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The bills are intended to be spent hand-to-hand in meatspace with cryptographic validation. See section 2.1 [1] The innovation of Bitcoin was decentralized ele

The bills are intended to be spent hand-to-hand in meatspace with cryptographic validation. See section 2.1 [1] The innovation of Bitcoin was decentralized electronic peer-to-peer cash. Kong does not remove any of those elements and makes the overhead of the peer-to-peer bit easier. Physical cash is still the dominant form of payment. The advancement here is figuring out how to issue physical cash without needing a central entity. I like Bitcoin but it is anti-privacy by specification. For small transactions I prefer cash. I would like the best of both. [1] https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5KsGuWBXAX https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5Ks...

monocasa 7y ago
What does Kong bring to the table that a gold coin does not?
- ottolin 7y ago
  Honestly I dont think it does anything that a gold coin cant do in practical level. However, a gold coin will remain valid if dropped into water or fire.
- paulgerhardt 7y ago
  One simple interpretation of Kong is a self-generated, non-extractable private key anchored to a smart contract. Kong is a very simple contract that escrows tokens. One can imagine significantly more complicated contracts.
- jazzyjackson 7y ago
  An app that confirms it is genuine ! (of course there are empirical methods for proving gold is gold, but being able to do it with NFC is neat)
james_s_tayler 7y ago
>The bills are intended to be spent hand-to-hand in meatspace with cryptographic validation. Then what problem is it solving? >Physical cash is still the dominant form of payment. The advancement here is figuring out how to issue physical cash without needing a central entity. It has to be physically manufactured. You're now the entity.
- paulgerhardt 7y ago
  The problem is how to make a sound cash instrument backed by cryptocurrencies. It matters because cash is the dominant form of payment worldwide. Section 4.1 goes into how to manufacture these so we're not the sole entity. Manufacturers of mining equipment set an...ok...precedent here. I think we can do better in this space which is why we're trying to minimize trust in these black boxes and move to open silicon with ARX - section 5.1. [1] [1] https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5KsGuWBXAX https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5Ks...
  - james_s_tayler 7y ago
    >The problem is how to make a sound cash instrument backed by cryptocurrencies. It matters because cash is the dominant form of payment worldwide In what way is cash failing that it needs to be replaced by your type of cash? The "it's decentralized and doesn't rely on a state level actor" argument has been thoroughly lost at this point.
    - darawk 7y ago
      Cash is controlled by a central authority. Governments can print as much or as little of it as they want. Kong does not have this property.
      - james_s_tayler 7y ago
        Not having that property so far hasn't proved to be useful in the real world.
        darawk 7y ago
        This is pretty clearly false. People use things with this property to hedge inflation risk all the time (e.g. gold).
        7y ago
zelly 7y ago
> The bills are intended to be spent hand-to-hand in meatspace with cryptographic validation. See section 2.1 [1] When I accept a physical note, do bits move on the Ethereum blockchain? If not, how do I know that it's really mine? This reminds me of when people sold Bitcoin private keys ("paper wallets") on eBay. I've heard some people do OTC trades by swapping private keys when they don't want the transaction recorded, but I assume these people know each other well. You save money on miner fees and gain some privacy, but you sacrifice trustlessness.
- paulgerhardt 7y ago
  Nothing is moved on chain when the bills are transferred between parties. Token is stored in an escrow contract. The self-generated, non-extractable key stored on the note is the only key that can be used to claim funds out of that escrow contract when it matures. This is basically a smart-contract implementation of how promissory notes issued by goldsmiths (the predecessors to modern cash) worked in the 1600's. A big difference is that every note has its own contract. It's possibly more correct to say every bill owns itself and people transfer those bills. Section 3 of the whitepaper[1] expands on this. [1] https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5KsGuWBXAX https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5Ks...

monocasa 7y ago

What does Kong bring to the table that a gold coin does not?

ottolin 7y ago
Honestly I dont think it does anything that a gold coin cant do in practical level. However, a gold coin will remain valid if dropped into water or fire.
paulgerhardt 7y ago
One simple interpretation of Kong is a self-generated, non-extractable private key anchored to a smart contract. Kong is a very simple contract that escrows tokens. One can imagine significantly more complicated contracts.
jazzyjackson 7y ago
An app that confirms it is genuine ! (of course there are empirical methods for proving gold is gold, but being able to do it with NFC is neat)

james_s_tayler 7y ago

>The bills are intended to be spent hand-to-hand in meatspace with cryptographic validation. Then what problem is it solving? >Physical cash is still the dominant form of payment. The advancement here is figuring out how to issue physical cash without needing a central entity. It has to be physically manufactured. You're now the entity.

paulgerhardt 7y ago
The problem is how to make a sound cash instrument backed by cryptocurrencies. It matters because cash is the dominant form of payment worldwide. Section 4.1 goes into how to manufacture these so we're not the sole entity. Manufacturers of mining equipment set an...ok...precedent here. I think we can do better in this space which is why we're trying to minimize trust in these black boxes and move to open silicon with ARX - section 5.1. [1] [1] https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5KsGuWBXAX https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5Ks...
- james_s_tayler 7y ago
  >The problem is how to make a sound cash instrument backed by cryptocurrencies. It matters because cash is the dominant form of payment worldwide In what way is cash failing that it needs to be replaced by your type of cash? The "it's decentralized and doesn't rely on a state level actor" argument has been thoroughly lost at this point.
  - darawk 7y ago
    Cash is controlled by a central authority. Governments can print as much or as little of it as they want. Kong does not have this property.
    - james_s_tayler 7y ago
      Not having that property so far hasn't proved to be useful in the real world.
      - darawk 7y ago
        This is pretty clearly false. People use things with this property to hedge inflation risk all the time (e.g. gold).
        7y ago

zelly 7y ago

> The bills are intended to be spent hand-to-hand in meatspace with cryptographic validation. See section 2.1 [1] When I accept a physical note, do bits move on the Ethereum blockchain? If not, how do I know that it's really mine? This reminds me of when people sold Bitcoin private keys ("paper wallets") on eBay. I've heard some people do OTC trades by swapping private keys when they don't want the transaction recorded, but I assume these people know each other well. You save money on miner fees and gain some privacy, but you sacrifice trustlessness.

paulgerhardt 7y ago
Nothing is moved on chain when the bills are transferred between parties. Token is stored in an escrow contract. The self-generated, non-extractable key stored on the note is the only key that can be used to claim funds out of that escrow contract when it matures. This is basically a smart-contract implementation of how promissory notes issued by goldsmiths (the predecessors to modern cash) worked in the 1600's. A big difference is that every note has its own contract. It's possibly more correct to say every bill owns itself and people transfer those bills. Section 3 of the whitepaper[1] expands on this. [1] https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5KsGuWBXAX https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmRNRCocj4PwKMXrd1jeUGw7ASQSuEk7BDJu5Ks...