I do not think that legal action will stop any kind of spam. There are other ways including "charging" people for recieved mail.
It is an old concept, as old as mail itself. So instead of paying lawyers, to sue people who could be outside the US, why not invest in a new technology.
There are many out there.. To mention one (plug coming..) check out the proposal I submitted to IETF. http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-fakih-am dp-00.txt
I beg to differ. As a website owner, I do not generate enough funds to keep my sites kicking. We all pay to get online, but once we are online we want everything free, which is a good thing, but at the end good websites without major funding will have to close if they do not generate some kind of revenue.
I mean look at slashdot. they are managed by a big company and still charge you for accessing their site. the trick is to charge users "reasonable" fees that are not too high that makes no sense paying them.
For example, how much would you pay to access slashdot??? If you are able to put a price, then we do not have a DOA... instead you see my point, everything has a price, but it may not be 30 dollars a month, maybe it is 50 cents per week? or 1 cent a day... everything has a price.
If it continues to be DOA i will need to bring my first aid kit next time around:)
Fortuanatly I have been in many places, and thanks to google I can be easily tracked.
A little about me??
I founded ayna.com the first arabic internet guide (still kicking), developed the algorithms for the search, and just did everythig in it.
I also worked in genral dynamics, and oracle corporation as senior principal consultant in the advnaced technology solutions division.
What got me down this road was the unrelenting spam that I had to deal with on ayna.com. I get over 250,000 messages a day, 90% of it is spam. We spend most of time and money just fending off spam attacks in all of theur variations. So I sat down early 2002 and designed a complete mail system from the ground up that is not prone to spam attacks, and that lead to the internet stamps, which prompted me to adapt for online payments when I found out that it will be impossible for me to keep ayna.com alive forever if it does not generate revenues, and at the same time no one will be willing to pay 10 or 30/month to simply access an internet directory, but they are willing to pay.005 for few days, and that is how eveything started:))) And now with over 1 million using ayna, I can actually reposition that portal to stand on its feet generating its own revenue.
And here we are chatting about who am I?:)
Again thanks to all for th wonderfull opportunity yo discuss these issues...
The internet stamps came out as a child project from an email system that I was developing to eliminate spam in the long run.
The model assumes that each domain name has a public mail policy. the mail policy will set the postage for the domain based on the mail category. If anyone wants to mail that domain then they need to pay, or the message is denied.
I submited a proposal to ietf, but since it is in draft mode, it can not be used for reference, and if people are interested in this please let me know. I can give you access to the source code of the demo implementation that make this possible based on the designed model.
internetstamps an centipaid are the owned by the same companym adn are, they just present two different brands.
Getting to answer your questions.
1. Security and anonymity...
It is secure there is no way for anyone to predict what an internet stamp is, the internetstamp itself is compsed of at least 7 different keys that need to coincide before it can be used for payment.
2. Anoymous.. yes although "right now" internetstamps.net knows who you are, that can be easily changed onces you can purchase internet stamps by methods that are not tracked i.e. cash, or other means. When it comes to the
merchants, they never know who is making payment. Why? becuase they are not handed the stamps serial number at all, not even in ther monthly staments. they only get a receipt number for the transaction.
3. Are you sure that trends will be synsdicated, and my answer will yes be sure that they are not. I am as fed as anyone with being tracked when I make purchases, and the business model of centipaid is to make money from teh transactions and NOT from where people go. Most likely when the business matures there will be reports that say X% bought from thie merchant, but there will NEVER be report that says who bought what... I mean that is the whole point of the anonymous system..
4. the communication between the merchant and centipaid is dfeintly not encrypted becuase it does not need to.. The user never hands the internet stamp to the merchant, they pay centipaid using our gateway, and then the merhcnat receives a receipt number, which they autheticate with our servers to make sure a payment is made. Now if someone intercepts the receipt number,it is fine, since it does not indicate anything. Merchants who are are too paranoid wanting to encrypt their receipt numbers, can do that in future versions:)
5. Yes the internetstamp in a way is a debit facility. How can you make payments if you did not?? and yes it is designed to limit your losses. you got it that is the whole point. If you mess up and give your stamp to someone your losses are limited. Also each internet stamp comes with a proof of pruchase. It is never used in a pruchase, but in the event that you stamp has been compromised by an outsider, or you want to move funds, etc.. then this is the ultimate proof of you owning the stamp, since at the end the model allows for complete anonymity, not even centipaid willknow who you are if you purchase the stamp with cash.
6. Thanks for seeing the proposed document to ietf, and yes when I was working on the new mail application design, i realized that a reliable micropayment system will be requiered, and the design of the internet stamp technology came into to play, and internet stamps are designed to be used in scenarios where anonymity is key.
Now I am not sure what you mean with draw your conclusions. I have drawn one that you did not read much on the centipaid site, since many of these points are explained in detail.
I agrees withyou that interent stamps shoould have more information, and we will work on that..
In all cases I do appretiate your honesty and your feedback, and hope that I have answered some of your questions.
Slashdot Mirror
It is an old concept, as old as mail itself. So instead of paying lawyers, to sue people who could be outside the US, why not invest in a new technology.
There are many out there.. To mention one (plug coming..) check out the proposal I submitted to IETF. http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-fakih-am dp-00.txt
it is simple, and it works..
Adonis
I beg to differ. As a website owner, I do not generate enough funds to keep my sites kicking. We all pay to get online, but once we are online we want everything free, which is a good thing, but at the end good websites without major funding will have to close if they do not generate some kind of revenue.
I mean look at slashdot. they are managed by a big company and still charge you for accessing their site. the trick is to charge users "reasonable" fees that are not too high that makes no sense paying them.
For example, how much would you pay to access slashdot??? If you are able to put a price, then we do not have a DOA... instead you see my point, everything has a price, but it may not be 30 dollars a month, maybe it is 50 cents per week? or 1 cent a day... everything has a price.
If it continues to be DOA i will need to bring my first aid kit next time around :)
Best regards, adonis
Fortuanatly I have been in many places, and thanks to google I can be easily tracked.
A little about me??
I founded ayna.com the first arabic internet guide (still kicking), developed the algorithms for the search, and just did everythig in it.
I also worked in genral dynamics, and oracle corporation as senior principal consultant in the advnaced technology solutions division.
What got me down this road was the unrelenting spam that I had to deal with on ayna.com. I get over 250,000 messages a day, 90% of it is spam. We spend most of time and money just fending off spam attacks in all of theur variations. So I sat down early 2002 and designed a complete mail system from the ground up that is not prone to spam attacks, and that lead to the internet stamps, which prompted me to adapt for online payments when I found out that it will be impossible for me to keep ayna.com alive forever if it does not generate revenues, and at the same time no one will be willing to pay 10 or 30/month to simply access an internet directory, but they are willing to pay .005 for few days, and that is how eveything started :))) And now with over 1 million using ayna, I can actually reposition that portal to stand on its feet generating its own revenue.
And here we are chatting about who am I? :)
Again thanks to all for th wonderfull opportunity yo discuss these issues...
Adonis
The model assumes that each domain name has a public mail policy. the mail policy will set the postage for the domain based on the mail category. If anyone wants to mail that domain then they need to pay, or the message is denied.
I submited a proposal to ietf, but since it is in draft mode, it can not be used for reference, and if people are interested in this please let me know. I can give you access to the source code of the demo implementation that make this possible based on the designed model.
Thanks, Adonis
No it is not a joke, it is just left over text that I inserted when developing the site.
centipaid and intenrtstamps are the same company but different brands, since each one deals with different part of the payment system.
You are right the internetstamps site needs more info, but our focus is on putting a copmrehesive set of information on centipaid.
And you are also right, my first language is not english we are not all blessed to speak/write three languages :)
I am not being mean, but when you pick on little things like this it hurts :(
But no hard feelings I get that a lot :)
Adonis
internetstamps an centipaid are the owned by the same companym adn are, they just present two different brands.
Getting to answer your questions.
1. Security and anonymity... It is secure there is no way for anyone to predict what an internet stamp is, the internetstamp itself is compsed of at least 7 different keys that need to coincide before it can be used for payment.
2. Anoymous.. yes although "right now" internetstamps.net knows who you are, that can be easily changed onces you can purchase internet stamps by methods that are not tracked i.e. cash, or other means. When it comes to the merchants, they never know who is making payment. Why? becuase they are not handed the stamps serial number at all, not even in ther monthly staments. they only get a receipt number for the transaction.
3. Are you sure that trends will be synsdicated, and my answer will yes be sure that they are not. I am as fed as anyone with being tracked when I make purchases, and the business model of centipaid is to make money from teh transactions and NOT from where people go. Most likely when the business matures there will be reports that say X% bought from thie merchant, but there will NEVER be report that says who bought what... I mean that is the whole point of the anonymous system..
4. the communication between the merchant and centipaid is dfeintly not encrypted becuase it does not need to.. The user never hands the internet stamp to the merchant, they pay centipaid using our gateway, and then the merhcnat receives a receipt number, which they autheticate with our servers to make sure a payment is made. Now if someone intercepts the receipt number,it is fine, since it does not indicate anything. Merchants who are are too paranoid wanting to encrypt their receipt numbers, can do that in future versions :)
5. Yes the internetstamp in a way is a debit facility. How can you make payments if you did not?? and yes it is designed to limit your losses. you got it that is the whole point. If you mess up and give your stamp to someone your losses are limited. Also each internet stamp comes with a proof of pruchase. It is never used in a pruchase, but in the event that you stamp has been compromised by an outsider, or you want to move funds, etc.. then this is the ultimate proof of you owning the stamp, since at the end the model allows for complete anonymity, not even centipaid willknow who you are if you purchase the stamp with cash.
6. Thanks for seeing the proposed document to ietf, and yes when I was working on the new mail application design, i realized that a reliable micropayment system will be requiered, and the design of the internet stamp technology came into to play, and internet stamps are designed to be used in scenarios where anonymity is key.
Now I am not sure what you mean with draw your conclusions. I have drawn one that you did not read much on the centipaid site, since many of these points are explained in detail.
I agrees withyou that interent stamps shoould have more information, and we will work on that..
In all cases I do appretiate your honesty and your feedback, and hope that I have answered some of your questions.
Best regards, Adonis