An article by Sybille Saint Girons and Carole Fabre, presented at the “IV International Conference on Social and Complementary Currencies: Money, Consciousness and Values for Social Change” in Barcelona. The article was originally published at Regles de Jeux.
Abstract
“Libre-currency proposes a self-issuance, or co-creation of units by the people of the monetary system for the people. Calculated on a mathematical equation with three variables: number of human members alive, their average lifespan and monetary mass, it ensures symmetry on space and time. As no material value is absolute in space and time, Libre-currency is rooted on our unique common value among humans on Earth: being alive on Earth!
Symmetry in space: at a time T, everyone wherever he is, co-creates its part of money at the same amount. Symmetry in time: an old generation could not co-issue more than the next, and the next more than the former. Therefore it’s sustainable as it’s valuable for everyone everywhere; no one can deprive others even next generations. Respect, innocuity and sovereignty are embedded in the DNA of Libre-currency, as every human member is an equal co-creator of the currency, independently of its production, unconditionally of its status. People are co-producing their universal dividend because they are humans alive. Organizations can also be part of the monetary system but they aren’t co-issuing units, only trading.
As Bitcoin, Libre-currency algorithm generates monetary units. But unlike data mining, here algorithm relies on the three variables; unlike proof-of-work, it’s people’s proof-of-life that determines recurrent and periodical creation of units (per day, week, month…). Thus each human member’s wallet increases evenly according to the universal dividend co-created. Then members, human or organizations, can use their units to sell and buy among them as any currency. A blockchain ledger records either recurrent issuances or transactions exchanges.
According to experimentations, issuing money with Libre-currency creates favourable conditions to behave toward social changes and sustainability, as it’s intrinsically fair, abundant, transparent and decentralised. People are responsible, equal and free, and Libre-currency insures durability and reliability.
Moreover each monetary community self-manages its Libre-currency. The only needs are a way to regularly validate that people are alive meaning having a “proof-of-life” mechanism (e.g. through web-of-trust-certification process) and a Libre-currency-algorithm-blockchain. Yet Libre-currency is only solving monetary issuance, other mechanisms have to be set by the members (prices, taxes, finances, marketplaces…).”
Find the full article here.