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Adventures in mutual credit

Xchange Stewards

published by matslats on Thu, 12/02/2010 - 08:24

It has been my pleasure to hang out with Collin Ferguson and the Xchange Stewards team in the North West USA. After some changes of direction over the last few years, Collin and the XS team now have a clear idea of what needs doing, a strategy, and two hardcore software engineers on-side.

CC Blogosphere

published by matslats on Thu, 11/25/2010 - 05:28
Here is a list of all the CC blogs I have found and think are worth reading. It might look long, but actually there's not a lot here. If I missed any out, please add in the comments.

Individuals

Currency Solutions for a wiser world Lietaer's new site
Yours Truly on CC software and whatever else I feel nobody else is paying attention to

Grokking metacurrency

published by matslats on Thu, 11/25/2010 - 04:52

I was just privileged to spend some time with Arthur Brock and, to a lesser extent, with Eric Harris-Braun. (less time, not less privileged!).

After some years of failing to properly explain it, and many prototypes, they reckon to have nailed down the mechanical details of metacurrency, and are starting to build in ernest!

Reflections on strategy 2010

published by matslats on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 22:30

While the problems faced by Western economies can be thoroughly explained through monetary policy, the solutions clearly do not lie in simply promoting economic alternatives. People don't want to engage with economics, they don't understand it, especially when experts disagree. Only the disenfranchised - the least influential people - will listen. CC Advocates need to be more strategic than to talk about economics - the world and his wife is talking about economics. Instead, I propose, they should be working more closely with those who are already building communities.

Guillaume Lebleu

published by matslats on Thu, 10/21/2010 - 06:55

Guillaume Lebleu worked for 8 years in the banking system and he really understands how credit creation works, and why the system is like it is. Most of my economics education comes from things like 'The Money Masters' and 'Money as Debt', which paints an alarming picture of a corrupt system ravaging the earth and indenturing its people using debt instruments. Guillaume understands why the currency system is the best of all possible worlds so far, although it has its faults.

The next step for favours.org: Craft4Trade

published by matslats on Thu, 10/21/2010 - 06:34

Sergio Lub was doing social networking long before facebook or anything in that ilk in 1997. His network, Friendly Favors, has over 50,000 members, but needs to migrate to a more modern platform if it is progress. Faceboook and the barter networks have a damning deficiency, in his opinion, which is that they fail to capitalise or value trust. Ebay does trust, but ebay isn't actually about relationship building or barter, and the trust is not based on relationship, but only on the trading experience - it is completely impersonal, and no credit is extended.

Appeal to elsewhere

published by matslats on Mon, 10/04/2010 - 11:17

Humans, their composition, their history, their behaviour seem (to them) the most complex and interesting entities in the universe.
I'd love to explore this complexity with you, but time is short; my species is in the throes of an existential crisis.

Advise me: Mutual credit caching strategies

published by matslats on Sun, 10/03/2010 - 17:52

Mutual credit accounting is very easy because you just store all the transactions in one table with

  • a payer
  • a payee
  • a quantity

, and then add up all the transactions per user to get the balances. However once a mutual credit system gets larger, it becomes expensive to add up all these transactions. So a caching strategy is needed.

The easiest and most obvious caching is on the member balances. But there are two other main needs:

Radical giving. You heard it here first

published by matslats on Sat, 10/02/2010 - 03:12

Can you feel it? That moment after Coyote runs off a cliff, his legs stop spinning, only his uncomprehension that the road ran out is keeping him the air. He looks down, looks to camera and....

Local Currencies - Peter North

published by matslats on Tue, 09/21/2010 - 21:35

Here's the meat from Peter North's book:

  • You might have a large number of green-minded, quite self-starting and alternative people in your community, but not many locally owned businesses. LETS might be the best option.
  • You might feel that people in your area need more support, are currently excluded from the economy and involving businesses is not a priority at all. Time banking might be best.

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