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Re: [xanadu] flecks ?????



Hey Jeff sorry I've been out of the loop for so long, a roommate
died and thus got us into deep legal trouble.

I saw that you translated the smalltalk into c++, I'll send your
our translated version, and we can see how they compare.
Does your's run and compile?  I haven't had a chance to try it.


Jeff Rush wrote:

> ____Textpert Alert____ wrote:
> >
> >   end-frontend technology with built-in granular transclusion,
> >   accounting and billing capabilities (as per Ted's original
> >   concept; in WWW the latter later named "micropayments" --
> >   still nowhere near in sight [see url below]).
>
> You see micropayments nowhere because there is an array of powerful
> forces working hard to prevent them.  There is the VISA/MC network,
> which has a "dog in the manger" approach where if they can't have
> the market at 0.50 $USD per transaction, no one else can, stating
> that it *can't* be done below that cost, using their existing
> clearinghouses.
>
> There is the Federal Reserve system which wants 'managed'
> banks at the monetary flowpoints, ostensibly to maintain quality
> and stability.  They refuse to certify banks who use 'nonapproved'
> micropayment systems.  They're hard to regulate.
>
> There are the various taxation authorities who cringe at the idea
> of trillions of anonymous, widespread transactions flowing thru
> uncontrollable, tax-zone crossing, regions.  And they exerted
> political pressure to keep David Chaum's anonymous Digicash
> scheme from taking root in the U.S.
>
> And there are those short-sighted engineers/banks that design the
> micropayment systems who want to impose royalties on each
> transaction, as a way to get fantastically rich.  Digicash and
> the customer banks have done this as well.
>
> The key to a micropayment system is not technical but political.
> To be useful it must be tied into the global financial system,
> but it keeps getting rejected.  The correct immune system
> suppression meme has not yet been found.
>
> -Jeff Rush

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