- MarissaBrand
- gordman
- mithunsarker
- Kim07
- Ralph Waldren
Free/Open Source Money Links
Submitted by Willy Smith on 7 May, 2004 - 15:31.
My daughter Diana sent me this email from Malta this morning. That's interesting in itself because although we have talked about money theory in the past, she hadn't read my posts here on A42.
I'll talk to you abou this in Dubai, but there's this really amazing monetary movement going on - it's built on the premise that any government-owned currency is counterfeit, because only traders are legitimate issuers of money; their goods and services are what give value to currency. They say when the governments issue currency it's not real, and causes inflation because there's no inherent value in it; value in money is created by people trading, not issue itself.
ReinventMoney.com
The LETS System Homepage
LETS URLs around the World
LETS Downloads (documents and software)
Kudos for Interest-Free Currencies
Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender Currencies (pdf)
Three eBooks on Money and Debt (pdf links)
There's a lot of LETS/Currency software activity going on
Here's a few links:
http://twenteenthcentury.com/uo/index.php/FacultyEconometrics
http://www.openmoney.org/
http://ccit.wji.com/tiki-directory_browse.php?parent=36
Alternative currency implementation issues
When I first met Michael Linton (creator of LETS)he was about to upgrade his "database" from a telephone answering machine and a notebook to a DOS system with dBase II. The problem remained, however, that a human had to receive the transaction request and do something with it. Because of the way a LETS works, that human had to be available in a timely manner to handle balance inquiries.
Today, with cheap computers, virtually free web hosting and the Internet these problems can be quickly and economically addressed. Even in a society where computers mainly exist in Internet cafes it would be relatively easy to implement a LETS where balance inquiries and transactions could be handled using a touchtone telephone. Reports, when desired, could be accessed from an Internet cafe.
Thus, a LETS-like alternative currency is easy and practical for a lot of places in the world. Unfortunately, where I live, only a small minority of the people have telephones. While the concept of barter and even open accounts (the small store knows who you are and where you live and you can pay them at the end of the month) a technology-based solution is not appropriate.
It would seem that for this sort of environment a printed alternative currency would be most practical. I know of places in the U.S. and Australia where this has been done but I am not aware of any third world implementations. I would appreciate pointers to any such systems.
Everything you say makes
Everything you say makes sense, real time information in currency issues is an important factor to succeed with transactions. I know because I had this problem for a long time now and that make me turn for Forex signal. It's quite a change for me and they know how to prove their proficiency.
Printed Alternatives
The problem with this is that in most countries, it's illegal to make and use alternative currencies. It used to be common in the US for states to issue their own notes, but this hasn't been true for some time.