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Self-enforcing protocols are safer than other types because participants don't gain an advantage from cheating. Barter is a self-enforcing protocol: nobody nee
by makmanalp 17y ago
Self-enforcing protocols are safer than other types because participants don't gain an advantage from cheating.
Barter is a self-enforcing protocol: nobody needs to facilitate the transaction or resolve disputes. It just works.
Except when bartering, participants do gain an advantage from cheating.
- dbz 17y agoI think the point was that it is hard for participants to cheat, the owner isn't going to go lower than a certain amount; thus, the owner is always going to break even or profit. If the owner puts the price too high then the buyer is no longer going to be a buyer, but a a person who is walking away from the deal. Kind of self-enforced because the person who is selling is not going to make money by putting too high a price on goods.
- wwalker3 17y agoAnd it's easy to cheat in bartering -- just don't tell the other party that your goods have some hidden flaw. If I barter you my old laptop that crashes when you leave it on more than an hour, you're going to be mad later when you find out I didn't tell you, and you'll have to appeal to a third party for justice if I'm bigger or stronger than you.
- bsaunder 17y agoOr just barter it away to someone else (with or without telling the truth). ;)
- billswift 17y agoBigger or stronger won't stop a bullet. Anyone who cheats in a way that seriously damages the other, in a world that has guns in it, is a f*cking idiot. EDIT: This is known as "deterrence" if the potential malefactor is fairly bright and "evolution in action" if not.
- silentOpen 17y agoThis depends on the perfection of market information. If both participants can perfectly determine the value of their and their adversary's goods, no one can or will cheat. So barter should work for metals traders but not cattle traders (but they have other problems...).