social financial ventures and alternative finance
Not sure if this is the best place, but as the reply comment I sent to the two different places of the social venture posts Darren mentions does not seem to show up, I’ll paste it here for now…
In reply to
http://edgeryders.ppa.coe.int/blog/2012/11/edgeryders-are-going-into-the-banking-business-and-staffing-up-are-you-with-us/
Dante:
You might be interested to plug into ( or may already be )
alternative complementary currency networks ?
Various nodes may be entrance points - generally most organizations or individuals who have been involved for at least a few years in alternative finance or alternative currencies. Perhaps you ? I can be. Though its nice to be able to connect to people active locally.
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Will be interesting to see the approach taken.
An organization doing ethical venture capital, based in San Francisco ( but connected globally )
It invests, lends, and gives
http://rsfsocialfinance.org/services/
it is itself, at least in terms of its philosophical background,
related to the Anthroposophic networks, which inspired banks - the ones with licenses ( to create credit ) , such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triodos_Bank or the GLS in Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLS_Bank
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And such approaches can be complemented with alternative currency architectures...
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For example, communityforge hosts about 400 ( or a bit more ) community currencies / local exchange systems ( LETS ) who use its drupal extension(s).
http://communityforge.net/
The drupal extensions themselves are under gpl license, for anyone wishing to use them on their own drupal platform. ( There is also a inter-lets option , for exchanges between users of different exchange communities , and a hospitality network with members related to the wider networks http://route-des-sel.org/ )
using a mutual credit monetary architecture , based on sufficiency - IOU's created through mutual debt between peers , not needing centralized debt to a bank.
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As you may know, there are also other systems in development. Some of them focused on enabling a p2p relay / clearing approach in financial transactions. ( or at least, that is how I understand it )
For example, Ripple http://ripple-project.org/
It can be used to transfer and clear various kinds of units.
More recently, a commercial service is being developed, which may use the open source technology for the transfer of, for example, Bitcoins...
http://ripple.com/
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There are also other architectures and approaches to alternative finance. Some of them more "mainstream", based on mainstream commercial bank credit.
For example, this tool which may make it easier for groups to manage their money ( up in 2013 ? )
https://holvi.com/
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And then offcourse, also other kinds of banking , such as saving pools.
http://p2pfoundation.net/Savings_Pool
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Lets note that unless one has a license to open up a bank, one requires 100 percent guarantees in existing credit ( or paper money ).
In the Eurozone, or at least in Belgium, I believe one requires a minimum of 6,8 million euros of equity, which in itself does not guarantee to be able to receive the license ( I imagine various other conditions may apply ? )
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Hence, a cooperative banking model, with 100 percent backing, may be possible.
Such as the JAK BANK ( a savings pool )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAK_Members_Bank
Some interesting videos about JAK bank online :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW2pj109Cr8
more :
http://www.diigo.com/user/dante-gabryell/jak
http://delicious.com/deliciousdante/jak
Some contacts have been made , as there is an entity related to JAK , called CAJA, which publishes a paper, and supports the set up of similar kinds of structures in other places.
I am also aware that a danish guy is developing a software to further support such kind of savings pool. Get in touch with me if you are interested in finding synergies.
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Then, there is also another model which requires 100 percent equity backing.
Its the Freigeld model. Or "Regio Currencies". Such as the Chiemgauer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freigeld
http://www.diigo.com/user/dante-gabryell/freigeld
In its architecture, it includes what is called "Demurrage", or a cost to hoarding money.
Hence this creates an incentive to circulate the currency in the economy of users of such currency.
Various models exist. One model enables purchase of the currency for mainstream commercial banking credit / or mainstream paper bank notes,
and enables to re-exchange the freigeld for such currency; with a slight loss.
Both demurrage and the slight loss if on needs to re-exchange it for, lets say, euros or pounds ( for example, a shop which requires to pay some of its suppliers in euros ),
enable to create small margins to fund the management of the system.
The demurrage and exchange cost also creates an incentive for finding others within the economic network of currency users, who can provide similar goods or services. Instead of purchasing products from the other side of the world, people may prefer purchasing a local product. Combination of non hoarding / circulation of money in the economy with incentives for enabling it to flow locally. This aims at the strenghtening of the local economy. But one could also imagine such approach within a network such as Edgeryders, which could be more spread out over space.
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I wish to go a few steps further, or rather, facilitate synthesis of various of these alternative economic and financial practices,
by enabling such information systems to build up contextual information,
which in turn can support individual and emergent decision making.
Some software is in development.
You can read some introductions via
http://www.automenta.com/netention
http://netention.org/
My interpretation of the potentials of netention, or at least, applications I wish to use it for, is, through descriptions of future and current contexts or desired contexts,
including needs, available or potential resources,
agents / entities / individuals / organisations
can make engagements towards each other.
As engagements / pledges and transactions based on these interdependencies unfold,
reputation of the users builds up, in effect creating visibility for additional forms of alternative ( reputation and social ) capital.
Various currencies can easily emerge, as they can be created based on contracts defined as metadata.
For example, a mutual credit IOU expressed in hours can simply be metadata related to a transaction between peers. If peers choose to trust their networks of peers, using for example ripple like protocols, such hour IOU protocol could be cleared through other transactions.
The context building through netention like tools also enables queries and matching between needs and offers, or also enables to understand where there may be needs and what solutions may require development.
A netention like tool facilitates allocation of attention based on our own ( intentional ) preferences and on our histories of transactions ( if we choose to )
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Probably much more to say on thses topics...
Looking forward to further conversations and , hopefully, shared engagements around shared visions.
more links shared via
http://www.diigo.com/user/dante-gabryell/alternativeeconomics
http://www.diigo.com/user/dante-gabryell/alternativefinance
http://www.diigo.com/user/dante-gabryell/complementarycurrencies
http://www.diigo.com/user/dante-gabryell/alternativebanking
also see p2pfoundation links ?
For example Categories on the wiki such as
http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Peerfunding
etc
