Jct: The Liberty Dollar people were asking for trouble when they made their currency look like the real thing, which is illegal. Ithara Hours, Toronto Dollars, LETS, have never had any trouble with the authorities.
Best of all, when the local currency is pegged to the Time Standard of Money (how many dollars/hour child labor) Hours earned locally can be intertraded with other timebanks globally!
In 1999, I paid for 39/40 nights in Europe with an IOU for a night back in Canada worth 5 Hours.
U.N. Millennium Declaration UNILETS Resolution C6 to governments is for a time-based currency to restructure the global financial architecture.
See my banking systems engineering analysis at http://youtube.com/kingofthepaupers

Re: Twollars, see commentary by Stan Schroder:
http://mashable.com/2009/05/26/twollars/
Alan Rosenblith: http://newcurrencyfrontiers.blogspot.com/search/label/twollars

I suspect twollars is little league to prepare for using Google Wave
to make Wavoleons or Wavebux or obs or whatever. They didn’t know
about Wave when they started, but I’d be surprised if they don’t have
their eye on it now.

So, if we look at possible next moves in the arms race:
1. money moves into the internet via projects that are building open
money systems
2. open money systems that are easiest to use and access by the
mainstream is adopted rapidly by the tech savvy for small transactions
3. diverse money systems are created, but only a few are used, moves
quickly toward one
4. they’re used for all sorts of legal and illegal activities
5. governments go after traders, like China did with QQ coins
6. organized crime increasingly tries to squeeze in as the buying
power increases
7. governments, particularly the United States, strikes at two points
in the infrastructure: businesses and ISPs
8. people route around businesses with virtual enterprises, and route
around ISPs via peer open telecom tech
9. the “rickroll” becomes the world’s first true global currency after
a scandal with “lollars”

Mark
editor@dgcmagazine.com

Sepp,
I’m not sure what you’re looking at when you say that. What specifically are you comparing?

None of the currencies or credit clearing systems that have emerged from the grassroots has had significant economic impact, or has succeeded very well over the long run. I say that not to find fault but simply to point out that the movement up to now has been in the experimental stage that has resulted in significant learning.

The reasons so far have not been repression by the powers that be, although that will surely come when exchange alternatives achieve significant results.

Rather, the failure has stemmed from deficiencies in design, operation, and implementation. I have two entire chapters on this subject in my new book (Ch 13 &14).

There are two fundamental reasons why exchange alternatives fail to thrive.

These are:

1. failure of reciprocity and,

2. inadequate scale and scope of operation.

Failures of reciprocity can stem either from system design flaws or from management issues.

System design flaws include:

• Improper basis of issue of credits or currency

• Inadequate account limits, i.e., over-issuance of credits or currency in relation to an issuer’s productivity and the demand for their goods or services

• Lack of a clear agreement between issuers and users of credits or currency

Management issues include:

• Lack of accountability and transparency

• Inadequate management procedures and controls

• Over-reliance upon volunteer administrators

• Failure to respond to internal or external threats

There are several aspects to the problem of scale and scope, which can be

summarized as follows:

• Failure to achieve critical size of the participant base

• Too narrow an assortment of goods and services being offered

• Failure to attract participants from all levels of the supply chain (production/distribution circuit)

• Failure to gain wide acceptance among the mainstream business community

In the following chapter (Chapter 14) I discuss the principles that need to be applied to adequately address those issues.

What the current mega-crisis requires is the availability of effective exchange alternatives that are locally controlled yet globally useful. This requires the creation of an optimized local exchange that will serve as a model that can be widely and quickly replicated. These exchanges must then be networked together based on a standard set of procedures and protocols. It is also imperative that we employ an implementation strategy that enables the rapid proliferation of exchanges and expansion of patronage (membership). It needs to get big fast so as to withstand the inevitable assault that will come from the vested interests.

Tom