Potlatch vs Market Model of the Net  Roy.Davies
(RDavies@exeter.ac.uk) Fri, 2 Dec 1994 10:19:00 GMT  In last
week's issue of _The Economist_ (26 November 1994 pages 25-30)
there is an article entitled _Electronic money: so much for the
cashless society_ which makes the claim that "the transformation
of the Internet from a huge virtual community into a huge
virtual economy may herald the age of electronic money - and
with it, headaches for traditional banks and regulators." The
article refers to Internet as "that rare thing, a vast market
visibly hungry for a fairly well defined product." It describes
various experiments with forms of electronic payment and
discusses their possible long-term implications. Whether they
agree with these suggestions or not the article will probably be
of interest to anyone concerned with the future of the Internet.
At present far from being a market the Internet is a
sophisticated example of competitive gift exchange, rather like
an electronic version of the native American potl