I agree with your analysis @Anders, but not:
Then it’s just like the name squatting problem again.
Squatting would block only a small part of the ID space per account, so to cover a large part (necessary to create a market for squatted names) would require very large numbers of accounts to be created.
Someone could do some maths in this, but my feeling is that at $.50 per account, and two or three names per account name squatting just won’t be viable.
It does mean that common names are likely to be blocked by legitimate users though, and over time less common ones too. So that problem remains, but that’s not half so bad IMO as people making a business model out if it, which only makes the problem worse.
Seems like a good compromise, but maybe we can improve it… Ideas? 