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Both Visa and MasterCard are down. This just shows how fragile the internet is and how 'easy' is to shut down the entire economy and system. The point is that
by sdizdar 16y ago
Both Visa and MasterCard are down. This just shows how fragile the internet is and how 'easy' is to shut down the entire economy and system.
The point is that coordinated attack by terrorists or plain old criminals can cripple the entire world's economy and there is no easy and effective way to prevent it.
We do need to think about how internet can be re-organized to be 100% distributed system to prevent this of happening again.
- pyre 16y agoThe internet is distributed. How else could you post to this site while VISA and MasterCard are pounded into the ground?
- varjag 16y agoHave you tried to pay for groceries with your Visa or MC today? They work just fine. Good luck to anyone with shutting down economy.
- utoku 16y agoYou almost identified the problem correctly. Internet is already distributed. The attacks against Visa and MC are also distributed. But Visa and MC are not. They are single points of trust for our financial transactions. A more distributed system, where a web of trust and transaction system exists, could be used. But such a thing hasn't been invented yet. I thought about it some last year, but such a system is hard to design. I did design several prototypes, but they had lots of problems. It also involved changing the structures of presumed governmental financial structures ("central" bank for example, is also a single point of trust). So I think, the rephrasing of the problem should be: We do need to think about how our financial systems can be reorganized to be 100% distributed systems to prevent future abuses by anyone, including governments.