[p2p-research] Metacurrency

[Nathan Cravens]

Hi Sam,
This is excellent:

""
The idea that the medium of activity dictates the "currency". Paul
uses the example of bittorrent: For users of bittorrent, the currency
of exchange is literally the "bit". You have to upload to download,
and you can upload more now, which will let you download more later
(thus creating a surplus within the whole system). These types of
exchanges are not "market" exchanges, like buying and selling. They
are commons-based exchanges, where participants have feedback about
how they are taking from and contributing to the common-pool resource
of bandwidth in the bittorrent system... Read More

There are also similar commons-based webs of exchanges between people
and natural systems that can follow a "code", and the "code" need not
be like a script on a computer.

Instead it can be more like an agent based model, where you follow
simple rules about how you act within a system. Achievement of
creating a balance between yourself and the system will usually
consist of what you take from system, and what you put back in.

The argument that Paul and I make is that you can also look at your
yourself as a fractal micro-cosm of the larger system you are a part
of. You can look at where you are getting inputs from, and where your
outputs go to. What you take in can be from the "waste" of someone
else ("waste equals food"), what you output could be the basis of raw
... Read Morematerial for other's "input". These are the simple rules,
the "code" for what I call a "wealth generating ecology" (wealth =
other kinds of wealth beyond just money) a system that can generate
surplus consistently even for one person, and can exponentially
generate surplus as more people enter the system. The catch is that
most of the resources end up being voluntarily or systematically
co-managed as a "commons": a resource that everyone who uses
recognizes as something that no one user fully owns, and so must be
co-governed somehow by users. (resource is not just physical object,
can be the combined time and attention of people, etc)
""

You are describing how to manage a free use commons once a financial commons
is no longer required?

A financial commons is introduced when a society clearly cannot care for
themselves based on a work requirement to participate in a market previously
generated by financial capital. Japan most severely needs to adopt this
approach to prevent further the exclusionary tactics such as racial and
national superiority. I look forward to working with Dante and his Japanese
friend in addressing Japan's issues, as they seem to need the approaches
Paul Fernhout and I describe more than any other industrialized nation at
the moment.

Will you write a detailed description with Paul Hartzog of this
monetary/materials system for the p2p blog? We can then discuss it in more
detail in November. What you describe to me sounds more like a
"sub-currency" than "meta," but that may just be an issue of semantics. I
view what you describe as a way to preserve a free use commons from
reverting to a financial commons, or worse, financial capital.


Nathan



On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 7:59 AM, Samuel Rose <samuel.rose at gmail.com> wrote:

> Gerry, I am interested in the metacurrency event. My own interest lies
> in creating a set of simple open standards around alternative
> currencies. My interest is that these simple standards be adoptable
> across many different web applications.
>
> Everyone keeps pointing me to the metacurrency project, and I keep
> repeating that metacurrency project does not have any published simple
> standard that I can adopt. They do have examples, but they are not
> complete, and do not constitute a replicable body of work. Plus, in my
> opinion, metacurrency approach is overly complicated.
>
> I also see something missing from metacurrency.org, and that is that
> "currency" can depend on the ecology/medium. This is different than
> traditional currency, and allows "money" to be tied to what is being
> exchanged within the system.
>
> I talked with Paul Hartzog in Ann Arbor about something similar recently:
>
> The idea that the medium of activity dictates the "currency". Paul
> uses the example of bittorrent: For users of bittorrent, the currency
> of exchange is literally the "bit". You have to upload to download,
> and you can upload more now, which will let you download more later
> (thus creating a surplus within the whole system). These types of
> exchanges are not "market" exchanges, like buying and selling. They
> are commons-based exchanges, where participants have feedback about
> how they are taking from and contributing to the common-pool resource
> of bandwidth in the bittorrent system... Read More
>
> There are also similar commons-based webs of exchanges between people
> and natural systems that can follow a "code", and the "code" need not
> be like a script on a computer.
>
> Instead it can be more like an agent based model, where you follow
> simple rules about how you act within a system. Achievement of
> creating a balance between yourself and the system will usually
> consist of what you take from system, and what you put back in.
>
> The argument that Paul and I make is that you can also look at your
> yourself as a fractal micro-cosm of the larger system you are a part
> of. You can look at where you are getting inputs from, and where your
> outputs go to. What you take in can be from the "waste" of someone
> else ("waste equals food"), what you output could be the basis of raw
> ... Read Morematerial for other's "input". These are the simple rules,
> the "code" for what I call a "wealth generating ecology" (wealth =
> other kinds of wealth beyond just money) a system that can generate
> surplus consistently even for one person, and can exponentially
> generate surplus as more people enter the system. The catch is that
> most of the resources end up being voluntarily or systematically
> co-managed as a "commons": a resource that everyone who uses
> recognizes as something that no one user fully owns, and so must be
> co-governed somehow by users. (resource is not just physical object,
> can be the combined time and attention of people, etc)
>
> (Gerry: copied this to p2p research list, I feel that people there
> would be interested in this exchange. I clipped off your personal
> notes to me)
>
>
> --
> --
> Sam Rose
> Social Synergy
> Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
> Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
> skype: samuelrose
> email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
> http://socialsynergyweb.com
> http://socialsynergyweb.org/culturing
> http://flowsbook.panarchy.com/
> http://socialmediaclassroom.com
> http://localfoodsystems.org
> http://notanemployee.net
> http://communitywiki.org
>
> "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
> ambition." - Carl Sagan
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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