Complementary Currency Open Source Exchanges
Types of Economy – Gift Economy – National Money – Barter – Complementary Currency
Gift Economy There is a trust in the community • Woolly Mammoth – positive-selfish vs. negative-generous interest
• Glynn Isaac - “Home Base”
National Money • Not value-neutral (all economics assumes value-neutral) • Taxes must be paid back • Legal right to enforce an obligation • Who has the trust?
Barter • One to one • Inefficient: startup cost for each relationship
Complementary Currency • Add value to community, not just individual • Improves scalability beyond bartering
Considerations – What changes in the community? • • • •
Scalability Symptoms Trust World View
Rivalrous vs. Non-rivalrous • Benkler: "we consider a good to be nonrival when its consumption by one person does not make it any less available for consumption by another." (wealth of networks, p.36) • Lessig "Future of Ideas"
Keeping Open Currency OpenSourceCurrency.org – Integrity – Transparency – Interoperability – Consensus Decision-making (Commons) – Quick fixes to bugs • Imagine the cost of a bug in the NYSE
Jibberish – Can you change the world with a closed world view? – “If you have understood me, then I must not have made myself clear.” – Alan Greenspan
Currency Systems • Ithaca Hours, Fureai Kippu, Swiss WIR
Houston Hope TimeBank
Presenters • OpenSourceCurrency.org – For details on Austin efforts
• Tom Brown – herestomwiththeweather@gmail.com • Rich Vázquez – Rich.vazquez@gmail.com – AustinTimeExchange.org