Michael Linton on Open Money

http://www.gnomedex.com/ – A paradigm shift happens in it’s own time, whether we like it or not. Sometimes you can see it coming, and if that happens, it gives you a bit of room. Sometime in the next few years, everyone in this room will be using Open Money in addition to regular money.

We went from logs to wheels, which means material and mass to function. The financial industry has not moved past the logs. We haven’t addressed what the money is.

The theory of money – the general condition of money is that it is a commodity that is issued in a certain amount. It is a zero-sum game. If everyone created it, it would be valueless. In conventional money, the banks create it and we use it. You print it, they get mad. When money comes, it goes, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. When you spend it, it doesn’t come back.

Money is trickling down and pouring away. When it all dries out, conceive of a virtual barrel. This is a self-managing closed network. In a closed network, it can be large or small, measure in any unit, and the rules are agreed upon by those in the network. It is a quasi-tribal economy.

Community currencies are not replacements or alternatives for money. They are used with money. It is tax accountable where tax applies. Not imcompetition with anything, not impeded or in conflict. It is open, but not public. You can keep your transactions private.

Markets are conversations, and if there is no money around the conversation goes away. Money is the medium. Conventional money carries one way, open money carries in others. Open money is to normal as a laser is to a flashlight.

Money is the ultimate social network.