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Examples

Replicating accounts will have endless uses. This website will look in depth at three that are illustrative and could be particularly important.

Example: Immediate, Accountable Fundraising

a. One way to use RepliCounts for fundraising would be to get artists to donate some or all of the online revenue from a particular work -- perhaps all the revenue from sponsorships sold by members of the charity or other recipient organization (helping the cause or charity, while giving the artist promotion at no cost). Replicating accounts can each inherit well-tested machinery for keeping track of these sponsorships, turning over money immediately, and reporting results to the recipient, and/or to the public.

For example, when a (volunteer or professional) fundraiser receives a significant sponsorship, either the sponsor, the individual who asked for the money, or the recipient organization's accounting operation could check a public Web site showing a thermometer or other indicator of money raised so far. A click would re-display the thermometer as a bar graph of individual contributions, organized by date and time. While the donor's name might be private, anyone involved could check that the exact sum expected was received at the time the sponsor's bankcard or other payment was processed.

If the RepliCounts system charges 0.5% of all money handled (which we think is a reasonable ballpark), then 99.5% of the contribution will reach the charity. Donors (sponsors) will know that their money is available for immediate use, seconds after the donation/sponsorship becomes final.

b. RepliCounts could also provide services to organize fundraising contests or games -- instantly crediting each donation to the correct individual and team of fundraisers, while updating the campaign's thermometer or other measures of success. We like the "fundathon" idea -- instead of the walking, biking, bar crawls, and other diversions, focus volunteers' attention on raising money, the more the better. The team that raises the most by the end of a round wins that round. Clearly a winning strategy will likely involve developing relationships ahead of time with potential major donors. Various excellence could be recognized: top team or teams in whole the game (all rounds), top team in each round, top individual fundraisers, etc. Note that the different teams could be raising money for the same cause -- or for different, or even rival or bitterly opposed causes. Such games might get media attention, including the sports pages, with proper promotion, cultivation of celebrities, etc. Unlike conventional sports, this "fundathon" includes public participation. Anyone can jump in, wherever in the world they are, and the public can totally change the outcome of the game. Doing so will raise much more money for the cause(s), of course.

For more info, see Fundraising.

Example: Spam Control (Using Online Payment Without Encryption)

We noted above that in two of these three examples, RepliCounts are used only to receive money, not to spend it. This one is the exception.

Spam Control by Setting a Price: Despite the AOL disaster with charging for email, there is a way to do it right. For starters, the recipient should be able to set any price he or she wants to receive an email -- and keep almost all of the money. And this price should apply only to special emails that users may set up for this purpose -- not to email systems that people are already using.

Usually there is little spam problem with email only used privately within a small group. Problems happen when somebody wants to be available to large groups, strangers, or the general public -- but not for ads for sex products, gambling, stock scams, quack remedies, etc. Charging five cents or 10 cents a message would stop almost all of these. Any email that arrives without payment would bounce, and the addressee would never see it.

How would this work in practice?

First, a company would offer a premium email service for whoever wanted such an address, preferably at a memorable domain name that signals premium email to the public.

Then, anyone who wanted a public contact address not choked with spam could get one, free or at a small charge. They could choose a price per email received -- perhaps 5 cents to stop spam (or 25 cents to stop certain crazies as well). Or celebrities might charge $25, for which they might guarantee, say, at least 5 minutes of their time; they could also choose reject the offer if they found it distasteful, automatically returning part of the money. Then anyone with a serious business proposal (or with an obsession) could bring it to the attention of someone in the public eye who chooses to be available this way -- quicker and more easily than finding a back door channel. (The company could offer validated celebrity accounts, like Twitter does, to avoid imposters.)

How Does Account Replication Help?

Account replication allows easy transfer of small amounts of money by unprotected email.

RepliCounts will normally include a payee list -- meaning that the account can only pay other RepliCounts on that list. In this case, the email service provider will generate a unique RepliCount for each new customer -- and allow it to only pay the service provider. That account name (which might be a 10-or-so-digit number, or might be a unique name suggested by the email sender) would only need to be included somewhere in, say, the email title, signature, or first few lines, marked by a short code (such as $, or **). When the email arrives at the premium email provider, the code is charged; the email bounces with an explanation if a RepliCount (the code) is not found, or not charged successfully.

If the code is stolen, it could only pay the premium email provider; essentially this means that no one but certain spammers could use it. The owner of the RepliCount (the email sender) could set unpublished limits (like not more than $1 per day), and the transaction would not go through (and the account could be suspended) if a limit is exceeded. If the use was unauthorized, the sender could request a replacement RepliCount holding the remaining value. Total loss, $1 -- in the unlikely event that spammers intercepted private email and wanted to send 20 spams to premium email accounts. It wouldn't be worth their time.

For more info, see Spam Control and More.

Example: Instant Spot Consulting

Specialized consultants might use the same email system -- but set a price such as $50 for 15 minutes of their best effort to answer a question or provide advice. There would also be a reputation system run by the premium-email company, in which people who actually paid could rate their satisfaction with the consultant.

Then companies that run into a problem outside their focus area could get a quick take from a national or world authority -- immediately and cheaply, without the usual overhead of contracting with the consultant. Since these consultants would be specialists, they could check off the most relevant Web links or boilerplate, with optional annotations, to accompany their overall take on the situation.

Of course the premium email service could offer its consultants and other customers a public listing if they wanted one.

Celebrities

Occasionally celebrities or heroes down on their luck could make a living just by receiving email.

End Users

Anyone who wanted to send email of to someone with a premium address could open an account with the email service, and fund it with a bankcard, PayPal, check, or otherwise. For example, $5 in the account would send 100 emails to people who charged 5 cents. The recipient could also whitelist someone for further correspondence, making 5 cents the total cost to the sender for the whole conversation. Five cents will usually stop spam; and $5 could go a long way for the sender, allowing him or her to reach 100 strangers immediately through the spam barriers on their public email addresses. Having the 100 email bounce first for whitelisting would be less convenient for both parties. And the small paystep (it's hardly a paywall) allows additional options, like premium addresses that get more attention or at least get checked more often.

Page updated 2010-04-02