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Adventures in mutual credit

Captured! Why money and payment must be open.

published by matslats on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 17:19

Since the dot com boom, online services have been delivered 'free' by venture capitalised projects to acclimatise and capture a user base before the real, revenue-generating business model kicks in. For services which depend for their value on the number of users it is especially important to arrive early in the marketplace with an attractive product.

Volksgeld, Nazism and political bridge-burning

published by matslats on Tue, 03/19/2013 - 18:01

In response to: http://leconomistamascherato.blogspot.com/2013/03/germany-money-to-peopl...

Dear Mr Huber,

The decision of your committee seems very short-sighted to me as a non-German. The Nazis did many depraved things but we would do well to learn from their monetary policy if we wanted to execute say, a green new deal or reduce our subservience to private banking interests. Of course communicating with the electorate requires care with language, but the cause of monetary reform will get nowhere without also educating the electorate.

Design for Dane County Time Bank, USA

published by matslats on Fri, 03/08/2013 - 20:30

Dane County Time Bank has been run by Stephanie Rearick for several years and is now up to 2500 members. Madison Hours has been less successful, but Stephanie believes that together they offer a valuable combination. Stephanie plans to bring them together into a dual currency marketplace where businesses, nonprofits and ordinary folk can exchange without money - the new system will be greater than the sum of its parts.

My precious

published by matslats on Wed, 01/16/2013 - 00:00

I love money
It makes me feel safe.
I like to keep it, to own it.
I also like buying things
I hate it when I'm in debt and I have to pay interest. Its not fair!
But when I have enough money, I can live from interest.
Then I'll be sitting pretty.
Then I won't have to work.
Then I can grow old and die with dignity.
I'd be destitute without money.
I love money.

My first currency design

published by matslats on Tue, 01/15/2013 - 23:36

For the first time I have helped to design a currency! With LETS and Time banks, the currency model is pretty straight-forward mutual credit with minimum and maximum account limits. Then more often than not there is an issuing account which gradually runs out of control and they are running a fiat system more than a mutual credit.

Workshop game 'Trading floor'

published by matslats on Sun, 11/25/2012 - 14:45
This game is designed to show participants in workshops
  1. how trade is affected by the availability of money
  2. how outside control of the money supply may be counter productive to a local economy
  3. how money is separate from real value
  4. how using debt as money can obstruct the economy
Creative Commons License

Rolling Jubilee - will it work?

published by matslats on Sat, 11/10/2012 - 11:47

The Rolling Jubilee campaign is raising money to buy up cheap debt and forgive it.

I wrote to them asking
1) Who will sell you debt for pennies on the dollar?
2) Who's debt will you buy?
3) Don't you think the price will go up if the campaign gets traction?
4) is there a way that we can buy the debt of people we care about?
5) By purchasing the debt, you legitimise it, and the whole system that created it.

Why not a campaign of solidarity and support for debtors and people who default?

Why bitcoin isn't enough.

published by matslats on Wed, 10/31/2012 - 23:05

Bitcoin is a super way for frictionless transactions and for disassociating ourselves from the fraud, waste, and centralised control of commercial credit and legal tender monies. Most techies working on monetary solutions seem to think that the ideal currency is a globally uniform, frictionless unit in which transactions are quickly settled, with anonymity an arguably desirable trait.

Cforge architecture

published by matslats on Thu, 09/20/2012 - 11:50
As part of some discussions with other projects, and while I'm upgrading the Cforge drupal distribution to Drupal 7, I'm posting a full description of the architecture here....

In hope that this installation profile may be of use to others, I write here a description of the architecture of this profile. My hope is always to make discreet, reusable components that other developers can modify or build on. The architecture is deliberately simple because my first interest is module development more than site design. Also LETS groups are not very ambitious with technology.

Where to start with credit clearing systems?

published by matslats on Wed, 09/05/2012 - 15:06
[draft of a page intended for Positive Money's web site]

So now you understand that national currency is toxic, and that banks profit from all the money in circulation. You've written to your MP and received the standard response - now what?

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