Complementary currencies

[merivercap]

Good to be in the same wavelength @jakub.  I just researched local/community currencies a couple weeks ago in the SF Bay Area....  I was going to reach out to the SF organization Bay Bucks (community currency/barter exhange network) and others in the surrounding area, but here is a list in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_in_the_United_States

I think some of them have strong networks already so it's a great fit for adding a UIA and we can also interlink all the systems together.  One of the problems you might find is that there are just  a number of networks that have  strong presence in certain communities and many that aren't that actively used.  However there definitely is strong potential with established community/local currency/barter exchange networks.   

[Akado]

This is how they do it right now:


More details here:
http://www.reconomy.org/economic-enablers/alternative-means-of-exchange/complementary-currencies/

Nice video. However, if they already have a centralized solution and it works well, why their need BitShares?

With BitShares they can go worldwide with a fraction of the cost. If im not mistaken. Dunno about legal issues though

[abit]

This is how they do it right now:


More details here:
http://www.reconomy.org/economic-enablers/alternative-means-of-exchange/complementary-currencies/

Nice video. However, if they already have a centralized solution and it works well, why their need BitShares?

[abit]

Another challenge for adopting BitShares is privacy.

[jakub]

This is how they do it right now:
https://vimeo.com/29565876

More details here:
http://www.reconomy.org/economic-enablers/alternative-means-of-exchange/complementary-currencies/

[abit]

Yeah, I have thought about this, but haven't yet contacted anybody. I think these people will need a mobile wallet if they want to take full advantages of Bitshares.

UIA is perfect because they don't get much extra benefits if they would have their own blockchain. There's always a lot of work to keep the blockchain running reliably and safely. With UIA they will get the benefits of cryptocurrency without having to do much work for it.

I agree that a mobile wallet is needed. And a back end (maybe a group of back end providers) instead of one Open Ledger running by their authorities.

I think the "high" fee and/or per-transaction fee may be an obstacle for them to adopt BitShares. Is it possible/practicable to implement a monthly payment model or prepay model? The UIA issuer deposit some fund in the fee pool in a monthly basis, set a white list of holders and manage the list, then users can transfer for free (all fees paid by the fee pool), the issuer charges users by some means E.G. monthly management fee to sustain. With KYC and white list, it's possible to audit and prevent some "bad" users use up the fee pool.

[Samupaha]

Yeah, I have thought about this, but haven't yet contacted anybody. I think these people will need a mobile wallet if they want to take full advantages of Bitshares.

UIA is perfect because they don't get much extra benefits if they would have their own blockchain. There's always a lot of work to keep the blockchain running reliably and safely. With UIA they will get the benefits of cryptocurrency without having to do much work for it.

[abit]

For them, which one is better, UIA or a private chain?

[jakub]

Nice, I'll try to reach him this coming week and will let you know once I get a response.

I've found about him from this film:
http://www.demain-lefilm.com/en/film
It's a good documentary about finding solutions in many areas, including monetary & economic.

It looks like there are a lot of people with mindset similar to ours who seem to be unaware of the blockchain concept.
(At least the blockchain was not mentioned in the film as one of the tools available.)

I think it will be beneficial to reach out to them - they seem to be arriving at similar conclusions about governance and money.
Instead of dealing with software, they deal with gardening, producing their own food and running cooperative enterprises.
I guess the concept of UIA could be very attractive to them.

[xeroc]

.. contact him .. if you need technical assistance, let me know via Fabian@BitShares.org

[btswolf]

Good idea, let us know what he thinks when you`ve contacted him.

[jakub]

Has anybody thought about offering BitShares as a technological infrastructure for managing complementary currencies?

I know this article is a bit outdated (published over two years ago) but still I find it very inspiring:
https://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2013-12-16/bank-england-takes-note-local-money

The whole Transition Network movement seems to me as an ideal partner for BitShares.
They have very nice ideology (and a very strong community behind it) and we have very efficient technology.

Has anybody tried to approach them?

Their founder Rob Hopkins seems to be very keen on spreading the idea of local currencies in Europe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNZxpH78AAY

I wonder if he is aware of BitShares capabilities.