[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: marginal cost of ecash transaction
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Wei Dai probably wrote:
>
> That brings up an interesting question. What is the marginal cost to
> MarkTwain of such a one-cent ecash transaction? If everyone started
> sending each other these pennies, will MarkTwain go broke?
Good question.
Speaking unofficially and off-the-top-of-my head, I estimate the
marginal cost to be "really really small".
I mean, if you really want to know the marginal cost of
something you have to determine which costs are considered
marginal and which aren't. Is Frank O. Trotter's salary a
marginal cost? I mean, if everyone in the world started sending
each other Mark Twain Bank pennies, MTB might have to hire a
second or third banker-type like Frank to keep an eye on things.
But disregarding such speculation, what is the marginal cost of a
kilobyte or so on Mark Twain Bank's internet connection? Or
(snicker) a handful of CPU cycles on bank.marktwain.com?
The biggest "marginal cost" is probably the salaries of the
employees who keep those two things running.
Regards,
Bryce
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2i
Comment: Auto-signed under Unix with 'BAP' Easy-PGP v1.1b2
iQB1AwUBMZvWn0jbHy8sKZitAQH9FAMAzfjFYSG4jjAhHgAzjf8s9YpG6M9NVCm1
PHqHffGtlEL/q+4grPhsLa/5IZuLGbhIOGfuhvDf4/dMM1GpORz+qpbC4RNR3CVp
4LYh4X23UxImIk5EuYd22vjMr+6Y0P4E
=ZJ+m
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----