[p2p-hackers] P2P Micropayments

[Zooko O'Whielacronx]

> Particularly x-mojo-nation people who wanted to let the authors know 
> about MNet

Whoops -- in my previous reply I misread this and thought that you said "wanted
to let the authors know about Mojo Nation".

The current version of Mnet -- v0.6 [footnote 1] -- contains no economic
mechanisms.  The network depends upon resources altruistically contributed by
the nodes.  One particularly appealing use for Mnet v0.6, in my opinion, is
"private Mnets", where all of the nodes are operated by your friends.  The
result will hopefully be sort of like a virtual filespace that you share with
your friends.  The Mnet FAQ tells how to set up such a network.  I also think
Mnet v0.6 will be useful in a public, open-access network, even though it lacks
economic mechanisms.  There is currently one such open Mnet network, which you
access by default when you install Mnet.

Mnet v0.7, currently under development, might have some economic mechanisms
when it is released.  One possibility that would be relatively easy for the
Mnet hackers to implement would be persistent bilateral accounting.  This would
be similar to BitTorrent's "tit-for-tat" notion, but persistent.  This would
hopefully motivate people to contribute reliable nodes to the network, in order
to get faster service from the network when they want to use it.

We might also try out some more sophisticated economic ideas.

Regards,

Zooko

[1] Due to be released Real Soon Now.  Contact Arno Waschk
    <arno at arnowaschk.de>, Captain of Mnet v0.6, for more information.  See the
    issue tracker's "v0.6.2" group for current bugs:

    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=43482&atid=436453

    Try out the current release here:

    http://mnet.sourceforge.net/download.php