10.19.1. "Are credentials needed? Will digital methods be used?"
10.19.2. I take a radical view. Ask yourself why credentials are
_ever_ needed. Maybe for driving a car, and the like, but in
those cases anonymity is not needed, as the person is in the
car, etc.
Credentials for drinking age? Why? Let the parents enforce
this, as the argument goes about watching sex and violence on
t.v. (If one accepts the logic of requiring bars to enforce
children's behavior, then one is on a slippery slope toward
requiring television set makers to check smartcards of
viewers, or of requiring a license to access the Internet,
etc.)
In almost no cases do I see the need to carry "papers" with
me. Maybe a driver's license, like I said. In other areas,
why?
10.19.3. So Cypherpunks probably should not spend too much time
worrying about how permission slips and "hall passes" will be
handled. Little need for them.
10.19.4. "What about credentials for specific job performance, or for
establishing time-based contracts?"
- Credentials that prove one has completed certain classes,
or reached certain skill levels, etc.?
- In transactions where "future performance" is needed, as in
a contract to have a house built, or to do some similar
job, then of course the idea of on-line or immediate
clearing is bogus...like paying a stranger a sum of money
on his promise that he'll be back the next day to start
building you a house.
Parties to such long-term, non-locally-cleared cases may
contract with an escrow agent, as I described above. This
is like the "privately-produced law" we've discussed so
many times. The essence: voluntary arrangements.
Maybe proofs of identity will be needed, or asked for,
maybe not. But these are not the essence of the deal.
By Tim May, see README
HTML by Jonathan Rochkind