Open Letter to the Builders of the New Economy

 

Let’s face it – we’re socially retarded.

 

Our social institutions, beliefs, culture and politics are not keeping pace with rapidly changing technology, information, environment and the economy.  We cling to familiar old patterns and structures until we’re blindsided by sudden, necessary changes.

 

Most of us know at some level that the old financial systems are beyond repair, but we are simply not ready to let go of them yet. Unfortunately, that won’t prevent their collapse.

 

We Need to be Building Real Alternatives

 

Look. The powers behind today's monetary system not only know the collapse is coming, but are actively partaking in it's demise.  They will step up to offer a new alternative (that they still control) and exert their influence to be sure it's adopted.  The question is whether we will continue to surrender our power to choose what we value and how to measure it back to them again, or whether we will reclaim those capacities for ourselves.

 

Let me paint a picture… Twenty-five years ago if you had a decent size business and needed to select computer platforms for increasing the productivity of your business, the "safe" choices were obvious. All options were proprietary, and you generally went with a big-named player who was likely to be setting the standards and still be around to support the applications in a few years.

 

*** Loose notes about what needs to be written. ***

Open sourcing our currencies creates choice ...

 

The idea of many currencies competing for attention and value may seem to you like chaos at first. Normally we refer to that particular kind of chaos a free market.

 

 

Currency Infrastructure Required for an Open Economy

1. Open Transport
2. Open Rules
3. Open Data (with Intrinsic Data Integrity)

A couple of paragraphs about 1,2,3 with links for going deeper.

 

Open Transport

 

Open Rules

without visible rules, how can you play the game. accountability

New kind of accountability, open accountability (a la wikipedia)

Open Data

 

*** End Notes ***

 

Help Us Make This Happen in Time

 

This is a definitely a case where timing is everything. The more useful currencies that we can have up and operating BEFORE the complete collapse of the old financial infrastructure, the better off we all are. There will be less chaos, panic and disorientation if we have viable alternatives to turn to which help us feed, house and care for ourselves and our families. 

 

We are working on this as fast as we can, yet we are still having to operate in the old economy, paying our bills, our programmers, buying things the old way. This means that building the infrastructure for the new economy remains a perpetual side-project not moving as quickly as it could if we could devote our full-time energies to it.  We need help.

 

Funders: All financial assets in the old economy are on their way to being worthless as it all unravels. If you have holdings that you’d like to see ensure some tangible future wealth for you, your family or your community, then investing in the capacity to create and manage that wealth directly is the wise decision. Help us build the infrastructure tools of the new economy so we can help you create new kinds of financial assets independent of the collapsing banks and national currencies. We’ve put about $350,000 of our own time and money into this so far and it will probably take another $500,000 to get these tools launched. Mobilize your dying assets while they’re still worth something.

 

Geeks: We need all kinds of technical help: coding, designing, testing, documentation, UI, hosting, scripting, etc. If you have something to offer in this domain, come to http://projects.metacurrency.org, create an account, tell us how you can best contribute and you’ll get the inside track to the work in progress and the tasks at hand.

 

Community Leaders: Economic theories may be interesting, but we’re much more interested in application. If you are part of a community which needs tools to facilitate the movement of resources, building of trust, setting up of incentives or participation metrics and measures, then you should be looking at implementing a currency. We have currency designers who can help you get started, but the real work is in bringing people on board.  We need you and you need us.

 

People Who Understand: If you don’t fit in one of those other categories, but you can see the value and importance of building a solid infrastructure for our financial future -- an infrastructure no longer ruled by wealthy oligarchs, but under the care and management of the people who use it.  We need you to spread the word. It is hard to shed some of the old sacred cows and assumptions of industrial age economics, but there are many others who are ready to start.  Send them this letter. Publish it on your blog. Take back control of your finances and your future.

 

You can add yourself the list of builders of the new economy at [link]

 

Core Team:

Greg Berry – Boulder, CO

Arthur Brock – Denver, CO

Eric Harris-Braun – Canaan, NY

Fernanda Ibarra – Mexico City, Mexico

Alan Rosenberg – Portland, OR

Jean Russell – Chicago, IL

Katin Imes - Portland, OR

Adam King - New Haven, CT

Georg Pleger - Innsbruck, Austria

 

Advisory Team:

Anita Burke ?

Umair Haque?

Bernard Lietaer?

Jean-Francois Noubel?

Douglas Rushkoff?