This section's theme are generally the monetary aspects of P2P trends, and more specifically, aspects of monetary reform, that aim to make the monetary system into a participatory resource that more broadly benefits larger sectors of the world population.

Never forget: human and social wealth is never reducible to its translation in money, see the Wealth Typology.

Introduction

The P2P Foundation supports the direct social production of money, such as for example through Open Money and other P2P Exchange Infrastructure Projects systems. This marvellous presentation by Robin Upton explains how this can work.

Introductory Articles

1. Read this excellent introduction to the negative role of interest-based money by Charles Eisenstein
2. Best current report on the topic: Creating New Money: A monetary reform for the information age. By Joseph Huber & James Robertson. New Economics Foundation
3. Arthur Brock: Differences between Open Source and Open Currencies
4. Kevin Carson introduces the Peer Money debates
5. Michel Bauwens on the Importance of Peer Money

Hot Topics:

1. WIR Economic Circle Cooperative: this 70-old Swiss mutual credit clearing system is getting traction as a model for the rest of Europe
2. The creation of the Open Source Hardware Reserve Bank. Details here
3. The Metacurrency Project: the tci/ip platform for diverse currency creation
4. The Swedish interest-free Jak Bank [1]

Goals:

1. Better redistribution of the existing money
2. Transformation of the monetary system through the social production of money
3. Alternatives to money: Peer Production ; Gift Economy ; Sharing; and other ways to assist in a transition to a more Resource Based Economy through Peer to Peer Exchanges and P2P Exchange Infrastructure Projects

Citations

To survive and thrive, human systems *need* a not just a network view, but a multi-dimensional, multi-scaled view and definition of systems. this will help us see how many, many people can operate and multiply many forms of wealth within systems that previously seemed easily depletable. Peer networks are vital to creating the multi-dimensional maps and models and views that will allow all of us to see the cornacopia of options that now exist, provided we can shift out focus from exploitation and control, to existential symbiosis with everything that is around us, on as many scales as possible.

- Sam Rose

On Open Money

You treasure what you measure, and you measure what you treasure. Open money provides the tools to implement this maxim. What should we be treasuring in our culture and on our planet that we so far have no way to measure?

- Open Money [2]

Money is making a fundamental evolutionary step into community currencies. Conventional money as we know it has a built in architecture that leads to scarcity, centralization, concentration, secrecy, proprietarization. This conventional monetary system is not appropriate to dealing with today's global systemic challenges (harmonizing local and global needs, creating ecological sustainability, enabling the information economy, leveraging the open source paradigm, etc). Just as there are now millions of media outlets today, currencies will follow this same evolution by shifting from centralized authoritative models to distributed ones that allow better sustainability, distribution, transparency, and regulation mechanisms.

- Open Money [3]

Depression Economics

"During periods of so-called economic depression, societies suffer for want of all manner of essential goods, yet investigation almost invariably discloses that there are plenty of goods available. Plenty of coal in the ground, corn in the fields, wool on the sheep. What is missing is not materials but an abstract unit of measurement called ‘money.’

- Tom Robbins [4]

Leakages from the local economy

"Poor liquidity and leakage (money flowing from the local economy) are key causes for floundering and/or disappearing regional economies. To overcome these shortfalls local communities should be increasing local liquidity and plugging the leakage through the introduction of complementary community currencies thereby re-building their respective local communities in the coal mining area of Wales. When local residents within their respective communities changed the agreements they had about conventional money, by creating and spending complementary community currencies locally instead of spending only diminishing amounts of federal currency with giant corporations, it commenced re-birth in the local communities. Molly used the term local multiplier when she discussed how local liquidity increased proportionately to the amount of complementary community currency being circulated by those who were choosing to participate."

- (from a summary of) Molly Scott reporting on complementary currencies in Wales [5]

Aristotle on unnatural wealth

"There are two sorts of wealth-getting, as I have said; one is a part of household management, the other is retail trade: the former necessary and honorable, while that which consists in exchange is justly censured; for it is unnatural, and a mode by which men gain from one another. The most hated sort, and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural object of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And this term interest, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money because the offspring resembles the parent. Wherefore of all modes of getting wealth this is the most unnatural."

- Aristotle [6]

Introductory Material

1. Money is not the Only Value Measurement System . By Geoff Chesshire.
2. Why Peer to Peer Currencies will Grow
3. Bernard Lietaer: The Four-tiered Monetary System of the Future
4. In his landmark essay, Valuing the Ethical Economy, Adam Arvidsson explains why we need Wealth Acknowledgment Systems for the Ethical Circuit of Value
5. Must reading: Charles Eisenstein on Why Demurrage needs to replace interest (see the entry on Demurrage). Also: Money and the Crisis of Civilization on why the current crisis is also an endgame.
6. The case for open money. See also: Open Money Manifesto]
7. Ran Prieur: Fire vs. Water Economies, and the role of Demurrage in this tradition.
8. Essential theoretical and historical introduction to the long term history of money and debt, as rooted in social violence, by David Graeber at http://www.metamute.org/en/content/debt_the_first_five_thousand_years
9. Eric Harris-Braun on the necessary Difference between Multi-currency Platforms and Market Making Platforms
10. Thomas Greco: Why Exchange Alternatives Fail to Thrive

Also:

1. Rationale for Monetary Reform by Greg Martin.
2. Monetary Transformation, not Monetary Reform, is What is Needed. By Thomas Greco.
3. Why the Growth Imperative is Linked to our Monetary Format
4. Declaration Of The Universal Right Of Monetary Creation and the Open Money Manifesto
5. Peter Koenig's summaries on the History and Future of money
6. The Future of Money by Paul B. Hartzog
7. Capital, Profits, and Interest. Benjamin Tucker.
8. Chris Cook: a proposal for Open Capital

Key Resources

1. The Re-Inventing Money site, at http://reinventingmoney.com/
2. The Book: "Money; A Mirror Image Of The Economy" by Dr. J.W. Smith - full text at http://IED.info/books/money Applying Henry George’s philosophy across the economic spectrum transposes monopoly rent values into equally-shared use-values. Quality of life increases as working hours drop by half.
3. The consultancy: Value for People, helps local communities initiate complementary currencies

Key Blogs

Of key importance is the work by Eric Harris-Braun and friends on meta-currency platforms, see here

Also:

1. New Currency Frontiers: very thoughtful new money blog with Eric Harris-Braun and others working on the Metacurrency Project
2. Beyond Money: Thomas Greco's blog on monetary transformation and mutual credit
3. Evolution of Money
4. Open Source Currency
5. Coverage of social money trends in Guillaume's blog

Key Books

1. Future of Money. Bernard Lietaer.
2. Money and Magic
3. Money in an Unequal World
4. Money and Liberation. The Micropolitics of Alternative Currency Movements. Peter North. University of Minnesota Press, 2008
5. Interest and Inflation Free Money. Margrit Kennedy.

Guidebooks:

1. Community Currency Guide. Workbook by Bernard Lietaer

Also:

1. Monetary Theory
2. 30 Lies about Money

Key Concept Pages to read

1. Abundance vs. Scarcity and Monetary Scarcity vs. Monetary Sufficiency - Non-scarcity based monetary systems
2. Monetary Reform, Demurrage and Seigneurage, the Credit Commons
3. Wealth TypologyBecause we need Wealth Acknowledgment Systems for the Ethical Circuit of Value
4. Also read our more general page on Peer Property

Key Delicious Tags

1. Abundance, http://del.icio.us/mbauwens/Abundance
2. Complementary Currencies, http://del.icio.us/mbauwens/Complementary-Currencies
3. Monetary Reform, http://del.icio.us/mbauwens/Monetary-Reform
4. Open Money, http://del.icio.us/mbauwens/Open-Money
5. P2P Money, http://del.icio.us/mbauwens/P2P-Money

Key Directories

1. Online Database of Complementary Currencies Worldwide
2. Global Resource Exchange Groups and Localized Exchange Communities
3. Peer to Peer Exchanges and P2P Exchange Infrastructure Projects

Key Documentaries

1. Money as Debt
2. The Wealth of Neighbors
3. The Money Masters
4. In Debt We Trust, remarkable documentary about personal aspects of debt crisis

Key Essays

1. The Future of Payment Systems. By Bernard Lietaer.
2. Peer to Peer Lending, June 2007 overview report by Brad Slavin.
3. Raoul Victor: Money and Peer Production, a marxist perspective
4. Thomas Greco: Why Exchange Alternatives Fail to Thrive: The State of the Alternative Exchange Movement, Excerpt from The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, Chapter 13,
5. Thomas Greco: Towards A Complete Web-Based Trading Platform Excerpt, End of Money, Chapter 17,

Key Podcasts

1. The Open Money Blogtalk Radio

Key Webcasts

1. Chris Cook on Peak Credit and Open Capital: excellent video presentation
2. Extensive collection of Videos on complementary currencies. More videos on the Network Economy YouTube channel

Deutschsprachige Ressourcen - German Ressources

1. Neues Geld