XML-X arose out of the digital gold currency world (DGCs). In this microcosm of the net an Issuer provides a payment system for transferring gold from one user to user.
To put the development of XML-X into the context of the DGC world, Ian Grigg wrote the following four part rant.
This rant was originally posted using the name of the time, XML/X. They are presented here using the current name of XML-X for consistency. Other slight changes for consistency have been made.
Part I describes the basic Spend or Transfer primitive in an XML request. Why did we need to create this XML interface for doing payments? Two reasons:
The existing interfaces were not good enough, and
we needed an interface for all merchants to adopt.
It's that last thing that matters most. Why do DGCs want to ask merchants to implement a special interface, just to take their money?
Part II describes how we came about to expand the basic transfer mechanism into a complete front-end to back-end protocol. And, why this was significant, of course.
Governance, as discussed in Part III , sucks. Mostly, it sucks because many DGCs out there have poor control over the digital issuance. How is this? Well, because the server that handles the transactions is the weak link.
XML-X to the rescue! Part IV tells how we can make a material difference to governance in DGCs by separating the "server" into two components: A strong digital cash issuance system with server governance built in, and a user-friendly server system that can also monitor the issuance server on the users' behalf.