I'm here... so its fair to assume I support the ideas of VRM. But to me the core isn't about privacy... though that's very, very important.
For me the core of VRM is about power. And how to ensure the capability of the individual to respond to a landscape that has evolved... and continues to evolve in ways that concentrate that power in narrow hands and a few institutions.
I also believe its this broader political issue involving the individual vs centralized institutions (whether government or private) that offers solution. This is the issue that unites OWS, the Tea Party and I suspect quite a few more... and around the world.
People simply aren't pissed-off enough about Google ads or an X-box silo... they DO offer SOME benefits... and the perils.... though real... aren't immediately felt... and the perverted directions they may take may not appear for many years. (and they are truly dire if ignored)...
BUT people ARE pissed about feeling left out and cheated.... that's the middle class, the poor, women , students... both here and elsewhere.
There's a general feeling that all the productivity gains in the last several decades went to the top.... and THAT pisses people off.
And THAT'S connected to VRM!!! (the weakness of labor in the political sphere is all about the destruction of their tools for response... and frankly the Ayn Rand wool that's been pulled over their eyes by neoliberals.)
This connection must and can be made.
Privacy's importance is inversely correlated to the level of control a person feels between him or herself and his/her social organism. Its an issue arising with scale. Hunter-gatherer's had less privacy... but they had more awareness of the 'secrets' of their fellow... and power within the group to respond to felt intrusions.
Sooner or later I have to believe it will be realized that solutions (imperfect though they may be) must lie in the creation of a public component of the Internet landscape which is tied to a fundamental of human interaction within this landscape.
Mechanisms of transaction are landscape fundamentals (like roads). It remains clear to me that there are few paths left to correct the faulty evolution in both transaction and currencies except that fortuitous chance offered by the still unmet needs of the micropayment outside of closed ecosystems.
What I"m suggesting is that the same natural forces of concentration (not a total concentration but nearly so... and for unavoidable reasons)... that have come to certain areas of this now substantially privatized landscape be used to create a different model for at least one of these natural unifications.
Sooner-or-later this is going to be figured out. I hope before its too late. The micropayment is key to the creation of a much needed Internet public institution.
P.S. If anyone knows Lawrence Lessig... please tell him that the quickest and surest way to public finance of elections and general election reform... is to give people a way to voice their support for limits and transparency... as well as retaining a means to better equalize the opportunities for advocacy