Article: Crypto Enlightenment: A Social Theory of Blockchains. By Melanie Swan. Interesting take that does not necessarily a right-libertarian approach to blockchain technology. Here is the summary followed by two excerpts. Summary: “There is something new and fundamental happening in the world which could be the start of the next enlightenment period. The core of… Continue reading
Searched for "Social Currencies"
DAO’s and increased social inequality
David Solomonoff, who monitors the intersection between the real and the virtual, cites the article by David Morris (in Aeon magazine) who writes about the Decentralized Autonomous Corporations that operate with minimal human intervention after being put in motion: “In the allegedly imminent world of the Internet of Things … these autonomous cloud robots will… Continue reading
The anti-democratic and anti-social design foundations of the Euro
“This was not a mistake; this was not something that they tried to avoid. It is what they wanted to happen, a crisis that would cause a realignment of political power and the end of the European welfare state.” Excerpted from an interview with Greg Palast: “Mundell, who taught at Columbia University, won the Nobel… Continue reading
The key social innovation behind the blockchain: from the invisible hand to the visible hand
In old security models, you tried to lock out all of the greedy, dishonest people. Bitcoin, on the other hand, welcomes everyone, fully expecting them to act in their own self-interest, and then it uses their greed to secure the network. In many of my lectures, I try to explain the following to highlight the… Continue reading
Raising the profile of the Social and Solidarity Economy
By Françoise Wautiez The socioeco.org website is celebrating its third anniversary, and to mark the event, here is a brief overview of the project. Socioeco has continued to grow, with over 3,500 analysis documents, including 500 case studies, more than 1,000 identified publications and almost 180 SSE training courses. The site has five working languages,… Continue reading
The Next Step for Digital Currencies
“With these learnings from the Bitcoin experiment, I would like to propose a new model for digital currency. The question is how make the issuance of and access to money egalitarian on the one hand, yet also regulate the money supply in an organic, decentralized way.” Today’s national and supranational currencies have become a blight… Continue reading
Rebuilding care services: could social co-operatives be the answer?
Pat Conaty writes for The Guardian on how a democratic ownership model could help improve public trust in social care. Source – http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/jul/04/social-co-operatives-rebuild-care-services Hardly a month goes by without another scare story about aspects of our health and care services. The prosecutions at Winterbourne View, and the massive collapse and public sector rescue of Southern… Continue reading
Will Bitcoin and Other Insurgent Currencies Reinvent Commerce?
Source : http://bollier.org/blog/will-bitcoin-and-other-insurgent-currencies-reinvent-commerce This and other questions are addressed in “The Weightless Marketplace: Coming to Terms with Innovative Payment Systems, Digital Currencies and Online Labor Markets,” a just-released report that I wrote for the Aspen Institute’s Communications and Society Program. The report distills the more salient points raised at a three-day conference last August that… Continue reading
Questions for commoners regarding currencies
The following questions were formulated by Mike Riddell in the comments field of another article. I will respond, but feel free to come up with your own responses Questions: 1. “A commons isn’t just a marketplace”. What other key functional components would you expect? A currency? An accounting system? A payments mechanism? A social network?… Continue reading
Arguments for Demurrage-Based Post-Growth Currencies
Erik Curren, explaining the proposals of Charles Eisenstein on Demurrage: “Our economy cannot function without growth because most money is not printed by governments, as people usually imagine, but is instead loaned into existence by central banks and commercial lenders, who can loan out ten dollars or more for every dollar they’re required to have… Continue reading
Towards biodiversity in currencies
Specifically, I believe that we need to support the introduction and expansion of three different kinds of currencies alongside our national currencies: (1) an inflation-proof global complementary currency designed to stabilize the world economy; (2) business-to-business currencies designed to counteract the effects of conventional money shortages during periods of economic crises and contraction; and (3)… Continue reading
An update on discussions around complementary currencies
An update on discussions and controversies, by Ruby Van der Wekken, who attended the Economics and the Commons Conference in Berlin, in May 2013, and the complementary currency conference in Hague, in June 2013 (see also http://www.commons.fi/timebanking-20). (go to the original for the links) Money as debt shaping our relations As Jem Bendell (professor at… Continue reading
Exchange and Virtual Currencies Networks in Greece
According to the TEPSIE report (see the full citation and more info about it at the end): “Exchange and virtual currencies networks refer to activities organised by groups of citizens in specific regions or across the whole of Greece, where transactions are taking place without the use of money. They are based either on the… Continue reading
The Demonetization Agenda – replacing transactions with social relations
Republished from Stefan Meretz: “The question of how we deal with and act within the given monetary environment is crucial for the commons movement, since the monetary logic and the commons logic are opposites. Contrary to the claims of mainstream economics, money is not neutral or simply an informational means for mediating transactions. Thus, replacing… Continue reading
Project of the Day: Complementary Currencies for Sustainability
Gill Seyfang, Principal Investigator, explains the research project: “New research to study the growth and diffusion of complementary currencies (new forms of money) around the world, and produce policy and practice lessons to harness these grassroots innovations for sustainability. This two year research project is led by Gill Seyfang at UEA and funded by the… Continue reading
The convergence Social Banking and The Commons
Let’s Come Together for the Social Banking & The Commons Summer School 2013! This year the Summer School will take place in Filzbach, Switzerland. Jointly presented with Date: 14th – 19th July 2013 Venue: Seminarhotel Lihn At our 2013 Summer School we will meet in the Swiss mountains to explore together how Social Banking can… Continue reading