This is the formal papers page for Ian Grigg. Each of these has been published in some formal sense, either in a journal, at a conference or similar. Sorted in most recent first.

• Ian Grigg An Open Audit of an Open Certification Authority

  Abstract. How does a lightweight community Certification Authority ("CA") engage in the heavyweight world of PKI and secure browsing? This talk tracks the systems audit of CAcert, an open-membership CA, as a case study in auditing versus the open Internet, community versus professionalism, quality versus enthusiasm. It will walk through the background of "what, why, wherefore an audit," look at how CAcert found itself at this point, and then walk through some big ticket items: risks/liabilities/obligations; assurance and what's in a name; disputes and reliance; and systems and security. Can CAcert deliver on its goal of free certs? The audit is into its 3rd year as of this writing; and remains incomplete. Some parts are going well, and other parts are not; by the end of the year 2008, we should be able to check all of the important areas, or rethink the process completely. Hence, finally, the talk will close with progress and status, and recommendations for the future.

  Presented as an invited talk at the 22nd Large Installation Systems Administration Conference (LISA 2008) 13th November 2008. Above is HTML with slides embedded within; also available are the slides in extracted form. See also the CAcert and the audit page.

• Ian Grigg The Ricardian Contract

  Abstract. Describing digital value for payment systems is not a trivial task. Simplistic methods of using numbers or country codes to describe currencies, and ticker tape symbols to issue bonds, shares, and other financial instruments soon run into shortcomings in their ability to handle dynamic and divergent demands. The seemingly arbitrary variations in the meanings of different instruments are best captured as contracts between issuers and holders. Thus, the digital issuance of instruments can be viewed as the issuance of contracts. This paper proposes that the contract is the issue. A document form is described that encompasses the inherent contractual nature of the financial instrument yet copes with the requirements of being an integral part of a payment system.

  Kindly presented by Mark Miller at First IEEE International Workshop on Electronic Contracting, (WEC) 6th July 2004. Above is HTML, original submitted in multicolumn DOC form. also available is PS. See also the WebFunds' developer's notes.

• James Nesfield and Ian Grigg Mutual Funds and Financial Flaws

  Abstract. Mutual funds are vulnerable to abuses involving market timing and late trading. Primarily, this is due to a failure of governance, and the delayed nature of settlement of both payments and transfers. This vulnerability is only exploited over time, through a progression of small steps that, individually, raise no alarm, but in sum, cross the line of acceptable behaviour. Solutions to the abuses will be found not in more regulation, but in open governance and a move towards real time gross settlement.

  This paper was submitted as testimony to the U.S. Senate's finance subcommittee during hearings on the mutual funds scandal , 27th January 2004. Above is HTML, original submitted in PDF form (local and also senate copy), also available is PS.

• Ian Grigg Financial Cryptography in 7 Layers

  I seek to reduce complexity by presenting Financial Cryptography in a 7 layer model. This model separates the field into distinct disciplines of Finance, Value, Governance, Accounting, Rights, Software Engineering, and Cryptography. I also present Systemics' Ricardo system in the light of this model, as an example.

  The paper was presented at Financial Cryptography 2000 (FC00) and was originally published in the Proceedings of Financial Cryptography Fourth International Conference, FC 2000 Anguilla, British West Indies, February 21-24, 2000, Springer-Verlag LNCS 1962. Here is the postscript.

• Ian Grigg Digital Trading

  I survey the current state of the art in digital trading and brokerages. I also document some of Systemics' experiences in digital certificate trading, and draw the conclusion that future trading will be open and costless. This predicted future may not come pass, but it will serve as a benchmark for the financial world as it enters into an era of rapid and dramatic structural change.

  It was presented at the first Digital Money conference, London, October 1997, and appeared in the November 1997 issue of Virtual Finance Report . Here is the postscript.

• Ian Grigg and C Petro Using Electronic Markets to Achieve Efficient Task Distribution

  This is our controversial proposal to automate the division and distribution of labour. Where Marx has failed, Markets can succeed! By allocating ownership of software projects as fungible units, we seek to use digital value systems to assist in raising funds for open source software.

  It was presented at Financial Cryptography 1997 (FC97) and was originally published in the Proceedings of Financial Cryptography First International Conference, FC'97 Anguilla, British West Indies, February 1997. Springer-Verlag LNCS 1318. Here is the postscript.

• Ian Grigg, Critique on the 1994 EU Report on Prepaid Cards

  A viewpoint on what's happening in the European Internet Cash policy arena, and why it represents a bad move for Europe.

  published in The Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce , Vol 2, Num 2 March 1997. For more information on the European debate, see my Money Page. Here is the postscript.

• Ian Grigg, The Effect of Internet Value Transfer Systems on Monetary Policy

  Argues that, in actuality, Internet cash issuance will not be a strong force, neither against the tools of monetary policy, nor for its own mercantile purposes. Three models are used: Fractional banking, Baumol-Tobin, and potential participancy.

  This paper was written in April-June 1996 as primary assessment for Professor Michael Kuczynski's International Financial Systems elective in the London's MBA programme. As it was a hot topic at the time, and this was only the second paper on the subject, I published it on the web. Here is the postscript.

There are a number of draft papers that may one day make it to completion. Also see the Financial Cryptography Blog my Money Page for the various older reports and links on electronic money, and the new Advances in Financial Cryptography peer-review circle for current thought expressed in working and draft papers.

All of these papers were prepared and published under the influence of Systemics, a builder of Financial Cryptography tools and applications.