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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Dhruv Bansal‏ @dhruvbansal 8 Feb 2018
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      1\ A thought experiment: The year is 2277. You're the bartender at a spaceport in a faraway Earth colony on a planet orbiting α-Centauri: a distance of ~4 light years. Guy walks into your bar, slams down a credit chit, and asks for a drink. How do you know his money is any good?

      9 replies 39 retweets 100 likes
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    2. Dhruv Bansal‏ @dhruvbansal 8 Feb 2018
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      2\ If the credit chit were guaranteed by a bank or a blockchain or something local to α-Centauri it'd be easy, just like it is here on Earth in 2018. But say this guy is fresh-thawed after his long journey from Earth aboard a lighthugger. What kind of wealth could he even have?

      2 replies 2 retweets 6 likes
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    3. Dhruv Bansal‏ @dhruvbansal 8 Feb 2018
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      3\ He's unlikely to be carrying base metals. Like natural resources, they'd still be valuable, but too heavy to transport from Earth. Physical fiat (bank notes) wouldn't be accepted either: too easy to 3D-print forgeries. So what form of wealth survives interstellar voyages?

      1 reply 3 retweets 7 likes
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    4. Dhruv Bansal‏ @dhruvbansal 8 Feb 2018
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      4\ Information! Wealth transfer between stars must be digital. So the guy could present a statement from Bank of Orion or sign some blockchain transaction with his private keys to prove to you he is solvent. "One Corellian Ale, coming right up sir..."

      1 reply 2 retweets 9 likes
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    5. Dhruv Bansal‏ @dhruvbansal 8 Feb 2018
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      5\ But what if, just before arriving, the guy beamed a transaction back at Earth spending all his funds? It would take 4 years to get to Earth and 4 years for Earth to relay acknowledgement back to α-Centauri. During those 8 years, he could double-spend freely on α-Centauri!

      4 replies 4 retweets 15 likes
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    6. Dhruv Bansal‏ @dhruvbansal 8 Feb 2018
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      6\ Relativity can be confusing, so physicists use Minkowski diagrams to hone their intuitions in situations like these. Below is an idealized Minkowski diagram which depicts the scenario outlined above. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minkowski_diagram … for more details on how to read these diagrams.pic.twitter.com/Xqg3JweJey

      1 reply 2 retweets 12 likes
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    7. Dhruv Bansal‏ @dhruvbansal 8 Feb 2018
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      7\ Another problem: say two ships leave Earth and α-Centauri at the same time, each bound for the other. Later, both Earth and α-Centauri broadcast spends. Due to the relativity of simultaneity, the two ships will receive the spends in *the opposite order*! What should they do?pic.twitter.com/NDO1BgSW3g

      1 reply 3 retweets 5 likes
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    8. Dhruv Bansal‏ @dhruvbansal 8 Feb 2018
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      8\ These examples are not pathologies. They are fundamental problems of interstellar commerce. I read a lot of sci-fi but I don't know of many authors who write about interstellar distributed consensus. Everyone writes about the engines, but the money is just as vital...

      5 replies 5 retweets 20 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Feb 2018
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      Replying to @dhruvbansal

      Neptune’s brood?

      11:12 PM - 8 Feb 2018
      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        1. Dhruv Bansal‏ @dhruvbansal 9 Feb 2018
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          Replying to @vgr

          You're the second person in these responses to recommend that book. Is it any good? The ad copy for it suggests it's basically about exactly the scenarios I outline above... Damn, though, I can't wait for the golden age of crypto sci-fi. C'mon @gregeganSF, get involved!

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