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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 17:19:15 ADT
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
Tue, 30 Jun 1998 07:55:20 -0400
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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 14:43:27 -0400
To: Digital Bearer Transaction Settlement List <dbs@philodox.com>
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Subject: Final Call: Symposium on Digital Bearer Transaction Settlement
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Announcement Date: June 29, 1998
F I N A L C A L L F O R P A R T I C I P A N T S
The Philodox Symposium on Digital Bearer Transaction Settlement
The world's very first meeting on digital bearer transactions
The Downtown Harvard Club
Boston, Massachusetts
July 23-24, 1998
To Register: <http://www.philodox.com/symposiuminfo.html>
Registration Deadline: July 9th, 1998
THE DEADLINE IS APPROACHING
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism, of Boston, Massachusetts, in
association with the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, announces the
first in a series of symposia, conferences and workshops on the
subject of digital bearer transaction settlement.
The first of these gatherings, a professional symposium examining the
technology, economics, markets and law of digital bearer settlement,
will be held at the Downtown Harvard Club of Boston, Thursday and
Friday, July 23 and 24, 1998.
This is the Final Call for Participants for the Symposium. In order to
guarantee their seats, participants in the Symposium must register at
<http://www.philodox.com/symposiuminfo.html>, and deliver payment to
Philodox as specified in the "Registration and Payment" section below,
on or before 12:00 Noon, EST, Thursday July 9th, 1998.
Registrations received after that time will receive admission to the
Symposium on a space available basis, and, because room size will be
chosen based on registration at the time of the deadline, space will
be severely limited. Furthermore, the size of the symposium itself has
an absolute maximum size of only 60 persons, regardless of the space
we secure for it. In other words, if you have any intention of
attending at all, please register before the deadline, and, the sooner
you register, the more assured you will be of getting a Symposium
seat.
WHAT IS DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT?
A digital bearer transaction is one where a cryptographically secure
value-object, issued and underwritten by a third party, is exchanged
between the two parties in a trade, typically over a public
internetwork. The object executes, clears, and settles the transaction
instantaneously, securely, and, in the most secure protocols,
anonymously.
Moreover, these financial cryptographic protocols promise to reduce
the cost of transactions by several orders of magnitude -- that is,
possibly a thousand times cheaper -- than equivalent "book-entry"
transactions, such as credit and debit cards, checks, and modern
securities clearing methods.
Since it is possible to issue any security -- cash, micropayments,
debt, equity, or any derivative thereof -- in digital bearer form, it
is probable that digital bearer settlement will become the dominant
form of transaction settlement in the information age.
In fact, as transaction settlement latency tends towards the
instantaneous, the more cost, security, and non-repudiation advantages
there are for digital bearer settlement protocols. So-called "Real
Time Gross Settlement", will be, for all practical intents and
purposes, digital bearer transaction settlement.
THE MARKET FOR DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT
It is estimated that $200 billion in transactions are being executed
on the internet annually. 40% of all retail stock trades are now
executed from the net, for instance. If it's possible to properly call
a credit card transaction transmitted under Secure Socket Layer to be
settled and cleared on the net itself, then an absolute maximum of 10%
of those transactions, or $20 billion annualized, are cleared and
settled on the net today, with marginal market share to other
transaction protocols. By comparison, $3 trillion in foreign exchange
transactions are executed, cleared and settled every day, using
standard book-entry processes.
Given their cost advantage, flexibility, and scaleability, it is
completely conceivable that digital bearer transactions, of all kinds
and sizes, from macrobonds to micropayments, will be executed,
cleared, and settled on ubiquitous global internetworks, they will
become the dominant transaction mechanism over time on those networks,
and, by extension, in the global economy in general.
It may happen sooner than we can imagine. Electronic batch-processed
book-entry settlement itself was only possible 40 years ago, and it
wasn't until 1983 that era of the physical settlement of paper bearer
certificates in the capital markets was officially over, when the US
Congress made interest on bearer bonds not tax-deductible, effectively
outlawing them.
However, as Milton Freidman said at roughly the same time, "Regulation
usually benefits the regulated". Operations departments in securities
firms were only too happy to see the end of physical settlement
because book-entry settlement was so much cheaper. If that weren't the
case, there would still be people clipping coupons every quarter, and
sending their bonds and multithousand-dollar cash bills around in
Brinks trucks to various Wall Street "cages" for settlement. And, of
course, the reason we have book-entry market regulation -- and
taxation -- is because the book-entries are there to begin with.
In the same sense, internet financial cryptography and digital bearer
settlement are much more a phenomenon of collapsing microprocessor
prices than electronic batch-processed book-entry settlement ever was.
In fact, it will probably be necessary for digital bearer settlement
to exist for any serious economic activity (that $20 billion a year
for internet credit cards versus $3 trillion a day for foriegn
exchange, for example) to happen on the internet. The very ubiquity of
the future internet will demand it, and when the time comes, the law
will change to reflect the new economic reality of digital bearer
settlement, just like it did for book-entry settlement.
THE SYMPOSIUM
Towards that end, Philodox has taken it upon itself to focus the
attention of the information technology, financial and legal
communities onto the technology of digital bearer settlement though a
series of events, starting with this initial Symposium of
professionals interested in digital bearer settlement, to be held in
Boston in July.
Each section of the Symposium agenda will consist of a short
presentation on the topic, followed by discussions led by an expert
moderator. While several experts in the field of digital bearer
settlement will be on hand to lend their help where needed, it is
expected that participants will bring their own particular knowlege to
bear on specific elements of the symposium program, and, of course,
not everyone will have something to say on every topic.
Rest assured there will be plenty to talk about, however. This
symposium will be focusing on several thorny economic, marketing,
legal and policy problems of digital bearer settlement, and there are
lots of differing opinions on how to solve those problems, so expect
to participate in some animated discussion.
THE SYMPOSIUM AGENDA
AGENDA
THE PHILODOX SYMPOSIUM ON DIGITAL BEARER TRANSACTION SETTLEMENT
The Downtown Harvard Club
One Federal Street, Boston
July 23-24, 1998
THURSDAY, JULY 23, 1998
(Club Dress Code: jacket and tie, please, no jeans or athletic shoes)
0730-0830: Check-in, Breakfast
0830-0845: Welcome
0845-1015: HISTORY OF BEARER TRANSACTION SETTLEMENT
Moderator: Robert Hettinga
1015-1030: Break
1030-1200: DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT TECHNOLOGY SURVEY AND FORECASTS
Moderator: Ryan Lackey
1200-1300: Lunch
1300-1500: BEARER SETTLEMENT LEGAL/REGULATORY SURVEY AND FORECASTS
Moderator: John Muller
1500-1515: Break
1515-1715: POSSIBLE LEGAL/REGULATORY SOLUTIONS
Moderator: John Muller
1730-1930: Reception, Cocktails and Hors d'Oeurves
Friday, July 23, 1998
(Dress Code: "business casual", no jeans or athletic shoes)
0800-0830: Breakfast
0830-0845: Announcements
0845-1015: INTERNET TRANSACTION SETTLEMENT ECONOMIC/FINANCIAL SURVEY
AND FORECASTS
Moderator: TBA
1015-1030: Break
1030-1200: CAPITAL MARKET APPLICATIONS FOR DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT
Moderator: Robert Hettinga
1200-1300: Lunch
1300-1430: OTHER MARKET APPLICATIONS FOR DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT
Moderator: Robert Hettinga
1430-1445: Break
1445-1630: NEW PRODUCT/MARKET IDEAS FOR DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT
Moderator: TBA
1630-1645: Closing
SYMPOSIUM COST AND REGISTRATION
The cost for the Philodox Symposium on Digital Bearer Transaction
Settlement is $447, payable to "Philodox", on a company check or
personal money order sent to Robert Hettinga, Philodox Financial
Technology Evangelism, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA, 02131, USA.
Philodox must have delivery of your payment on or before noon, Eastern
Standard Time, July 9, 1998. Massachusetts residents should add 5%
sales tax. If possible, please include the recipient's email address
on the check, to aid in confirmation.
In addition, participants must also register for the Symposium at the
Symposium's registration page,
<http://www.philodox.com/symposiuminfo.html>.
Include on the form provided there the participant(s) name, email
address, company affliation and shirt size, in addition to what
expertise and interests you bring to the symposium, to help us with
content and discussion development. Confirmation of your Symposium
seat will be sent by email upon receipt of your check. If you intend
to pay your Symposium admission by wire, please indicate so the
checkbox provided on the form, and wire instructions will be sent to
you by email. If, for some reason, you plan to come but cannot arrange
payment in time for the deadline, please register anyway, and contact
Mr. Hettinga directly at <mailto: rah@philodox.com> to see if
something can be worked out.
Your Symposium fee goes towards conference room rental, breakfasts,
lunches, a cocktail reception on Thursday night, snacks, audio-visual
rental, internet access on-site, various mementoes of the occasion
including an embroidered "polo"-style shirt. And, of course,
Philodox's event management fee.
SCHOLARSHIPS
A small number of scholarship fee-waivers will be available,
contingent upon direct sponsorship and the size of the Symposium, to
be selected by Philodox and based upon the applicant's financial need
and ability to contribute to the symposium. Please contact Robert
Hettinga, <mailto: rah@philodox.com>, if you want to request a
fee-waiver.
SPONSORSHIP
In addition to direct event and website sponsorship opportunities,
including the possiblity of exhibition space, there are several
in-kind sponsorship opportunites available, particularly in the areas
of audio-video services and internet services, including internet
access, web-casting and web-page development. Please contact Robert
Hettinga,<mailto: rah@philodox.com> if you're interested in in-kind or
direct sponsorship of the Symposium.
THE DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT EMAIL LIST: DBS@PHILODOX.COM
As part of Philodox's ongoing support of the technology of digital
bearer settlement, an email list has been established to discuss the
technology and it's ramifications in an unmoderated, informal setting.
Please see <http://www.philodox.com/dbs-archive/> to see the initial
archives of the Digital Bearer Settlement discussion list, and, use
the following URL in any mailto capable browser to subscribe to the
list itself: <mailto:requests@philodox.com?subject=subscribe%20dbs>.
It is hoped that the Symposium's participants will use
dbs@philodox.com as a "watering hole" list for their discussions
before, during, and after the Symposium.
WHO IS PHILODOX?
Philodox is a new financial technology evangelism company founded by
Robert Hettinga, founder of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston,
and founding moderator and editor of several internet discussion lists
and newsletters on digital commerce and financial cryptography. Mr
Hettinga is also founder of both the International Conference on
Financial Cryptography, and the International Financial Cryptography
Association.
For more information on Philodox, please see
<http://www.philodox.com>.
See you soon in Boston!
Cordially,
Robert Hettinga
Founder,
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism
Boston, Massachusetts
The Philodox Symposium on Digital Bearer Transaction Settlement is
sponsored in part by the Internet Guide Service Inc., <mailto:
esj@harvee.billerica.ma.us>, and their generous contribution of
conference internet access services.
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Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
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'
The Philodox Symposium on Digital Bearer Transaction Settlement
July 23-24, 1998: <http://www.philodox.com/symposiuminfo.html>
--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
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'
The Philodox Symposium on Digital Bearer Transaction Settlement
July 23-24, 1998: <http://www.philodox.com/symposiuminfo.html>
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 17:19:15 ADT