Re: <nettime> Bitcoin, the end of the Taboo on Money

[ernie@openmoney.org]

"As monetary alternatives, I find the idea of local currencies like the
Puma in Sevilla
(https://monedasocialpuma.**wordpress.com/<https://monedasocialpuma.wordpress.com/>,
and hundreds of other LETS schemes) much more interesting, as they rely on
building a real community of people geared towards helping each other."

for anybody interested in the evolution of LETSystems, there are some very
interesting developments on the wet coast of canada where it all started...
http://communityway.ca and a food network community currency using the same
model http://seedstock.ca/ in the vancouver region - the openmoney platform
enables any community, any network, any association to create its own
mutual credit currency, just like creating egroups on yahoo, google, etc.

there have been many impediments to its development, not the least being a
lack of resources for software but we're getting close - what we've learned
about trying to turn people on to the idea of creating and using their own
moneys is that it is almost impossible to describe/explain a new paradigm,
people need to experience using community currencies to understand their
implications.

as for bitcoin, here's jordan bober, developer of seedstock: "As misguided
as it is, Bitcoin certainly has ended the taboo on money. If I had a
Bitcoin for every time someone has asked me about Bitcoin in the last few
months, I would be quite wealthy (causing others to be poor, or course)."

ey


On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 1:29 AM, Carsten Agger <agger@modspil.dk> wrote:

> Florian Cramer wrote:
>
>  What I fail to understand is why you consider this a political gain
>> (to quote your paper):
>>
>
> Felix Stalder wrote:
>
>  Or, if you see "the state" inherently tied to dominant interests and
>> therefore working against the interests of the majority. And then, the
>> current state of affairs would be merely a more open display of what
>> which is normal, though usually less well visible. This is, basically,
>> the anarchist/libertarian position.
>>
>> If you believe the latter, then I think one of the difficulties lies
>> in how to fight "the state" (say, through promoting bitcoin) without
>> falling onto the trap of promoting the market as the alternative form
>> of marco-coordination (which is what US-type libertarians advocate).
>
> First of all, the problem of no state control and of taxation will soon be
> moot, I think. For the moment Bitcoin exists in a legal limbo, but as their
> value and importance continue to increase, states will start treating them
> as assets with a market value which must be declared - as some sort of
> digital gold.
 <...>


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