment by a cooperating payout settlement service.
Note: none of the involved entities need to know and store the full disclosure of what happened.
- the insurance company can do the bookkeeping, keep the balances sane and calculate the insurance rates, without needing to know anything about what happened to you. It just sees the signed insurance tokens sent back from the payout settlement serivce
- the survey report service doesn't need to know anything about your finnancial situation. In fact, it doesn't even need to know which is the inssurance company, nor does it need to judge the finnancial consequences of its reports. Yet, the survey service gets its payment, based on the signed insurance tickets
- similar situation for the payout service. It doesn't even need to know that you get an payout due to an insurance relevant incident. It just does payouts in exchange for signed administrative-act tickets
only you as the customer link together these parts and drive the process. You remain in control. Obviously, these cooperating parts need to trust each other. And this way we're entering recursion....
Hopefully you get my point: any administrative or governmental act could be done in such a peer-to-peer fashion. And the necessary techincal infrastructure is allready there....