Mutual Credit
Initiatives to remove the economic growth imperative caused by debt-based and commodity currency systems are inspiring and exciting.
Digital Coin is the work of Canadian Paul Grignon, and the concept is a self-issued credit from a specific supplier for a specific commodity which can be used freely, globally and digitally as a medium of exchange until it’s expiry date and/or it is redeemed by the issuer and extinguished. Put simply, this is credit such as vouchers, miles and points given out to potentially loyal customers by those with the capacity to provide services and products we all need. This contrasts starkly with the debt-based commodity money we rely on from banks, who produce nothing and only maintain accounting services that can now be done more efficiently by computer systems.
One day in the not too distant future, the software that is currently being developed by companies such as Mutual Credit Services will make it possible to use these vouchers to buy almost anything.
Another such innovation is MUTUAL CREDIT ON THE HOLOCHAIN.
As a provider of valued services (accommodation) and goods (garden produce), I have trialled [sic] issuing vouchers primarily as a practical demonstration of how this currency of the future works (see below). These vouchers, issued in return for a favor, are simply hand-written on the reverse of a business card and can be redeemed with me. However, at such as small scale, it has the negative effect of transactionalizing the gift economy. It is important that a rival currency is viable and at a sufficiently large scale.
I spent nearly three years as President of Brisbane Local Exchange Trading System.
Equanimity vouchers (September 2015)
In continuing the advocacy and learning of better currency systems, Equanimity Foundation’s vouchers will be known as credits and they will be tracked online via a manually updated ledger showing creation, value and expiry dates of credits.
The credits themselves will be issued as business cards on or offline:
Equanimity Foundation BCs – 55×85
with the following details on the reverse:
Credit = $ ___. ___
Redeemable for Equanimity Foundation produce (as advertised on the Food and Plants page of the Foundation’s blogsite) and payable to the bearer on or before ________________ .
Thank you to Lillian Geddes of Mutualism Queensland for recommending the following article entitled Currency is Destiny: new currencies for new times.
Equanimity 