This is a very general cyptographic mechanism. In fact you can simulate all other existent cryptographic mechanisms. Apart from the privacy we gain, privacy itself could act as a way to enforce rules. Let me give you an example. If we let every person express what his needs are and the kind of work he can do, then every person or company would be able to put that information into their own function ,such a function for example could have as results, the price and amount of products so as to maximize their profits. What happens with this cryptography is that people give their data, and their data can only be used for an agreed function, for example with a socialism function, allocation of goods based on who is more productive. (each person receives as result the amount of goods he should get and the work he should do) The fact that information is scarse forces users to decide between 2 different states. 1. Either comply with the information of the function. Since they know the function itself, they know that the result takes all information into account and abides by some certain rules. 2. Dont comply with the information of the function. They have no information at all so as to form a strategy that will make them profit. Thus, It is the economic advantage that is gained by complying to the rules that makes such a system enforcable. Let me say that with this mechanism every computer peer that is participating in the computation is acting as a 'protector', enforcer. It's the digital counterpart of the Red Guards in 1917 Russia, of the idea to give the weapons to the people. Your example is correct. In any case, I have to give it some more thought myself, most importantly find functions that create economic advantages. 2011/7/15 Michel Bauwens <[email protected]>
*Dear Apostolis,
One of the things I have been saying recently, is that ideally, 'material' economic coalitions, say the Brazilian solidarity economy counting 4 million workers, should work together using open design; THEN, choose to practice open book management; in this way, all supply and demand information, but also the transparency of ethical practices, would lead to much greater mutual coordination, possibly replacing market pricing as allocation mechanism (replacing one summary and misleading information point, with a multitude of factors to take into account).
No doubt, this practice would be aided, if they could use something like what you are proposing? Or am I interpreting this wrong?
Michel * On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 7:59 AM, Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis < [email protected]> wrote:
I have found this kind of cryptography recently and I thought you might like it. (As always, no warranties)
What is MPC?
Participants - peers agree to evaluate a specific function. They will give their data and each one of them will receive part of the evaluation. One's data and results are kept private from the others. No one can cheat, Noone can try to change the rules without the others agreeing.
This is called an Ideal Functionality. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_composability#Ideal_functionality
In its essence, it emulates the existence of a trusted party - Government that enforces that participants abide by the rules.
How does this change the way we design new economic alternatives?
1. We can create economic alternatives that are based on the fact that all information is known. Today each and every corporation withholds information from the general public.
2. If a) We create an economic system based on a function that if not used will have important economic loses for that person. b) the function we use doesnt deteriorate the states of the other participants if someone sends false data.(while abiding by the rules)
then any rules participants agree to will be enforcable.
What are the changes, again?
We can create an imaginary economic system and we dont have to worry any more about corrupt governments, institutions etc. Whatever the societal structures might be created, they will not be able to be corrupted in such a way as to deviate from the rules of the function.
Why is MPC important ,again?
We should stop trying to make small changes because we find it difficult to 'enforce' them. We should start thinking big.
Lets start by rejecting anything we knew till now.
Check this example: http://viff.dk/doc/applications.html#nordic-sugar for an understanding how it works...
references:http://viff.dk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_multi-party_computation
ps. my economic model relies on the existence of such a non-corruptible government.
--
Sincerely yours,
Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis
_______________________________________________ P2P Foundation - Mailing list http://www.p2pfoundation.net https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
-- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
_______________________________________________ P2P Foundation - Mailing list http://www.p2pfoundation.net https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
-- Sincerely yours, Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis