http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/16/doug-rushkoff-on-diy.html
Date: April 16, 2009
From: David Pescovitz

BB pal and former guestblogger Douglas Rushkoff has an idea for
"craigbucks," an alternative currency to be used on Craigslist.
(Doug's new book, Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation
and How to Take It Back, is out on June 2.)

Annalee Newitz explains "craigbucks" and Doug's vision for DIY
currencies in a Portfolio.com article:

http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/dual-perspectives/2009/04/13/DIY-Currenci\
es

The Future of Money: DIY Currencies
by Annalee Newitz

AN: Futurist Douglas Rushkoff, famous for correctly predicting the
rise of social media, is trying to convince Craigslist's Craig
Newmark to create "craigbucks." He thinks it's the obvious next
step in the evolution of money. "People could buy and sell things
exclusively on Craigslist using craigbucks," Rushkoff enthuses.
"Sure they'll want to keep their Visas and their MasterCards, but
they'll want a specialized, alternative form of cash too."

The idea is not as far-fetched as it may seem. Economists already
have a term for this kind of community-specific money; they're
called "complimentary <complementary> currencies" and they
naturally take root when conditions are right.

For example, in 2006, a Chinese online social network called QQ
produced "QQ coins" that became widely traded, used for almost a
billion dollars a year in transactions. Even though the currency
was designed just to buy things on the QQ network, other websites
started accepting QQ coins for payment of even non-virtual goods,
and a black market sprung up to convert QQ coins directly to
Yuan. The Chinese government cracked down: They feared that QQ
could trigger inflation of the Yuan by increasing the total money
supply in China.

JCT: Economists who believe in Shift A inflation and didn't hear
how community currencies in Argentina brought inflation Shift B
down!

AN: An even more popular form of complimentary currency has grown
up around cell-phone minutes. Today Kenyans use a service called
M-PESA that helps people swap mobile-phone minutes as cash- you
can literally pay for something at the store by transferring
mobile minutes to the clerk's phone. Today the M-PESA is used for
$10 million worth of trades a day, a figure that translates out
to $3.6 billion a year, or about 10 percent of the Kenyan GDP.

JCT: How many times have I used the example of swapping credits
from our telephone accounts as a great example of the wise use of
debt money?

AN: Underground currencies thrive in nations whose governments
are unstable or restrictive. According to Transparency
International, a good-government NGO, Kenya's government is among
the most corrupt in the world. And in China, it's illegal for
people to gamble and view pornography, and yet the demand for
them remains strong-hence, the rise of the QQ coin, which is
perfect for buying both. When the banks or nations that issue
currencies are unstable or unusable, people naturally seek out
alternatives. The novelty of QQ coins and minutes is that they
are a form of cash designed to be stored in cell phones instead
of wallets.

JCT: Emoney with no interest attached!!!

AN: Cash has an enduring appeal, and not just in uncertain times or
economies. The amount of U.S. bills in circulation has actually
increased over the last decade. Dave Birch, one of the U.K.'s
leading financial pundits and the director of Consult Hyperion, a
high-tech advisory group, points out that the essential character
of cash is trust. Cash is simply a money system we are certain
has worth,whether it's backed by a government or some other
guarantor of value.
When the developed world gets over its bias for "printing press-
era cash technology" then complementary currencies will be
commonplace here too, Rushkoff predicts. He sees a future that
has people literally reprogramming their economic systems, using
computer networks and handheld devices to administer new forms of
grassroots cash.

JCT: Gee, that's what LETS timedollars have been doing for a
quarter century.

AN: Those currencies could be almost anything: Cash we can use
only at one local restaurant, cash cards for Wal-Mart or other
chain stores, babysitting dollars we can trade in our
neighborhoods.
There are some small examples of people of this future here now.
In Japan, people trade "elder-care units," which are measured in
time spent caring for elders in the community, and they've become
quite valuable as the population in that country ages. In the
United States, hours of service are exchanged via the online Time
Bank or locally in Ithaca, New York.

JCT: The difference is that the Timedollar market is controlled
so that a dentist can't make more than a babysitter while the
papers Hours provide a free market where dentists charge their
standard fees in several Hours per hour so Ithaca has dentists
and Timedollars don't.

AN: Then there are the "Life Dollars," an electronic currency
used in the Pacific Northwest. The experiments have been
successful, albeit quite small. The total amount of Ithaca hours
in circulation is $100,000, while Life Dollars are used for
perhaps $2,000 worth of transactions per month.

JCT: Sure, Ithaca is a kinky toy with a large database. Everyone
starts with 4 Hours worth of credits, about $40 US. So they don't
trust anyone to repay more than $40 and there is very little
volume when everyone starts with very little chips. Few chips
means no big pots. Fewer Hours means only smaller transactions
can be effected. Why not trust everyone with a month's worth of
credits. Who's going to stiff for 200 hours owed? $2,000 owed
interest-free with no rush to pay?

AN: Newmark isn't sold on the "craigbucks" idea, but that isn't
stopping Rushkoff.

JCT: I've found that just because someone is successful, it
doesn't mean they're bright. The chain is only as strong as its
weakest link. Too bad this weakest link is at the top of the
chain.

AN: "If he doesn't want to do it, I can do it myself," he says
with a laugh. Complementary currencies start from the ground up,
and a future craigbuck may be no exception.

JCT: He'll rue the day be missed leading the bandwagon.

There was some commentary at boingboing.net:

April 17, 2009
#44 posted by KingofthePaupers,

"Reminds me of Argentina and their recent economic collapse.
There was a period of everyone printing their own shit. Surprise!
It made things worse. Who'd a-thunk?"

Jct: They went from banking system broken down in 2001 to all
their IMF-World Bank Debt paid off in 2006. It didn't make things
worse, it made things work. I have 24 videos tracking use of
community currencies and provincial bond currencies to effect
recovery. If the US doesn't follow their example, there won't be
such a recovery.
Do your homework to appreciate that running your own money system
liberates you from the debt slavery of their usury-based money
system.
---

#45 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"Money is an insanely complex interdependent shared system."

Jct: Poker chips are too insanely a complex interdependent shared
system to run right? Not.
---

#46 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"These "craigbucks" would exist on the Craigslist servers,
available to any hacker who can get around Craigslist's
protections, available to any Craigslist admin, and hostage to
the server's uptime."

Jct: Since everybody can see everyone else's balance in a time-
based LETS, where to you propose to hide the proceeds of your
crime?
The robber says "Stick'em up, credit my account."
Har har har har.
---

#47 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"I trust the Federal Reserve more than I trust Craigslist."

Jct: I trust a stable transparent Craigslist timedollar before I
trust the unstable FED bankdollar. I never thought I'd ever get
to read: "I trust the Federal Reserve
---

#48 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"Cryptography. Sufficiently strong cryptosystems would - if
implemented correctly - allow for controls that would prevent
counterfeiting"

Jct: Security is unnecessary in a transparent interest-free
credit-trading system. Where are you going to hide the loot
---

#49 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"What's needed is an open standard and protocol for exchanging
between these currencies."

Jct: The UNILETS Time Standard of Money has already been endorsed
in the Millennium Declaration. See my own home-made timebank
account at http://johnturmel.com/unilets.htm
Rudimentary but the algorithm is applicable to many platforms. I
tried a yahoogroup where my credits sent out in acknowledgment
were registered on my group and on the earner account.
And an Hour of unskilled labor cannot be fudged and allows a free
market to determine how many Hours you can command for your hour.
---

#50 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"the temptation to print yourself rich becomes too much for the
owners of the printing presses to resist. Digital cash just makes
it easier."

Jct: There is no temptation when everyone is watching. It has
never happened in any LETS that unauthorized credits were
transfered into your account without someone else authorizing
that payment. Imagining problems where problems cannot exist.

#51 posted by KingofthePaupers,
""The classic method of preventing this is to tie money to labor
by way of metals dug out of the earth."

Jct: The new method of preventing this is to tie money to labor
by way of time acknowledged at work. The LETS software needs no
yellow rock to operate optimally.

#53 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"But if it's based on the labor, then would you also get the same
benefit if you had a perfect way to get a non-counterfeitable
currency out of jumping jacks?"

Jct: Transparent internet credits cannot be counterfeited. As for
physical tokens of time, King Henry I solved counterfeiting the
Kings Chips with Tallies:

From my http://johnturmel.com/poembank.htm
The record most successful case was in the British Isle,
Where "Tallies," sticks of money, left King Henry I with smile.
Accountants in the Treasury would split the stick in two,
One half would be the money and the other half its due.
A tally worth a pound of gold to pay the King's expense,
The other half amounted to taxation that made sense.
The tax collectors through the land all had an easy way,
Since people had their tallies and enough the tax to pay.
The tallies funded projects and could pay for everything,
With tallies matching tax, a hero, Henry I, their King.
For over 700 years, the tallies were in use,
But having lost control of money now is Crown's excuse.

Jct: So counterfeiting is no problem when we use ecredits or
split popsicle sticks as our tokens.

#54 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"There's no guarantee that Microsoft is always going to be there,
but I'd trust their MS money more than I would some national
currencies"

Jct: I urged Bill Gates to save the planet with Microsoft Money
10 years ago. See my Richest Pauper's Prayer To The Richest Man
at http://turmelpress.com/praybill.htm

#55 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"But since the value of the money would still be linked to
socially agreed upon value, the usefulness of an alternative
money seems low... why not just use dollars?"

Jct: Because they are not lending out any money at interest so
why not borrow some community currency interest-free? You can
stop using your own interest-free community currency as soon as
the FED offers you interest-bearing loans again. But until you
can access interest-bearing loans from the FED-connected banking
system, why not accept interest-free loans from your community-
connected banking system? You always have the option of getting
back into exponential debt as soon as the loansharks will let you
but why not use an alternative while they will not let you have
any debt-enslavement money? It is a free choice whether to use
the available community currency or wait for the not-available
FED currency. No one is forcing you to join the community
currency lifeboat if you want to stay with the sinking ship.

#56 posted by Antinous / Moderator,
KingofthePaupers, Is this an art project? At the very least,
you've used up your allotment of links to your blog.

JCT: Too much commentary? Maybe I should have put all responses
into one post. No problem, people can finish at my
http://yahoogroups.com/group/turmel/messages blog.

#57 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"Why has nobody mentioned the best thought out, and actually
functioning alternative currency: Timedollars?
http://www.timebanks.org Videos available by searching
"timedollars" on YouTube."

Jct: Timedollars is a beautiful system except that doctors get
paid the same as floor-sweepers so there are few doctors who
participate. Ithaca Hours allows doctors to charge more Hours per
hour so they have a free market. Unfortunately, the Timedollars
controllers have ordained that all labor will be credited equally
in their controlled market. A fatal flaw that will be easily
corrected when they adopt paper tokens and and can no longer
control the market.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/turmel/message/2415 is my
report on the 2004 Timedollar Conference in Canada where they
were testing out paper timetokens I demonstrated how they could
not control my worth by playing my accordion in the hall for an
hour and earning 4 Hours worth of credits in contributions.
Of course, when the Timedollar controllers saw they could not
longer keep their system ineffective if they lost control by
permitting a free market with physical tokens, the killed the
idea.
Remember, the banksters have moles sabotaging community
currencies all around the planet. If they are running this poker
chips wrong, the person who suggested including the flaw is the
bad guy.

#58 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"So you could, in theory, have Microsoft pay their people, and
others in MS money, and it would probably be perfectly acceptable
in the NW and many other places."

Jct: Bill has not shown any particular wit when it comes to
understanding money. I could not explain this to him, maybe you
should try.

#59 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"while no system of exchange is perfect, or completely immune to
getting gamed,

Jct: You presume. A transparent interest-free time-based system
of exchange is ideal says the only Professor of Banking Systems
Engineering in the world. Anyone wanna bet

#60 posted by KingofthePaupers,
"LETS has been around in the UK for a while - only used on a
small scale though.
http://www.letslinkuk.net/home/theory.htm

Jct: And I financed the development of the first LETS software as
my gift to the planet to demonstrate locally how a time-based
currency system could work globally.

JCT: Community currencies are on the rise across the planet.
Barter systems are on the rise too and once they adopt the Time
Standard of money, theylll be able to trade with community
currencies too.