| Carsten Agger on Sat, 3 Mar 2018 10:34:44 +0100 (CET) |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
| Re: <nettime> Josh Hall: Blockchain could reshape our world – and the far right is one step ahead (Guardian) |
On 03/03/2018 09:20 AM, Patrice Riemens wrote:
And then, cryptocurrencies don't make very much economic sense either. Their only merit is have bootstrapped rethinking money and currencies - even though not necessarily in the 'right' direction.
Talking about monetary alternatives, I find LETS currencies much more interesting, such as (e.g.) the Puma in Seville, https://monedasocialpuma.wordpress.com/
One important difference from Bitcoin etc. is that the scope of LETS currencies are strictly local - they simply don't work outside of their area. Also, they are strictly community-based, meaning that they will only work if you build a community around them or use them to strengthen an existing one - they are much more collectivist, even "socialist" or at least left anarchist in mobilizing local communities around, e.g., the creation of food markets; thirdly, this means that their value as a currency is directly proportional to how much the money circulate - the more they do, the more of the local economy is being build by people in that locality itself, and the better; but fourthly, that also means that these currencies are complimentary and can't stand alone (you can't by oil or electric power with money that's only good in your own neighbourhood).
If we want to rethink money, there are many more directions in which to go than the cryptocurrencies' neoliberal vision of a return to the gold standard. The concept of "aging money" as defended in Michael Ende's novel "Momo", among other places, is an example.
Nice weekend to everyone! Carsten # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: