Comments on New Currency Frontiers: MetaCurrency and Cyclos - Clarifications on Open

Alan you are right on in describing this using the...

2009-05-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

Alan you are right on in describing this using the HTML/HTTP analogy. I'll just expand a little. You can think of HTML as a rubric, or a framework, that can describe arbitrary information resources, and HTTP as a process for accessing those resources as described using the framework.

In the MetaCurrency project we similarly have a framework for describes arbitrary games (eXtensible Game Format Language: XGFL), and process for making plays in those games (MetaCurrency protocol: MCP) Just as HTML itself can encapsulate what I like to call Turring Power (or programs), like Javascript and Flash, XGFL similarly has structures on which to hang the programs that actually make currencies do what they do.

The point of having both MCP and XGFL is to make it possible to separate out the functions of making transactions (the currency transport layer), and specifying currencies (the currency rules layer). Separating these two concerns is part of ensuring an open network. If there is a transport layer that anybody can access both as a player and as a currency designer, then we've pushed the intelligence to the edges.

As Alan describes, one of the kinds of "open" that this is, is a structural opening of possibilities. Making this separation opens up the space for people to create all kinds of cool new currencies, without the burden of creating a transport network to carry transactions. It also opens up the space for people to create all kinds of cool new applications that make managing your currency accounts more and more easy and useful (think of the evolution of web-browsers, how they've added all kinds of smarts on top of the process of viewing HTML resources, like bookmarks, and history, and tabs, etc).

Tom, As I understand it, http is the protocol, and...

2009-05-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Tom,
As I understand it, http is the protocol, and html is the language. So the MetaCurrency project is working on MCP (metacurrency protocol) and XGFL (extensible game format language). That latter is a common language that a client reads, so it can understand the rules of a given game, just as html allows a browser to display a hypertext.

Another key point is that ANYONE using a given currency should have access to the same power of currency creation as the admins. Right now, ANYONE can post a blog. We don't have to ask permission from an admin to create a new blog. We just do it and hope that people find it interesting enough to read. Same thing with creating new currencies. This open ability will drive innovation.

Access to the network means access to the ability to create currency games.

I think we will definitely need applications with good UIs to make maximum use of capacity. Think of what iWeb or Dreamweaver did for people wanting to create their own websites.

I hope this helps.

Thankyou for this post. I've read it twice and I ...

2009-05-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

Thankyou for this post. I've read it twice and I don't think I fully understand but it seems there are two fundamentals to the metacurrency proposal:

1. Open source systems like Cyclos should accept identifiers that are part of an identity commons like OpenID

2. Open source systems like Cyclos should support a simple common protocol to allow people to easily create new currency games

#2 is the one that is not obvious. it is not clear to me why we need a common protocol for creating currency games because games are created with programming languages, not protocols.

It does !! Thanks for this great post

2009-05-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

It does !!
Thanks for this great post