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> There are actually tons of such projects. Why did they not take off? Secure computing requires a relatively low time preference to be economical. Or, more pr
by wyager 7y ago
> There are actually tons of such projects. Why did they not take off?
Secure computing requires a relatively low time preference to be economical. Or, more precisely, marginal demand for secure computing increases with a marginal decrease in time preference. Most companies have (artificially inflated) high time preferences, so it's not economical for them to adopt what we consider secure computing.
This is, I believe, to the net detriment of human society as a whole (at least, at my personal time preference).
I'm not going to get too much into why time preferences are so (artificially) high on here, but I encourage people to look into it themselves. A lot of it has to do with government economic intervention, especially around monetary policy.
- marcosdumay 7y ago> A lot of it has to do with government economic intervention, especially around monetary policy. Don't single it out. Fiscal policy is as much guilty as monetary one. Even civil and criminal legislation help here.
- wbl 7y agoRates are low, which signals willingness to invest long term. Are you sure you got the monetary policy right?
- wyager 7y agoLong delay, but I just saw this: the availability of loans well below “natural” market rates encourages consumption now, because you can just take out a honking big loan and you won’t have to deal with the consequences for a long time. I.e. it inflates effective time preference.