I-Wat

= Japanese energy-based currency system[1]

URL = http://www.watsystems.net/ [2]

Description

"The WAT-system is a system of complementary currencies designed by Mr. Eiichi Morino, the founder of Gesell Research Society Japan. In the WAT-system, individuals can draw WAT-tickets, which resemble bills of exchange, and circulate goods or services provided by others.

i-WAT is a system of complementary currencies. It is cooperative, distributed and autonomous; there is no central bank or coordinator. Anyone can spontaneously start trades in i-WAT if they just install the software.

Using i-WAT, you can easily establish barter relationships by drawing new i-WAT tickets, which look like an electronic version of bills of exchange, or using existing tickets you have obtained from others. i-WAT complements human relationships, which tend to be overlooked in the economy as a form of thrifty management of money, by building the network of confidence. i-WAT is "a new medium to connect human beings".

The features include:

• i-WAT is a digitized version of the WAT core, the basic part of the WAT-system, so that it can be used on the computer networks such as the Internet.

• Just like the "classic" WAT-system, you can derive new currencies that fit the objectives and needs of a community by defining extended parts.

• i-WAT is a free software. It is freely usable, modifiable and distributable as stated by GNU GPL1."

(http://www.media-art-online.org/iwat/help/about.html.en)

More Information

1. Kenji Saito, i-WAT: The Internet WAT System -- An Architecture for Maintaining Trust and Facilitating Peer-to-Peer Barter Relationships --, Ph.D. Thesis, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, February, 2006
2. Kenji Saito, Peer-to-Peer Money: Free Currency over the Internet, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Human.Society@Internet (HSI 2003), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2713, June, 2003, pp.404-414 (Springer Publications)

see also the full range of technical publications by Kenji Saito and Eiichi Morino at http://www.media-art-online.org/iwat/research/papers.html.en