[P2P-F] Fwd: Intertrading: an answer to Bitcoin

Mon Apr 7 04:06:02 CEST 2014

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Matthew Slater <matslats at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 6, 2014 at 8:28 PM
Subject: Intertrading: an answer to Bitcoin
To: Xavier Hawk <xavierhawk at gmail.com>, Michel Bauwens <
michel at p2pfoundation.net>, Tim Jenkin <tim at ces.org.za>, Arie Ben David <
abdalma at gmail.com>, Daniel NEIS <daniel.neis at ecoidentity.de>, Jordi Griera <
jordi.griera at ineval.org>, Marco Sachy <marco.sachy at gmail.com>, Jaromil Rojo
<jaromil at dyne.org>, Neil Peters <Neil.Peters at tradeexchange.ca>
Cc: Kevin Parcell <kjparcell at gmail.com>, Jem Bendell <drjbendell at gmail.com>,
Stephen Beckett <mayaway at maine.rr.com>, Miles Thompson <utunga at gmail.com>,
Stephanie Rearick <steph at stephanierearick.com>, Leander Bindewald <
Leander.Bindewald at neweconomics.org>, intertrading-protocol <
intertrading-protocol at googlegroups.com>, intertradingdev at googlegroups.com,
Steve Cassidy <scass at e-beira.com>

Greetings monetary innovators, and lurkers alike,
I hope you will spare me few moments of your time.

Thomas Greco has called for a credit commons, comprised of a network of
local clearing systems and for five years now I've been working on tools
for constructing that network.
Last September a handful of us met in Berlin and hammered out this
semi-official protocol on the social and technical levels.
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/CXP_protocol_intertrading_api-1.0-beta-1.pdf
But work has paused since then because it seems money is needed for
software development, and also my attention is taken up with upgrading CES,
the largest existing network. CES supports intertrading between its member
communities, which I call internal intertrading.

I think an Intertrading API, implemented across the networks such as are
represented here, would be *as interesting as Bitcoin*, oh yes. Imagine:
A global payments network, with a stable unit of value, issued by member
communities on the basis of trust and agreed limits, promoted towards
transition groups, communities, intentional communities, LETS, time banks
or informal barter groups.
Unlike Bitcoin, participation involves trust.
Unlike Bitcoin, credit issuance would be done by member communities
according to their own policies.
Unlike Bitcoin, governance and responsibility would be required.
As interesting as Bitcoin certainly, but perhaps not such a lottery, a
white knuckle ride, polarising issue, and not so divisive or attractive to
fraudsters, sharks and speculators.

The reason I'm reaching out to everyone here (the To: recipients) is

   1. if we could connect our work together we have much more chance of
   reaching critical mass,
   2. there may be opportunities to share resources
   3. for most of you, this initiative should add value and global reach to
   your main projects.

So I would like to introduce you to one another.
First myself

   - *Matthew Slater*, cofounder of Community Forge which provides hosting
   for around 80 LETS and time banks. I produce software for many more, and
   recently I was made an ambassador for the Global Ecovillage Network in hope
   that I'll say something insightful about their economy.

Then, in approximate descending order of current constituency size...

   - *Tim Jenkin* is the builder of CES, the largest nonprofit network of
   mutual credit exchanges in the world - already intertrading and currently
   collaborating with government in Australia, myself and Jnana consulting.
   - *Michel Bauwens* (P2P Foundation) wishes to see 'A currency for the
   commons', meaning the whole sharing economy, including permaculture,
   carsharing, enterprise investment and I suppose land ownership.
   - *Jordi Griera* is working with the Catalan Integral Cooperative - a
   radical coop of coops involving many currency projects which seek to be
   more interoperable.
   - *Stephen Beckett* maintains hOurworld which provides hosted software
   for a great many time banks, with internal intertrading.
   - New Zealand time banks (*Miles Thompson*) are looking together for the
   next software platform which will allow them the right degree of
   interoperability and configurability
   - *Arie ben David* is building a community money network aimed at
   villages, activists and also working on politicians and the public in
   Israel.
   - *Xavier Hawk* is working with bitcoiners to build a Permacredits
   cryptocurrency for ecovillages, to encourage investment and help incubate
   businesses.
   - *Daniel Neis* is building a new kind of business exchange system in
   Germany in which the credit issuance is tied directly to the promise of
   goods and services.
   - *Neil Peters* is building crowdbucks, a crowdfunding platform and wide
   modular infrastructure which intends to issue credit on the basis of
   invested money.
   - *Marco Sachy & Jaromil* have European money with the D-CENT project
   which has a broad remit to support communities with democratic tools and
   monetary tools. Freecoin is envisaged as a toolkit and there is an idea of
   'social mining' to issue currency (which I'll
blog<http://matslats.net/complementary_currencies>about when I get a
minute).

These are just the few projects with one foot in the English speaking world
who are looking outward...

Between us ten projectswe have a constituency of many tens of thousands of
users moreorless ready to participate. We have a very high overlap in
values, and intentions about building alternatives to money in order to
redeem humanity rather than to get rich.
Yet between us we are able to generate very little popular excitement about
our work. Few of us are blogging, making videos or speaking at conferences.
Few of us are under 30. Almost none of us are attracting volunteers.

This mail was prompted by a conversation with Neil, who is offering to put
a programmer to work on intertrading this month, project managed by me. But
we have yet to decide a technical approach for intertrading. If we build it
will you implement it? Don't forget the first half of the protocol we
published was social, not technical. regardless of the technics, we could
start now building the governance if we want to. I don't want to be pushing
people where they say they want to go and I don't want to be the only
engine on the plane, after all my sabbatical year is 2 years overdue!

So I'm calling for a reality check, especially from the named people above.

   1. Given the marginal use of internal intertrading in existing systems,
   am I barking up the wrong tree, or would intertrading at scale have much
   more potential?
   2. Could we accomplish more by working more closely together?
   3. If we developed a consistent PR approach, would that help with
   adoption and volunteering and funding?
   4. Should we think of a sexier name for intertrading, and a message such
   as 'This [sexier name] is the social, local, ecological and grown-up
   alternative to Bitcoin' and should we then talk about it in public in a
   coordinated way to educate the people (and Bitcoiners).
   5. With a Commons Intertrading infrastructure in place, can we envisage
   business opportunities e.g. B2B barter networks, crowdfunding that would
   use it?
   6. We are all working hard to make the world better, so who should be
   contributing to this initiative, if anyone?

Please reply to 'all' (50 people) and try to be brief. I hope I haven't
been long winded.

Matthew

Find out more about my work in local money systems
My personal web site <http://matslats.net> including my blog, Adventures in
mutual credit <http://matslats.net/complementary_currencies>
Interview on Corbett Report
Radio<http://www.corbettreport.com/corbett-report-radio-057-solving-the-money-problem-with-matthew-slater/>
Brief bio and articles on
shareable.net<http://shareable.net/users/matthew-slater>
I co-founded Community Forge <http://communityforge.net>
Bitcoin donations accepted: 1QLPWcQpp1x2Qzqocjm2CfnpoiCLUd4JXt

-- 
*Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no
record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..*

P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

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