Prior discussion of this same link can be found at this other thread (which I had in my list of links below but it felt useful to surface it). https://news.yco

Prior discussion of this same link can be found at this other thread (which I had in my list of links below but it felt useful to surface it). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15700718 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15700718 So, something maybe-fascinating to people is that Rivest--who designed this scheme--helped start a company to use it on the web to pay for things like news articles and generally replace ads. It was called Peppercoin, and was sufficiently before its time that not only did it fail (well, in the usual YC-sense: it got acquired by something boring and failed to change the world) but a lot of the people working on this technology today have never heard of it ;P. Here are a million references I have in a note I was collecting back in December on the rise and fall of Peppercoin (which I intended to show to my team at Orchid--where we are trying to apply this technology to a decentralized market for bandwidth and other Internet services: see orchid.com--and then honestly never have as I have been busy; and I considered that, maybe even "best case", this was likely to be a distraction to them as much as it was to me ;P). background https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=989020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=989020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15272944 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15272944 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9837380 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9837380 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17533350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17533350 papers https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.44.757&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.44... https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs/Riv97b.pdf https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs/Riv97b.pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.5.1010&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.5.1... https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs/Riv04c.slides.slides.pdf https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs/Riv04c.slides.slide... wikis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppercoin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppercoin https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Peppercoin https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Peppercoin https://ebrary.net/88179/business_finance/micropayments https://ebrary.net/88179/business_finance/micropayments funding http://web.archive.org/web/20031002123349/http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2003_09_23.shtml#003273 http://web.archive.org/web/20031002123349/http://www.paidcon... https://www.buyoutsinsider.com/peppercoin-banks-on-4-3m-in-coin/ https://www.buyoutsinsider.com/peppercoin-banks-on-4-3m-in-c... http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Item/Peppercoin-Raises-425-Million-Appoints-President-and-CEO-5543.htm http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Item/Peppercoi... https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB112430543406915783 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB112430543406915783 launch https://bizwest.com/2003/10/31/peppercoin-solves-download-payment-processing-pickle/#djPop https://bizwest.com/2003/10/31/peppercoin-solves-download-pa... https://www.technologyreview.com/2003/12/01/233570/the-webs-new-currency/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2003/12/01/233570/the-webs-... https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/technology/circuits/a-virtual-cash-register-rings-up-tiny-transactions.html https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/technology/circuits/a-vir... https://nextbillion.net/cashless-transactions-at-the-bop-peppercoin/ https://nextbillion.net/cashless-transactions-at-the-bop-pep... "2.0" https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/1492/peppercoin-releases-version-20-of-small-payments-system https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/1492/peppercoin-releas... 2004-2005 https://www.digitaltransactions.net/peppercoin-scores-another-online-song-merchant/ https://www.digitaltransactions.net/peppercoin-scores-anothe... https://www.digitaltransactions.net/moneris-signs-up-peppercoin-for-pint-sized-pos-and-web-payments/ https://www.digitaltransactions.net/moneris-signs-up-pepperc... https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass-high-tech/2005/02/peppercoin-picked-by-music-industrys-official.html https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass-high-tech/2005/... https://thepaypers.com/payments-general/peppercoin-small-payments-processing-suite-available-to-first-data-channels--725173 https://thepaypers.com/payments-general/peppercoin-small-pay... banking https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20050112005057/en/Peppercoin-Small-Transaction-Suite-First-to-Complete-Visa-CISP-and-Other-Credit-Card-Data-Security-Compliance-Validation https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20050112005057/en/Pep... https://thepaypers.com/payments-general/chase-merchant-services-and-peppercoin-sign-referral-agreement--724887 https://thepaypers.com/payments-general/chase-merchant-servi... mastercard https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/14621/peppercoin-and-mastercard-forge-micropayments-partnership https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/14621/peppercoin-and-ma... https://www.cbronline.com/news/mastercard_and_peppercoin_to_promote_card_use_for_small_payments/amp/ https://www.cbronline.com/news/mastercard_and_peppercoin_to_... https://www.insidearm.com/news/00025887-mastercard-supports-micro-and-small-payme/ https://www.insidearm.com/news/00025887-mastercard-supports-... https://www.networkworld.com/article/2316448/mastercard-teams-to-ease-small-cash-transactions.html https://www.networkworld.com/article/2316448/mastercard-team... https://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-francisco-chronicle/20051212/282613143188458 https://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-francisco-chronicle/2005... "3.0" https://www.digitaltransactions.net/is-peppercoin-eyeing-opportunities-in-hot-contactless-market/ https://www.digitaltransactions.net/is-peppercoin-eyeing-opp... https://www.digitaltransactions.net/peppercoin-3-0-debuts-with-prepaid-and-subscription-capabilities/ https://www.digitaltransactions.net/peppercoin-3-0-debuts-wi... operations https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2006/04/24/charles-caserta-joins-peppercoin-as-vice-president-of-sales/ https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2006/04/24/charles-casert... https://www.securetechalliance.org/secure/events/20061003/T08b_Stone.pdf https://www.securetechalliance.org/secure/events/20061003/T0... 2006-2007 https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/07/24/story10.html https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/07/24/story1... https://www.insidearm.com/news/00015050-suntrust-merchant-services-and-peppercoin/ https://www.insidearm.com/news/00015050-suntrust-merchant-se... https://www.allwirelessnews.com/features/heartland-payment-systems-partners-with-peppercoin.html https://www.allwirelessnews.com/features/heartland-payment-s... acquirement https://www.americanbanker.com/news/peppercoin-sold-to-oregon-loyalty-software-vendor https://www.americanbanker.com/news/peppercoin-sold-to-orego... https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20070416005392/en/Chockstone-Acquires-Peppercoin-Strengthens-Its-Leading-Position-in-Real-Time-Loyalty-Marketing-Programs-for-the-Restaurant-and-Convenience-Store-Industries https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20070416005392/en/Cho... https://mashable.com/2007/04/17/peppercoin/ https://mashable.com/2007/04/17/peppercoin/ postmortem https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070417/012124.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070417/012124.shtml