an appendix to pearlofcivilization.net
New Currency Frontiers: Critical to expand perception of Currencies
“Consider how many hundreds of millions of people are freely participating in currencies like five-star product ratings, eBay reputation, user participation metrics, certifications, college degrees, performance reviews, stocks, stamps, movie tickets, etc. in contrast to how few are participating in general purpose money substitutes (LETS, Berks, local currencies, and even commercial barter).”
A story about expressive capacity flow
“Everybody issuing their own current-sees isnt like everybody creating their own 100,000 picture pictogram system just because they can. Its like everybody learning a new wealth alphabet in which they can begin to speak wealth-acknowledgments to each other in new useful systemic patterns that reveal the flows in communities that actually build wealth.”
OpenSpending – mapping the money.
Needs more critical perspective, seems like. But ambitious! “Our aim is to track every government and corporate financial transaction across the world and present it in useful and engaging forms for everyone from a school-child to a data geek. “
New Currency Frontiers: Beyond Quid Pro Quo
“I would contend that the quid pro quo social contract is a pioneer species in the social realm. Imagine you are meeting someone for the first time. Early interactions with this person are most likely in the quid pro quo space. Perhaps you try to talk for no more than half of the time. Perhaps you alternate who pays for the meals you eat out together. Perhaps you trade a ride to the airport for a day of dog sitting. In all cases, quid pro quo is used because you arent familiar with the person yet. As you become more familiar with each other, the ride to the airport probably doesnt have strings attached, the meals become less formally tracked, and conversation may ebb and flow more naturally. Quid pro quo created the conditions for the other more advanced social contracts to emerge. “
“When communities can create their own currencies, they don’t have to export their own wealth to get money to use for trade. They can start trading right away and export later if they so choose.”
The Core of MetaCurrency: Composable Abstractions for Wealth Building | The MetaCurrency Project
“All along, we knew there had to be a way for currencies to reference other currencies, and even be contained in other currencies.”