Money Design Guide

OSE Opinion Piece

The institution of money is perhaps the greatest Structural Evil in its current implementation. Centralized control of it via Keynesian Economics relies on a fundamental disconnect between money and substance - substituting that substance with belief. This is like belief in mysticism prior to the Enlightenment - and is a fundamental flaw in how money works. Predictable boom-bust cycles, manipulation, and speculation are natural byproducts. A solution could be money tied more directly to durable resources, and discounted over time for perishable resources. Money for intangible resources such as love or humility may a bad idea, as it appears too subjective - so money should stick to backing by material goods critical to survival. Sound money thus implies distributed, open production. It could be coined by Universal Basic Assets enterprises, or individuals acting in the same capacity. Methods such as transparent, distributed accounting (blockchain ledger), open source distribution of productive knowhow and technology, and collaborative design can fix the money issue.

How do you design better money?

1. Distribute the coining of money - any distributed, open source productive activity or microfactory at sufficient robustness may be in a good position to coin its own money.
2. Use a transparent ledger. Document that supply of money, and credits and debits of individuals.
3. Create parallel but interoperable systems. Create many parallel currencies, with known exchange rates, including exchange rates with fiat currencies.
4. Create value standards - how much money can be coined for a given productive activity and product
5. Connect value to directly measurable hard goods, and perishable goods with time discount. Coin money upon production of hard goods.
6. Do not coin money from creative activity, just from physical products
7. Teach people what money is and isn't. Backed, unbacked, and fiat currency.
8. Replace fractional reserve banking with collaborative funding. Replace banks with distributed banks with distributed and transparent accounting (blockchain)
9. Open source all technology to increase fluidity of money creation
10. Allow centrally controlled and manipulated system to coexist with real money, so that people can have a choice between fiat currency and real money.