Forwarded From: "Jay D. Dyson" <jdysont_private> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Announcement Date: June 29, 1998 F I N A L C A L L F O R P A R T I C I P A N T S The Philodox Symposium on Digital Bearer Transaction Settlement The world's very first meeting on digital bearer transactions The Downtown Harvard Club Boston, Massachusetts July 23-24, 1998 To Register: <http://www.philodox.com/symposiuminfo.html> Registration Deadline: July 9th, 1998 THE DEADLINE IS APPROACHING Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism, of Boston, Massachusetts, in association with the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, announces the first in a series of symposia, conferences and workshops on the subject of digital bearer transaction settlement. The first of these gatherings, a professional symposium examining the technology, economics, markets and law of digital bearer settlement, will be held at the Downtown Harvard Club of Boston, Thursday and Friday, July 23 and 24, 1998. This is the Final Call for Participants for the Symposium. In order to guarantee their seats, participants in the Symposium must register at <http://www.philodox.com/symposiuminfo.html>, and deliver payment to Philodox as specified in the "Registration and Payment" section below, on or before 12:00 Noon, EST, Thursday July 9th, 1998. Registrations received after that time will receive admission to the Symposium on a space available basis, and, because room size will be chosen based on registration at the time of the deadline, space will be severely limited. Furthermore, the size of the symposium itself has an absolute maximum size of only 60 persons, regardless of the space we secure for it. In other words, if you have any intention of attending at all, please register before the deadline, and, the sooner you register, the more assured you will be of getting a Symposium seat. WHAT IS DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT? A digital bearer transaction is one where a cryptographically secure value-object, issued and underwritten by a third party, is exchanged between the two parties in a trade, typically over a public internetwork. The object executes, clears, and settles the transaction instantaneously, securely, and, in the most secure protocols, anonymously. Moreover, these financial cryptographic protocols promise to reduce the cost of transactions by several orders of magnitude -- that is, possibly a thousand times cheaper -- than equivalent "book-entry" transactions, such as credit and debit cards, checks, and modern securities clearing methods. Since it is possible to issue any security -- cash, micropayments, debt, equity, or any derivative thereof -- in digital bearer form, it is probable that digital bearer settlement will become the dominant form of transaction settlement in the information age. In fact, as transaction settlement latency tends towards the instantaneous, the more cost, security, and non-repudiation advantages there are for digital bearer settlement protocols. So-called "Real Time Gross Settlement", will be, for all practical intents and purposes, digital bearer transaction settlement. THE MARKET FOR DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT It is estimated that $200 billion in transactions are being executed on the internet annually. 40% of all retail stock trades are now executed from the net, for instance. If it's possible to properly call a credit card transaction transmitted under Secure Socket Layer to be settled and cleared on the net itself, then an absolute maximum of 10% of those transactions, or $20 billion annualized, are cleared and settled on the net today, with marginal market share to other transaction protocols. By comparison, $3 trillion in foreign exchange transactions are executed, cleared and settled every day, using standard book-entry processes. Given their cost advantage, flexibility, and scaleability, it is completely conceivable that digital bearer transactions, of all kinds and sizes, from macrobonds to micropayments, will be executed, cleared, and settled on ubiquitous global internetworks, they will become the dominant transaction mechanism over time on those networks, and, by extension, in the global economy in general. It may happen sooner than we can imagine. Electronic batch-processed book-entry settlement itself was only possible 40 years ago, and it wasn't until 1983 that era of the physical settlement of paper bearer certificates in the capital markets was officially over, when the US Congress made interest on bearer bonds not tax-deductible, effectively outlawing them. However, as Milton Freidman said at roughly the same time, "Regulation usually benefits the regulated". Operations departments in securities firms were only too happy to see the end of physical settlement because book-entry settlement was so much cheaper. If that weren't the case, there would still be people clipping coupons every quarter, and sending their bonds and multithousand-dollar cash bills around in Brinks trucks to various Wall Street "cages" for settlement. And, of course, the reason we have book-entry market regulation -- and taxation -- is because the book-entries are there to begin with. In the same sense, internet financial cryptography and digital bearer settlement are much more a phenomenon of collapsing microprocessor prices than electronic batch-processed book-entry settlement ever was. In fact, it will probably be necessary for digital bearer settlement to exist for any serious economic activity (that $20 billion a year for internet credit cards versus $3 trillion a day for foriegn exchange, for example) to happen on the internet. The very ubiquity of the future internet will demand it, and when the time comes, the law will change to reflect the new economic reality of digital bearer settlement, just like it did for book-entry settlement. THE SYMPOSIUM Towards that end, Philodox has taken it upon itself to focus the attention of the information technology, financial and legal communities onto the technology of digital bearer settlement though a series of events, starting with this initial Symposium of professionals interested in digital bearer settlement, to be held in Boston in July. Each section of the Symposium agenda will consist of a short presentation on the topic, followed by discussions led by an expert moderator. While several experts in the field of digital bearer settlement will be on hand to lend their help where needed, it is expected that participants will bring their own particular knowlege to bear on specific elements of the symposium program, and, of course, not everyone will have something to say on every topic. Rest assured there will be plenty to talk about, however. This symposium will be focusing on several thorny economic, marketing, legal and policy problems of digital bearer settlement, and there are lots of differing opinions on how to solve those problems, so expect to participate in some animated discussion. THE SYMPOSIUM AGENDA AGENDA THE PHILODOX SYMPOSIUM ON DIGITAL BEARER TRANSACTION SETTLEMENT The Downtown Harvard Club One Federal Street, Boston July 23-24, 1998 THURSDAY, JULY 23, 1998 (Club Dress Code: jacket and tie, please, no jeans or athletic shoes) 0730-0830: Check-in, Breakfast 0830-0845: Welcome 0845-1015: HISTORY OF BEARER TRANSACTION SETTLEMENT Moderator: Robert Hettinga 1015-1030: Break 1030-1200: DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT TECHNOLOGY SURVEY AND FORECASTS Moderator: Ryan Lackey 1200-1300: Lunch 1300-1500: BEARER SETTLEMENT LEGAL/REGULATORY SURVEY AND FORECASTS Moderator: John Muller 1500-1515: Break 1515-1715: POSSIBLE LEGAL/REGULATORY SOLUTIONS Moderator: John Muller 1730-1930: Reception, Cocktails and Hors d'Oeurves Friday, July 23, 1998 (Dress Code: "business casual", no jeans or athletic shoes) 0800-0830: Breakfast 0830-0845: Announcements 0845-1015: INTERNET TRANSACTION SETTLEMENT ECONOMIC/FINANCIAL SURVEY AND FORECASTS Moderator: TBA 1015-1030: Break 1030-1200: CAPITAL MARKET APPLICATIONS FOR DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT Moderator: Robert Hettinga 1200-1300: Lunch 1300-1430: OTHER MARKET APPLICATIONS FOR DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT Moderator: Robert Hettinga 1430-1445: Break 1445-1630: NEW PRODUCT/MARKET IDEAS FOR DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT Moderator: TBA 1630-1645: Closing SYMPOSIUM COST AND REGISTRATION The cost for the Philodox Symposium on Digital Bearer Transaction Settlement is $447, payable to "Philodox", on a company check or personal money order sent to Robert Hettinga, Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA, 02131, USA. Philodox must have delivery of your payment on or before noon, Eastern Standard Time, July 9, 1998. Massachusetts residents should add 5% sales tax. If possible, please include the recipient's email address on the check, to aid in confirmation. In addition, participants must also register for the Symposium at the Symposium's registration page, <http://www.philodox.com/symposiuminfo.html>. Include on the form provided there the participant(s) name, email address, company affliation and shirt size, in addition to what expertise and interests you bring to the symposium, to help us with content and discussion development. Confirmation of your Symposium seat will be sent by email upon receipt of your check. If you intend to pay your Symposium admission by wire, please indicate so the checkbox provided on the form, and wire instructions will be sent to you by email. If, for some reason, you plan to come but cannot arrange payment in time for the deadline, please register anyway, and contact Mr. Hettinga directly at <mailto: raht_private> to see if something can be worked out. Your Symposium fee goes towards conference room rental, breakfasts, lunches, a cocktail reception on Thursday night, snacks, audio-visual rental, internet access on-site, various mementoes of the occasion including an embroidered "polo"-style shirt. And, of course, Philodox's event management fee. SCHOLARSHIPS A small number of scholarship fee-waivers will be available, contingent upon direct sponsorship and the size of the Symposium, to be selected by Philodox and based upon the applicant's financial need and ability to contribute to the symposium. Please contact Robert Hettinga, <mailto: raht_private>, if you want to request a fee-waiver. SPONSORSHIP In addition to direct event and website sponsorship opportunities, including the possiblity of exhibition space, there are several in-kind sponsorship opportunites available, particularly in the areas of audio-video services and internet services, including internet access, web-casting and web-page development. Please contact Robert Hettinga,<mailto: raht_private> if you're interested in in-kind or direct sponsorship of the Symposium. THE DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT EMAIL LIST: DBSt_private As part of Philodox's ongoing support of the technology of digital bearer settlement, an email list has been established to discuss the technology and it's ramifications in an unmoderated, informal setting. Please see <http://www.philodox.com/dbs-archive/> to see the initial archives of the Digital Bearer Settlement discussion list, and, use the following URL in any mailto capable browser to subscribe to the list itself: <mailto:requestst_private?subject=subscribe%20dbs>. It is hoped that the Symposium's participants will use dbst_private as a "watering hole" list for their discussions before, during, and after the Symposium. WHO IS PHILODOX? Philodox is a new financial technology evangelism company founded by Robert Hettinga, founder of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, and founding moderator and editor of several internet discussion lists and newsletters on digital commerce and financial cryptography. Mr Hettinga is also founder of both the International Conference on Financial Cryptography, and the International Financial Cryptography Association. For more information on Philodox, please see <http://www.philodox.com>. See you soon in Boston! Cordially, Robert Hettinga Founder, Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism Boston, Massachusetts The Philodox Symposium on Digital Bearer Transaction Settlement is sponsored in part by the Internet Guide Service Inc., <mailto: esjt_private>, and their generous contribution of conference internet access services. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.5.5 iQEVAwUBNZffoMUCGwxmWcHhAQEnYAf/bNgewO1yZRzjT3G120zFGevIbsElnK44 Uq6PSSaMYicpIQp06zEYfoGgnENUGdf82/BEnBFY87u7WszRu7HXjBGAlLLbK5ha UVDtWDav9EnwL0cVmxYAu0IzHvUos/4QfpIY7phFP10ntPaOZcFHQIpomGZg8eK2 tgtnH+rYeIPEVTfJ/VSl0fWbYrTZMiJbqgf1fWcCWeCuoipF5Zz2gwdiwkWzGQYb v0qJz908c17H9dV1pwiotnhrXtUE4FkrsTxUa+5cgLZeErDfWoo0NFGtBffdrfWH hZmt+HRKzlf3JgmOfzMkRnKsF4FinKAIdqPNHG7wBdsz069dfgCi3g== =YASW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -o- Subscribe: mail majordomot_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
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