Re:The optimal amount of fraud is non-zero
by jasode on Saturday September 03, 2022 @11:27AM
(#32702765)
>Taken in isolation, the optimal amount is clearly zero.
But the very point of the article is to not take zero-fraud in isolation and instead, explain how non-zero-fraud is an unavoidable tradeoff when balancing 2 simultaneous goals:
- (1) prevent fraud transactions as much as practically possible
- (2) make legitimate transactions as easy as possible
If one accepts the premise of pursuing those 2 goals at the same time, then by definition, we're no longer talking about "in isolation". You've now unavoidably entered non-zero fraud territory.
Perhaps it's the author's particular wordsmithing of what he's trying to convey that just rubs many readers the wrong way.
But the very point of the article is to not take zero-fraud in isolation and instead, explain how non-zero-fraud is an unavoidable tradeoff when balancing 2 simultaneous goals:
- (1) prevent fraud transactions as much as practically possible
- (2) make legitimate transactions as easy as possible
If one accepts the premise of pursuing those 2 goals at the same time, then by definition, we're no longer talking about "in isolation". You've now unavoidably entered non-zero fraud territory.
Perhaps it's the author's particular wordsmithing of what he's trying to convey that just rubs many readers the wrong way.