Re: Anonymity and Intellectual Capital

["Tom Bell" <BELL@odo.law.udayton.edu>]

> I've ranted about all this here and elsewhere, how falling semiconductor
> prices, public networks and strong cryptography beget the reemergence of
> bearer certificates, this time in digital form (of which ecash is only the
> prima facie example, the existence proof) and what I call, for lack of a
> better term, a "geodesic", instead of hierarchical, economy.

> Bob Hettinga

Agreed.  What's more, I'll make a similar claim about the legal 
system -- with the rise of alternate dispute resolution systems, it 
too appears to be moving toward a system where law issues less from 
state authorities and more from private ones.  Post's article brings 
out this point well.

As for terminology, I prefer "polycentric."  Originally coined (I 
believe) by Polyani with regard to non-hierarchical societies, it 
works quite well in economic and legal contexts.  A polycentric 
system harbors overlapping authorities in free and open competition.

Tom W. Bell
Assistant Professor 
Law and Technology Program
UD Law School
bell@odo.law.udayton.edu

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