Quote from: da2ce7 on February 07, 2012, 05:09:25 AM

This is an interesting project. However p2p trade systems have cost; that is the cost of protecting from double spending. Either you have a distributed verification network (like bitcoin with the block generation), or you have some sort of trusted centralized user that 'clears' the trades... (this is normally called a 'clearing house').

If by some miracle you have come up with an algorithm to solve this problem in a distributed p2p manner; it would be wonderful if you could produce a white paper that explains how you propose to solve this doubble spending problem.

The "miracle" already exists but people don't see the big picture yet. The solution is a combination of federated, p2p, and f2f architectures.

Earlier in this thread it was said that the exchanges are the natural "bottleneck" in the system that are likely to be targeted by "the authorities" (which is patently true.) But the purpose of these institutions is not trading, per se, but exchanging between fiat and crypto currencies--and this function will someday soon be subsumed by implementations of the Ripple protocol. (You will not need exchanges anymore, because people will be able to exchange in-and-out of various fiat currencies via friend-to-friend technology instead.)

We are standing at an epoch in history.

Normal market interactions will be processed by transaction servers (such as OT) and the security of the Bitcoins traded on those sites will be protected by multi-sign voting pools (on the blockchain) composed of federations of those servers (and someday in combination with auditing and insurance entities as well.) Systems such as OT will perform most of the actual transactions. Bitcoin/Namecoin will be the universal medium that glues it all together, and Ripple will be the gateway in-and-out of the system, which will forever eliminate any need for banks, money transmitters, monetary policy, or tax authorities. At the end of it, I expect to see precious metals re-monetized. (For the masses, I mean. Obviously it's already money for the elite.)