OpenKollab

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• Amp: A proposal for a global reference currency [4 Updates]

"cjenscook@googlemail.com" <cjenscook@googlemail.com> May 14 03:20AM -0700 ^


 
Hi Tav
 
A good post, but fatally flawed in your assumptions, I believe.
 
You share with Alan Rosenblith's 'Meta Currency' in this group – and
indeed, virtually everyone else – what is essentially an 'object-
oriented' view of money. ie you assume that money is necessarily
issued as credit by an intermediary issuer, and that the 'medium of
exchange' and 'unit of reference' are necessarily the same thing.
 
In my view they are not, and several complementary monetary systems
demonstrate this empirically eg any barter system, like the WIR, where
transactions take place not FOR fiat currency but BY REFERENCE TO it.
 
The way I see it Money is in fact a relationship and the monetary
relationship has several elements:
 
(a) Currency ('Money's Worth') – which is a unit redeemable in
exchange for some sort of value;
 
(b) Credit – time to pay;
 
(c) Value Standard – a unit of measure by reference to which exchanges
take place on credit terms or otherwise and prices are agreed;
 
(d) Framework of Trust – currently an implicit guarantee provided by a
credit intermediary bank and which is backed by the bank's proprietary
pool of capital
 
(e) Accounting System – a repository of obligations as between
participants.
 
In a Peer to Peer monetary system, on the other hand, there is no
intermediary issuer of credit, and this credit is issued on the basis
of the use value over time of the various 'factors of production'
 
My analysis as to the basis of value is summarised here
 
http://nordicenterprisetrust.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/towards-an-economics-of-common-sense/
 
I have begun a short book on a 'Reality-based' economics based on this
analysis and I will be proposing practical solutions – ie a 21st
century P2P political economy, based upon it.
 
The way I see it most conventional 'fiat' money in existence is in
fact based upon the use value of location (3D) ie land, and
historically came about as mortgage loans created by credit
intermediaries aka banks.
 
The second basis of value is energy, both dynamic energy (eg
electricity) and the static energy embedded in materials.
 
Finally, there is Knowledge, which exists in subjective (what's
between your ears and dies with you) and objective (stored by data
representations/patterns in some way). The emerging economy is based
upon Knowledge increasing at an exponential rate, couretsy of the
Internet.
 
What we think of as 'Labour' is in fact a hybrid of 'manpower' (ie
energy) – which has been called 'unqualified' labour,and subjective
knowledge.
 
Units redeemable in exchange for the use of these 'factors of
production' will IMHO be the currencies of the future.
 
But they will not be the 'Value Standard'
 
In my analysis an absolute unit of energy – in an amount which is
relevant every day experience in making value judgements – is the
natural candidate. Let's call it a Electro or E.
 
In the same way that a kilogramme is a standard measure for mass, and
a metre a standard unit of measure for length; so an E (which is a
meaningful number of Joules, maybe equivalent to 10 Kilo Watt Hours)
is a standard unit of measure for value.
 
The key point is that an E is NOT a currency but a unit by reference
to which currencies, whether energy based or whatever, are exchanged.
The result of such an architecture – with an 'Energy Standard' for
exchanges – is essentially the 'energy accounting' advocated by the
Technocracy movement.
 
As I say here
 
http://www.slideshare.net/ChrisJCook/money-30
 
I believe that there are simple but radical interactive/consensual
protocols available:
 
(a) Guarantee Society;
 
(b) Capital Partnership.
 
which are capable of spreading virally,and the outcome of the
implementation of these will be a new financial architecture which
will evolve from the ground up.
 
There is a genuine paradigm shift involved in getting away from the
concept of money as a relationship, and like all such shifts it's not
easy to 'grok' until the penny drops.
 
Best Regards
 
Chris Cook