Open Transport Currencies

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Description

Alan Rosenblith:

"In these closed community currencies, if I want the ability to make transactions, I MUST use the the currency for which the network was created. I cannot generate my own rules and invite others to play using the same transport network. I would have to invest the resources to build a completely new transport network if I wanted to transact in a new currency, and, for all but the most zealous, doing this is highly cost prohibitive.

In contrast, an OPEN transport network would allow transactions to be made in ANY currency. The rules of the currency would be SEPARATE from the ability to transact. I would be free to stop participating in a given currency if a new and better currency appeared on the transport network (or choose to participate in both). I would no longer be COERCED into adhering to a particular set of rules by virtue of needing a way to transact. I would be free to choose the rules that made sense to me, since access to the transport network is not in question.

I have been an active participant in the currency community now for four years (both as a documentary filmmaker and as a currency practitioner). I have been struck by how deeply the scarcity mentality is embedded in our community despite what we know about money. When I think about the fact that currency practitioners have to invest countless hours in implementing a network for ONE currency, it’s no wonder that they get contentious about what currency design is the best. They are putting their reputation and a whole lot of resources behind ONE idea, so they MUST convince people it works, sometimes even to the detriment of other perfectly viable currency designs. Add this to the fact that ~85% of currencies fail, and you have a pretty bleak picture scarcity-wise. What if we dropped the ideological arguments, and came together to create a truly OPEN TRANSPORT NETWORK where there was room for ALL types of designs? Wouldn’t we all gain? Wouldn’t we transcend the artificial scarcity of transport?

Right now, the most tangible manifestation of an open transport network is the wikiwikimoney project by the Twollars folks. Twitter is the transport network, and wikiwikimoney lets you track transactions in currencies you define. However, you can choose how to structure your currency (within limits) and what it is supposed to be for. Access to the transport network is not dependent on obeying the rules of A particular currency." (http://blog.newcurrencyfrontiers.com/2009/07/open-currency-now.html)


More Information

Other characteristics of Open Currency:

  1. Open Rules for money: Open Rules Currencies
  2. Open Identity for money: Open Identity Currencies
  3. Open Data for money: Open Data Currencies