Comments on New Currency Frontiers: Why the "currency" in the the meta-currency projec...

Totally agree, the dillemm is : I speak about curr...

2009-03-26T05:25:00.000-07:00

Totally agree, the dillemm is : I speak about currency, money, monnaie monedad... who is a magical and marketing word or maybe we have to invent a new word but not known without meaning => evangelyze the world
I have often this question how i can convert the meta currency, and who fix the market. It's a totally different scheme where the value is based on reputation. Maybe this money has to be check to give you as google your reputation / recommandation Rank who certify your generosity and your skill.
Maybe a part of digital passport

Sorry for my french english...

Nicolas

btw, great post Eric!

2009-03-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

btw, great post Eric!

I want to add something here which I may expand in...

2009-03-25T23:35:00.000-07:00

I want to add something here which I may expand into a whole post, but I wanted to get it out while it was fresh.

Good permaculturalists observe all the flows of energy, nutrients, wind, water, etc on the land before altering it in any way. When agronomists compare factory farming with local small family farms, they usually say that factory farms are "more efficient." This is because they only measure efficiency in terms of labor. Per hour of labor, factory farms are the most efficient. However, if you measure efficiency in terms of calories in for calories out, or in terms of amount of food per acre, they are hopelessly inefficient. The reason agronomists can't see this and permaculturalists can is that permaculturalists are looking at agriculture as a whole system of interrelated flows, and the agronomist is concerned with only a few isolated flows.

Anytime when one narrows the focus of attention to a single flow pathway, one cannot effectively engage the system as a whole. To me, good currency designers are permaculturalists in the domain of economic meaning. This means that in order to engage effectively with any economy, a currency designer must consider and work with a great many interrelated flows. Fundamentally this is why it is important to either expand the definition of the word "currency" or stop using it altogether. I prefer the former.

Thanks for the continuing dialog, Eric. Perhaps wh...

2009-03-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the continuing dialog, Eric. Perhaps what all these social phenomena have in common is that they are all formal systems of indirect reciprocity. In healthy societies, people give real wealth like time and intellectual capital to others with no direct/instant return, hoping to get equivalent or more real wealth in return later on (whether directly to them or to their loved one). Formal systems of indirect reciprocity allow to track these gifts and returns more precisely, in ways that look like a monetary currency (which is accepted so widely that we view a trade of real wealth for money as reciprocal).