Commodity¶

A commodity is something that represents value. Usually these are currencies - like Euros or US Dollars - but they can also be things like property deeds, votes or shares in a company. Every bank_ can hold any commodity. Commodities come into existence when someone decides to become an issuer_ and issues it onto the network. To use a particular commodity like Euros, you’d use its commodityTag.

Commodity Tag¶

Commodities are neatly organised into groups to help clearly see what it is. They must always be lowercase - For example, ‘currency.usd’ is the US Dollar. ‘shares.nyse.goog’ refers to shares of Google on the New York Stock Exchange.

Claiming Tags¶

Tags form a ‘tree’ of possible options. Note that tags are intended to be free. Claiming a sub-tag depends on the upper level tags properties; some such as ‘currency’ are restricted. Claiming a new ‘top level’ tag is restricted by default. Consider the following examples:

‘currency’ is a top-level tag. It’s claimed by the network and is restricted; this is because the network wants the central bank of their currency to claim their tag.
‘currency.gbp’ is a sub-tag of ‘currency’. Whoever wishes to claim this has to send the claim to the owner of ‘currency’, unless it is unrestricted.
‘shares’ is also a top-level tag. This one is restricted to known stock markets and Governments.
The London Stock Exchange may claim, for example, ‘shares.lse’. Sub-tags such as ‘shares.lse.ba’ representing British Airways are automatically assumed to be owned by the parent LSE issuer, unless there is a more specific tag.

Standard Top-Level Tags¶

The proposed main top-level tags are listed here. An up-to-date version can be obtained from the network using the Root API.

:currency: Fiat currencies such as GBP or USD. Example: ‘currency.gbp’
:substance: Physical substances such as gold, silver, oil or plastics. Example: ‘substance.plastic.pete’
:voucher: Unrestricted. Represents any form of redeemable voucher/ gift card. Used when the receiving username is unknown or a physical gift is wanted. Example: ‘voucher.itunes.currency.gbp’ represents a pound sterling iTunes voucher. If the user requests for, for example, ‘voucher.itunes’ their preferred currency is appended onto the end (provided the voucher issuer has a sub-tag which matches). The merchant then simply accepts ‘voucher.itunes’ as well as ‘currency’.
:stock: Shares in a public or private company. Example: ‘stock.lse.ba’
:shares: Forwarder to ‘stock’. Example: ‘shares.lse.ba’
:land: Physial land. For some futuristic optimism, this is actually organised by planet. Example: ‘land.e.warwks.81920’ representing a particular plot in Earth/Warwickshire (UK). More information on the plot itself is obtained through the Issuer API. If authoritive districts change, forwarders are simply added.
:ip: Intellectual property. Example: ‘ip.tm.ukipo.11827’ representing a trademark filed at the UK IPO.
:vote: Any form of user vote, political, corporate etc. Example: ‘vote.election.us.2016’ representing a vote in a US Election. (A vote is placed by transferring it to the selected option, each of which has it’s own address). Note: This inherently leaks unwanted information; a Government could figure out who voted for what. More design work, namely ‘anonymous issuing’, is required for this tag to work as intended.
:virt: Virtual versions of all tags. Unrestricted. All top-level tags are also registered as sub-tags here. Example: ‘virt.land.gt.91082’ represents virtual land in an online game.
:x: Unrestricted open-to-all tag designated for testing purposes. All top-level tags are also registered as sub-tags here, for example, ‘x.currency’.