Echo Trees
Incentive Routing
A brief overview of a data structure that facilitates the exchange of micro-payments for file/payment transfers in an ad-hoc environment.
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Ichthys and Friends, Under the Shining Sun
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Data Structure
When an individual wants to transfer a file/payment to a recipient, or add a fee to a file/payment for acting as a courier, the individual will create an echo. The echo is the entity that contains the meta-data for the file/payment transfer.
Echo:
1) Parent ID
2) ID
3) Status (Receipt, Payment, or Fee)
4) Recipient
5) Value
6) File (optional)
The individual will specify the ID of the echo they want to add the new echo to. The parent echo may have a number of echoes that refer to it. These are the parent’s children, and the new echo’s siblings. All echoes descend from a single seed where the Parent ID = ID. A chain of echoes from the new echo to the seed is the echo’s heritage. The ID must be unique.
The status of an echo reflects whether it or one of its parents has been received and signed. An echo that has been signed by the recipient is a receipt, an echo that has not yet been signed, but has a signed parent, is a payment, all others are fees.
The value specifies the claim against the parent’s value. The value of an echo’s children cannot exceed the value of the parent.
Algorithms
Initiating a file/payment transfer:
Individuals holding a payment addressed to themselves can use this payment to initiate a file/payment transfer. The holder will add a fee (which may include a file) that is directed to a recipient to a self-addressed payment. The self-addressed payment is then signed, elevating the self-addressed payment to a receipt, and the added fee to a payment. Another fee is added to this new payment, addressed to the recipient, claiming a portion of the payment’s value. The remaining value is left available to couriers to transfer the file/payment to the recipient. The payment’s heritage, fees and files are then shared with couriers.
Acting as courier:
Individuals acting as couriers can add a fee to a payment, specifying themselves as the recipient, claiming a portion of the payment’s value. When the payment and fees make their way to the recipient (via other couriers,) the recipient will sign the payment, elevating the payment to receipt, and the fees to payments, which are then placed on the network and make their way to the couriers in the same manner.
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