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over at stating the obvious there's been an interesting discussion regarding market-based approaches to p2p networks:
"Adar and Huberman argue that the anonymous nature of Gnutella is a key factor in its apparent demise. "In order for distributed systems with no central monitoring to succeed," they conclude, "a large amount of voluntary cooperation is required, a requirement that is very hard to fulfill in systems with large user populations that remain anonymous."

While Gnutella may indeed be suffering from a tragedy of the commons, I don't believe that removing anonymity would make much of a difference. Leaving aside the obvious legal implications of adding user identities to the Gnutella network (wouldn't the RIAA just love that), it's not the ideal architectural solution to the Gnutella problem. Even if there weren't legal repercussions to logging on as Michael Sippey and sharing that bootleg copy of Kid A that I happened to get my hands on, I'd still just log on, point my Gnutella client to an empty directory on my hard drive, and search away. After all, the incentive of people knowing that they swiped Kid A from me isn't enough to encourage me to share. And conversely, the disincentive of people knowing that I'm searching without sharing isn't enough to encourage me to point my Gnutella client to a richer directory.

A more appropriate solution to the Gnutella problem would be a market-based approach, where the content itself is used as currency."
and not too long after the above discussion salon has a piece on the 'mojo' in mojo nation:
"Home-brewed currency, or "Mojo," lies at the core of this new world. Users cannot simply take and give as they do with Napster and every other file-sharing service. Rather, those who download the free, open-source new release in November must use Mojo to buy and sell content for prices that they themselves determine.

This is how it works: Download a free Mojo Nation "agent" and set it loose. The 2,000 users who are testing the beta version earn 1 million Mojo just for signing up, but new members can earn currency only by sharing what they already have -- unused computer power on their desktop. Mojo Nation will pay users Mojo for letting the network "rent" their computer's disk space, processing power or whatever else the system needs. The prices change according to the rules of supply and demand: The more people want of what you've got, the more you can expect to earn. "
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10/12/2000 11:14:00 PM 0 comments

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