OWS Currency
We're deploying an alternative currency system for participants at Occupy Wall Street. This page is to discuss logistics and design.
The design competition is on OWS currency competition
Introduction
Our monetary system is extremely proprietary. Not only are the technologies used to create, utilize and manage money extremely restricted through patents, copyrights, trade secrets and licensing, but the Federal Government has granted a single private bank a monopoly on the production of legal tender. No wonder there's a lack of capital in the markets!
Our mission is to produce free/libre/opensource technologies that help people create their own alternatives to the Federal Reserve Note and the system upon which it derives it's strength. Achieving this doesn't require us to document how the current system works, although that would be extremely useful. It simply requires us to construct an alternative system that does a superior job meeting people's needs. Occupy Wall Street and subsequent occupations prove that the people are eager for a new system. Let's help them build it.
Tools
i-WAT is a cryptographic circular/multi-party barter software licensed under the GPL and uses PGP encryption. Tickets/IOUS are defined by users with their own value units of exchange. It does not rely on membership to a currency circle, in the sense that it does not require everyone to exchange numerical amounts of coins/cash units, but the labeled items/objects/subjects of the barter transaction. http://www.media-art-online.org/iwat/ http://www.media-art-online.org/wija/download.html Instruction Manual: Neo_in_Wonderland
Other software (circular barter exchange): https://www.multiswap.net/about/
PermaBank
PermaBank.cc is a Drupal-based exchange platform built in support of Occupy Wall Street by members of the FLO Solutions Working Group of the NYCGA and others. The premise of PermaBank is to develop and deploy a set of technologies that align 'financial services' with the principles of permaculture.
Features
Gifts/Wishes
PermaBank.cc will launch with the ability for individuals and groups to post their wish/requests and gifts/offers and indicate whether they've been completed. The primary impetus behind this feature is to enhance the efficiency of the gifting culture that currently exists within Liberty Plaza.
Mutual (Multi?) Credit
Mutual credit systems allow people to create credit/debt to record their exchanges with one another. A popular example of mutual credit is time banking. When one person serves another for an hour, a credit is created for the provider and deducted from the customer. The net balance of all credits amounts to zero, enabling the system to work operate without a central authority.
We're considering whether or not we want give users the ability to create different types of mutual credits. In this instance, people could create different credits for different types of work. For example, someone who knits sweaters could earn crafting credits and exchange them with a doctor who earns medical credits. This might allow us to transcend the debate in the timebanking community about whether or not everyone's hours should be worth the same amount of credits.
Asset-Backed Notes
The General Assembly receives a tremendous amount of donations in goods, services and legal tender. The gifting platform will allow the GA to articulate precisely what goods and service they want donated, eliminating waste and enabling more efficient gifting to take place. The issue with donations of legal tender (aka USD) is more problematic. The USD is a monopolized currency that's designed to benefit those with connections to the central banking establish and penalize those without those connections. Many people within the Occupation Movement view the widespread use of USD as a primary problem within our economy. How can the GA use USD's without encouraging their circulation.
One possible solution is for the GA to purchase productive assets with the legal tender it receives, "unitize" the asset's production, and issue notes redeemable for those units.
A simple configuration:
- GA receives $10,000
- GA places $10,000 into it's online store.
- GA issues 10,000 notes and gives those notes to working groups.
- Working groups can trade those notes with anyone who accepts them
- Anyone can use notes to purchase USD from the store.
- The more groups use the notes instead of the cash, the more value is generated with that $10,000s.
A more complicated configuration:
- GA receives $10,000
- GA purchases 2 acres of land with $5,000 and puts $5000 into the store.
- GA issues 5,000 notes.
- GA offers notes to people who cultivate the land and make it productive.
- People who receive those notes can purchase USD and other products in the store.
- As the land becomes productive, a portion of it is placed into the GA's store.
- The GA can issue more notes because the have more redeemable value in their store.
of goods and services is only problematic in their misall addressed by the gifting toolset, allowing the GA to request things in a clearer, more effective manner. The gift of legal tender is more complicated because the GA and the Occupy movement is generally
The General Assembly can issue 'notes' to reward people who perform tasks. These notes can be redeemed through a general store (online), affiliated stores (online/offline) and through media (offline.) Ideally we'd use a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin for these transactions.
- Loyalty Points >> Rewards
We're organizing with a credit union to issue a credit card that gives people reserve notes as a reward for transacting with specific vendors. Similar to BernalBucks.