Ron Rivest Suggests Probability-Based Micropayments

Karl J. Smith writes "Rivest has solved the micropayments problem with encryption and statistics. You throw away some transactions so that you don't have to pay bank fees, and process the rest. Hiawatha Bray has written an article and Rivest's new company is PepperCoin."

Comments

Re:Banks charging per transaction needs to END

[hugesmile]

Those bank questions are modded up to a 5???? The answer is that it DOESN'T cost $10 to push electrons on a wire transfer! The banks have some fixed costs and some variable costs, and they try to dole out meaningful charges to cover their costs and to make a profit. And last time I checked, there aren't a whole lot of banks making HUGE profits (as compared to other businesses). I would hope you'd agree that a fair profit is, well, fair. You don't expect banks to be non-profit, do you? Your somewhat naive questions remind me of the person in line at the driver's license bureau complaining as follows: "I believe that last year's metal plate costs $50, but you're just selling me a sticker this year... why is it still $50?" The answers are A) Metal Plates are made by cheap labor and cost about a dime. B) You are paying a tax which may or may not be helping to fund the roads. But you are definitely NOT paying just for the metal plate. In the case of banks, you are paying for a lot of infrastructure. You are paying for tellers. (I don't imagine the banks let YOU push the electrons in a wire transfer, do they? I'm sure you had to interact with SOMEONE to do that transaction.) And you should look at ATM fees as a tax on ignorance. Many banks charge fees for using the wrong ATM. Learn the fee structure, and you should never have to pay a fee again. Personally, I like the banks taking their profits from people too dumb to learn the rules. It allows the banks to make a fair profit, while keeping MY banking cheaper! It goes in the same category as paying interest on credit cards. The foolish are carrying balances, and funding the 30 day float for the wise who pay off their bills every month. And I for one thank you.