Project of the Day: JoatU — Community-driven Economics

In this video Jamie Klinger presents JoatU — a Community-driven Economics and a development of a web application enabling this kind of exchange

This is also a call for developers to this volunteer project, if you are a developer you can find Joatu on GitHub

What is JoatU, exactly?

It’s a web application that allows to offer services and products, and it’s a complementary currency “Jack Of All Trade Unit” supporting local community projects by direct democracy.

Joatu is an initiative that is interesting from several perspectives. One of the things is that the algorithm of generating this complementary currency is different from other currencies, and based on the evaluation by the community. This makes it interesting from the computational point of view. Another thing is that as a “Jack Of All Trade Unit” it can encourage the community to share a variety of different services and products with each other. This means that one person can exercise her/his different skills and does not have to specialize in just one.

We’ll try to look more deeply into these different aspects of this project in the follow up interview with Jamie Klinger.

 

2 Comments Project of the Day: JoatU — Community-driven Economics

  1. AvatarMarco Giustini

    Jack of all Trade Universe

    Executive Summary

    The Jack of All Trade Universe is the sandbox application designed to foster the generation and growth of multiple local and global online economies.
    Known more succinctly as JoatU, it exists as a hyperlocal marketplace for people living within a small proximity who are interested in offering or receiving goods and services through a variety of types of exchanges. It is an anything-for-anything barter exchange system.

    Within this system also exists the JoatUnit, a form of currency that is generated through a process of direct democracy organized by the users of the system itself; this is our community currency generator.

    JoatU is designed for the underemployed, unemployed, for those with goods to rent or sell or for those interested in acquiring new skills or volunteering. It is a transitional economic platform that does not limit itself to one style of market economics. It allows capitalists to sell their products and services for legal tender, communists to enact direct one-for-one exchanges, and socialists to benefit through the creation of the JoatUnit. The JoatUnit is a means of exchange that is generated to represent the value of someone’s work done for the benefit of the community. For example, one could plant a vegetable garden open to the public, teach a class, or offer to lend a tool to the decentralized tool library and be paid in the community currency for their offering.

    The system is designed to help grow a community-generated welfare state that supplies for the basic needs of its citizenry. The value of the unit is only derived from its acceptance, therefore it is imperative that a portion of the user base accept the JoatUnit for a portion of their trades. There is no JoatUnit generation for one-on-one trading; these trades are organized directly between the parties involved.

    JoatU is a self-sustaining economy based on the values of the citizenry who volunteer to take part within it.

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