P2P Energy Economy

A proposal by Marc Fawzi:

Description

P2P Social Currency Model Description (Relevant Parts Only)

Premise

Money is one of the foundational elements of society.

Changing how money is created and used will change society.

Context

The "P2P Social Currency" as it's defined here is an ambitious idea, or "thought model," for what we may end up with in 20 years from now, not a plan for today. Its goal is to stimulate and challenge people to think different.

The idea is to get this model vetted by all willing brains out there and then test the model as a game with human players.

Model's Scope

This model does not attempt to change the nature of money itself. What it attempts to do is to change the nature of the system (or the 'environment') for the creation and use of money, which changes how money behaves, and which in turn changes the nature of system (or the 'environment'), while keeping the nature of money the same, i.e. as a neutral carrier of power and information, and while raising the value and the utility of the information carried by money by simply making such information explicit.

Model's Axioms

1. Money is a carrier of both power and information, and as such it transfers both power and information in every transaction.

2. Most people agree on what's good for society, e.g. less toxins in food, more generosity, less selfishness, etc

3. Enough people will exercise socially conscious judgment when given the opportunity.

Model's Propositions

The following are the main propositions of this model:

1. Enable a lending system that rewards lender, without charging interest to borrower, and that motivates lenders to become producers of goods and services. This is achieved by moving from a time value of money to a peer production value of money. Peer credits accumulated through lending are convertible to monetary reward (for those lending peers who also happen to be producers of goods and services) by having the peers with most credit point rank higher as sellers of goods and services. The peer credits accumulated by a given peer (through lending) are also used to determine how much money they can borrow (see Peer Credits sections.)

2. Direct the flow of money towards socially conscious producers of goods and services. This is done using the Affinity Matrix (see Affinity Matrix for P2P Trading)

3. Democratize money creation by tying it to peer energy production, such that those who produce energy locally (from natural, abundant sources like solar and wind) and feed the extra energy they don't need into the common grid (or Peer Grid) get the then-equivalent in P2P currency (or Peer Dollars) from the central bank (or Peer Bank), which is a distributed electric utility provider that is entirely fed by excess energy production from individual peers, and which can dispense new currency (in sync with economic growth) in return for energy generated by peers as well as simply act as a monetary hub for p2p energy transactions.

4. Make available cheap and abundant renewable energy which should enable the production of more goods and services (i.e. higher productivity) and drive economic growth.

Affinity Matrix for P2P Trading

The Affinity Matrix allows the explicit definition of a multidimensional value system, or set of criteria that represent the buyer's social, ecological and economic values as applicable to the seller, the product or service (i.e. the 'thing') and the given transaction.

The value system is 3-dimensional and consists of seller's values, thing's values and transaction's values.

The affinity matrix applies only to goods and services. These do not include money because you shouldn't be able to buy money with money as that would be equal to 'interest.' They also do not include or energy, except where the consumer cannot tap into Peer Grid and is forced to buy energy directly from another peer. The reason energy is not considered a general service is because the price of energy and the rate at which a peer is allowed to turn into energy into money must be regulated (dynamically, with respect to demand/supply and the cost of energy production) for this model to work properly, and the only way to regulate the price is to have Peer Bank act as the financial hub for the sale of energy by one peer to another. When that's not possible, i.e. when the consumer cannot access Peer Grid, they may pay higher price for energy, so those cases need to be minimized. In other words, everyone should have the ability to tap into Peer Grid, regardless of their location.

The buyer's multidimensional value system which can be applied as a selection filter/criteria for the seller, the product or service, and the transaction, is programmable into the money for each transaction. This way, the buyer's multidimensional value system becomes represented as explicit information carried by the money, which includes the numerical value of money to be exchanged. This information, with the exception of the numerical value of the money, goes to blank state after money has been transferred from the buyer to the seller, which allows for the programming and transmission of new information.

Money can be programmed with the buyer's multidimensional value system (which is applied to the seller, the thing being purchased, and the transaction itself) but only when the money is being stored for specific future transaction, or when preparing a transaction to buy something, or when transmitting a transaction to some middle man, who can then modify the buyer's multidimensional value system, as agreeable to buyer, to negotiate and execute the transaction.

The reason the affinity matrix is unidirectional from buyer to seller is because the buyer holds money and the seller holds goods and/or services. Money carries the power (see Model's Axioms), so in any given transaction, the one holding the money gets to decide. This model does not recognize power in the context of a transaction other than the power carried in the currency. Having said that, there can be a law (outside this model) that forbids the buyer from discriminating against the seller based on race, country, etc."

Related Links

Complementary Currency Software

P2P Exchange Infrastructure Projects