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Smart-Accounts:
Introduction and Purpose

(1) Artists: This site describes a way to help artists get paid for online work without needing to be a superstar or celebrity first. Basically it allows mass sponsorships -- letting anybody, anywhere in the world, sponsor as much or as little as they want of a song, video, or other particular artwork or collection, any time they are in the mood to do so; and they can be recognized for their contribution in proportion to its amount, if they want to be. Sponsors (anyone) can use this recognition not only to say who they are, but also to promote whatever they choose -- an art movement, cause, philosophy, business, product for sale, etc. -- through existing or new social networks they choose. Each sponsorship will create gifts (of art that otherwise would cost money), benefitting the social networks the sponsor chooses, while both paying and promoting the artists as well. Meanwhile, the sponsor can reach through social networks to an audience defined by interest in a particular song, image, or other content -- an audience that may be difficult or impossible to reach otherwise. And almost all end users will download the art or other content entirely free, and with no registration or login hassle, or need for any account or any instruction -- provided that a sponsorship containing at least one prepaid download is currently available.

(2) Money: This design uses a completely new way of managing money, which could never have worked until the recent spread of e-commerce. The modern online environment makes it possible for financial accounts to reproduce (creating "children" accounts and family trees). These new accounts can inherit setup for dozens or hundreds of services from their parent account -- instantly and effortlessly, just by being born. Successive owners' changes will be inherited as well, allowing these accounts to evolve in practical, community use, toward becoming more attractive to people.

(3) Security: The ability to create and destroy many new accounts easily will open doors to unusual security features, creating new tradeoffs between convenience and security. For example, an account could exist for only one transaction, after which it closes itself forever and automatically returns any remaining money to its owner. Or accounts could be restricted to an open or secret list of designated payees -- or simply hold too little money to steal. More interestingly, we show how an account can take the form of a "smart URL" that can be openly distributed or published, even if it has hundreds of dollars of art sponsorships in it -- and can travel through social networks around the world, in multiple copies, doing business independently for the artist(s) who own it, as long as it can connect with an interested public. People will be encouraged to share -- and legitimate free copies that do pay the artist(s) will greatly reduce the "piracy" issue.

(4) Status: This design is not just a research direction but is ready to go. It could run entirely on a server and be compatible with just about all browsers and operating systems (even touch-tone landline phones, for some purposes). We are committed to free and open-source development of the ideas, and are looking for people to work with on the next big step, building a proof-of-principle system that could support small-scale testing worldwide.

See our Summary for more information.

2008-06-30, John S. James, Philadelphia PA