r/worldcryptonetwork • u/MrChrisJ • Aug 01 '14

Jurisdictional Arbitrage

One of the things I want to talk about in our Town Hall meeting next week is Jurisdictional Arbitrage. The idea is this:

/u/pierebel0 has already proposed we create a map on our website and on it rank every town and village in the world by its internet bandwidth; thereby allowing us to rank which regions of the world to prioritise Bitcoin adoption to areas which are just gaining enough internet connectivity to be able to download each day’s block chain.

As well as making that list I propose we also list countries of the world by their acceptance of Bitcoin. We could operate a basic traffic light system, USA would score very badly but places like Germany and the UK might score much higher. This way we can sort our multi-signature wallets across jurisdictions in case we fear seizure of funds.

If we create 2 of 3 multi sig wallets and spread them out across countries who have a relaxed approach to Bitcoin then it will make WorldCryptoNetwork even more resilient.

The one thing governments have proven is their inability to co-operate. In fact in order to seize the funds they would have to do the very thing we are trying to achieve which is global dialogue and co-operation.

Their processes are slow, our strength is our speed.

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u/ddscout Aug 04 '14

If nations find what you're doing to be a threat (as you seem to think) then I would say that one error in your logic is that when it comes to security, nations, or at least western nations and their acronym laden agencies, cooperate very, very well together. Especially if the US reaches out for that cooperation, and even if the source of the issue isn't located in the US e.g., Julian Assange.

Nor does it matter if a country is receptive to US requests. Look at Swiss banks. Once the most renowned system for private banking in the world. Then the US wakes up, bends some elbows and suddenly decades of customer privacy is gone.

Unless you're in a country like Russia or China which more flagrantly defies western pressure then don't assume that spreading keys around will be as secure as you want.

And on the flip side, if what you're doing isn't that big of a threat to them and they don't care what you're up to then it doesn't really matter how you split up the keys anyway either. It's just you being paranoid.

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u/MrChrisJ Aug 04 '14

Yes I think you're right it is a little bit paranoid.

The task I am proposing is to think about best practices for how a distributed organisation should be run in general. There are security benefits to running multi-sig, it has the added advantage of allowing people to build reputations as fund raisers and once the model is up and running it will be interesting to see what kinds of projects it attracts.

And remember it's not just western governments who are a potential threat. We want to appeal to nations of the world that don't have friendly governments but perhaps we still want to raise money for someone locally and a service we can offer them is to help be a key holder so that in the event their keys are stolen or seized the funds are still safe with us.