From: "R. A. Hettinga" Subject: Geodesic Capital 2002: Call for Participants Date: Friday, March 01, 2002 5:38 PM To: Digital Bearer Settlement List , dcsb@ai.mit.edu List-Subscribe: We've been talking about this event for months (if not years, now), and have asked you to save the dates, rescheduled it, well, twice. But, finally, here's what you've been saving the date for... CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS THE FIRST IBUC SYMPOSIUM ON GEODESIC CAPITAL: "GC02 -- Internet Bearer Finance in a Transparent World" April 3-4, 2002 The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston Boston, Massachusetts, USA AN INVITATION The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation invites its friends in finance, cryptography, and in internet security, infrastructure, and commerce to Boston for an informal two-day symposium to discuss bearer finance on a ubiquitous geodesic . WHAT IS GEODESIC CAPITAL? "A Fine Kettle of Fish." Ever since the bottom fell out of the internet finance and digital goods markets in the Spring of 2000, and especially since the terrorist events of the Fall of 2001, there has been a considerable amount of discussion on the net and in the press about the economic efficacy, if not the actual political wisdom, of using specific kinds of putatively anonymous financial cryptography protocols to instantaneously execute, clear, and settle financial and commercial transactions on the internet. And yet, the need for these transactions is greater than ever before: -- THE MARKET FOR DIGITAL GOODS AND SERVICES, which require instantaneous cheap peer-to-peer transactions to survive as stand-alone businesses, has been left in limbo, if not in absolute disarray. There are increasingly ruinous fights over digital property rights, which leave the producers and even distributors of internet content in the position of not producing or distributing content at all in a medium where content distribution is orders of magnitude cheaper than in any other. -- In spite of commercial assurances to the contrary, THE VERY RIGHT TO DECRYPT OR REVERSE ENGINEER ENCRYPTION OR SECURITY METHODS IS NOW VERY MUCH IN DOUBT, with restraining orders and subpoenas flying like chaff, and the odd theatrical arrest of conference participants for publishing any software which does even the simplest crypt analysis of an ostensibly trade-secret protocol. -- We are at the point of REQUIRING AN ACTUAL "FINANCIAL PANOPTICON" BY THE COMING MARKET FOR INTERNET SERVICES, which, at the moment, depends completely on on "is-a-person" identification of its users, primarily because current financial transaction settlement technology requires the identification and apprehension of people who lie about a book-entry in a database somewhere instead of failing potentially fraudulent transactions before they even execute. -- INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE FIRMS like ISPs and co-location facilities are getting over their dot-com bubble hangovers by merging and filing bankruptcy, while, at the same time, their administrative costs, caused primarily by the overhead of the billing and payment process, and moreover, their marketing costs, caused at least indirectly by the same, keep going up. An auction priced cash-settled internet infrastructure market would go a long way to restructuring these markets into something which would be, by definition, profitable, efficient, and, more to the point, dynamically scalable without the waste, fraud, and abuse of the current system. -- Most important, ANY REDUCTION IN SETTLEMENT RISK AND TRANSACTION COST which these protocols could bring to the capital markets themselves IS NOW AT A COMPLETE STANDSTILL, and at a time when costs are being severely controlled, even to the point of threatening the existence of several very good firms, and the increasing possibility of regulatory scrutiny, including the forced divestiture of various business units, raising financial firms' cost structures even more. -- The paradox is, CONFLICT OF INTEREST ARISES DIRECTLY BY SHARED OWNERSHIP OF CONFLICTING BUSINESS UNITS, such as professional services and auditing, or even underwriting, securities analysis, and market-making. In order to have smaller firms, microeconomics tells us that we *must* lower transaction costs. If transactions are less transparent but considerably cheaper, then firms get smaller, become more specialized, and the need for transaction transparency is reduced. Reduced, in fact, to the point where TRANSPARENCY WOULD BE, like privacy now is, completely ORTHOGONAL TO TRANSACTION COST. Into this chaos steps a class of deliberately *anonymous* transaction protocols, originally designed by decidedly left/liberal academics to prevent corporate control of personal data, and championed on the internet by anarchist/libertarians ideologues as a way to prevent state control of the same information. Yet, the actual *financial* use of these protocols is now being advocated by researchers in financial operations as a way to substantially lower risk-adjusted transaction costs below those currently available with book-entry transactions, probably even greater a reduction than that caused by book-entry transactions themselves. Book-entry vs. Bearer Transactions Book-entry transactions originated first between individuals and firms on telegraphic networks as a way to reduce the physical handling of physical bearer certificates and execution orders, and is now done on proprietary networks like SWIFT, FedWire, the various ATM and EFT networks, NACHA and so on, and cleared through various member-only clearinghouses, securities depositories, and financial institutions around the world. Checks, credit cards, bank-wires, virtually all stock, bond, derivative, and institutional currency transactions are book-entry transactions. In other words, all finance but the bills in your wallet and change in your pockets is book-entry finance. And yet, the most popular *internet* equivalent to using book-entry methods for settlement and clearing (the exchange of consumer debt for cash, for instance) so far have involved tunneling credit-card *execution* requests over the net using TLS/SSL, as is done with the vast majority internet commerce. Though, on a considerably smaller though growing scale, tunneled SSL/TLS is also being used for the actual clearing and settlement of peer-to-peer book-entry transactions using a single database/clearinghouse, like PayPal does for national currencies, or, even, for gold-denominated transactions, like GoldMoney and E-Gold do. Internet Bearer Finance For several years now, many researchers in financial operations, cryptography, security and internet architecture have come to believe that that Moore's Law, coupled with internet financial cryptography, creates something at the same vastly simpler, but capable of significantly more complex and efficient results: an economy based on increasingly smaller, cheaper and highly distributed *bearer* transactions; executed, cleared and settled by increasingly smaller, cheaper, and highly distributed financial intermediaries. Instead of a hierarchical system of interlocking book-entries, requiring law, and force, to clear and settle without fraud, these researchers see a *geodesic* system of single-use bearer certificates, cash for debt, equity, and derivative instruments, from statistically-tested streaming millidollars to single-certificate gigadollar currency derivatives, all of which would execute, clear and settle instantaneously, but only if cryptographic and internet protocols are adhered to by the buyer, seller, and underwriter of a given bearer certificate. Not only is the actual transaction risk of such internet bearer protocols probably reduced to near zero, but, paradoxically, the resulting the lack of audit trails -- the lack of existence of the book-entries themselves -- would reduce the mechanical costs of transactions using these protocols on the internet by more than book-entry settlement did in replacing physical delivery of paper bearer certificates starting a century ago. And so, use of these protocols to underwrite financial instruments, on what Peter Huber observed is an increasingly geodesic global communications architecture itself caused by increasingly falling switching prices, observed at least indirectly by Gordon Moore, is what IBUC has come to call "Geodesic Capital", and the research in and development of markets which use Geodesic Capital is the theme of this Symposium. THE SYMPOSIUM Participants are requested to send their suggestions for content, proposals to talk, etc., to Robert Hettinga of the Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation at . What follows is a brief outline of the Symposium's agenda as it now stands. CURRENT AGENDA THE FIRST IBUC SYMPOSIUM ON GEODESIC CAPITAL: "Internet Bearer Finance in a Transparent World" Wednesday Morning, April 3, 2002 08:00 Breakfast/Registration 09:00 Welcome and Keynote Welcome, Introduction: Robert Hettinga, IBUC Keynote: (TBA) 10:00 Break (Coffee, Tea, snacks) 10:15 Morning Session: The Origins of Geodesic Finance History of networks, finance, cryptography. The invention of internet bearer transaction settlement. The promise -- and consequences -- of bearer settled capital markets. Experience so far in researching and developing these markets. 12:15 Lunch 13:15 Early Afternoon Session: First Steps -- Simple Bearer Markets Depository and Custodial Receipts. Simple debt instruments. Simple Cash. 15:15 Break (Coffee, Tea, snacks) 15:30 Late Afternoon Session: Internet Finance Markets for internet content and services, bandwidth, etc. Recursive auctions for content and software. Streaming Cash. Machine to Machine markets. 17:30 Reception, Cocktails and finger-food 19:00 See You in the Morning... ------------------------------------------- Thursday Morning, April 4, 2002 08:00 Breakfast 08:30 Early Morning Session: Advanced Capital Markets Equity. Derivatives. Price Discovery. Exchange Protocols. Intercustodial Settlement Networks. Managing bearer market trading staff. Paying Stamp Duty and other taxes. 10:00 Break (Coffee, Tea, snacks) 10:15 Late Morning Session: Advanced Capital Markets, cont'd 12:15 Lunch 13:15 Early Afternoon Session: Regulation and Governance Regulatory Issues. Policy implications. Internet-Based Market Governance. 15:15 Break (Coffee, Tea, snacks) 15:30 Late Afternoon Session: Getting There From Here Market Analyses. Development Planning. Market Entry Scenarios. Meeting the regulatory burden. The market for capital. What's next? 17:30 Conference Close, Reception, Cocktails and finger-food ADMINISTRIVIA What to Bring: Your laptop: We've managed to have at least bonded dial-up access to the net in the past. It's possible we'll do better than that this time. Your talking points: We're leaving plenty of air time for people to present their ideas and opinions. Contact Robert Hettinga , about your proposed presentations and any collateral material you would be bringing. In addition, the chair will probably recruit some attendees to present some of a session's content and moderate the discussion. Your ideas, and, most important, your enthusiasm and energy: After the events of the last year, we have a lot of work to do. Fortunately, like the apocryphal Chinese ideograph, disaster and opportunity are very closely related, and, like the troubles we've had recently, the opportunities we now face are quite considerable. Dress Code The dress code at the Harvard Club of Boston is Business Casual, but the suit ratio approaches 100% these days in light of the dot-bomb... REGISTRATION AND FEES Fees The Symposium includes Breakfast, breaks, lunch, and a reception in the evening. The Symposium fee is $875 if received by IBUC before March 1st, 2002. Between March 1st and 15th, the fee is $1062.50. After March 15th, the fee is $1250. Payment Payment should be in the form of a bank wire, or a corporate or cashier's check payable to The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation sent to: IBUC 44 Farquhar Street Boston, MA 02131 Contact Mr. Hettinga, , for wire instructions. Include the registrants' names and email addresses. Confirmation of receipt will be sent by digitally signed E-Mail. Discounts and Scholarships Depending on circumstances, there may be discounts and complementary admission for services rendered in kind, and for students and academics, at the discretion of the Symposium Chair. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNTIES In addition, sponsorship opportunities are available, in particular for a keynote speaker, or dinner on either evening. Sponsors would receive two complementary symposium seats, and reserved table space for promotional material. Email Mr. Hettinga for details. SEE YOU IN BOSTON! If you would like to help create world where the internet dramatically reduces the cost of moving money, of the transfer of the ownership of financial assets, digital goods, and internet services, then Boston is where you should be on April 3rd and 4th, 2002. We hope to see you there. Cheers, Robert A. Hettinga, Chairman/CEO, The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'