#FairCoop | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

criptomonedasfavoritas · 6 years

Text

Criptomonedas en la economía circular de comunidades

Había empezado a escribir un ensayo bastante extenso sobre las complejidades de lo que llamamos, a veces muy ingenuamente, Economía Circular. Pero dudo que alguien lo fuera a leer. Así que he decidido hacer algo mucho más corto sobre un par de casos de uso concretos.

Comunidad Económica (CE) es un conjunto de Unidades Económicas (UE) próximas (personas, productoras, comercios...) que pueden relacionarse entre sí fácilmente en un territorio determinado.

Economía Circular (EC) es, idealmente, la capacidad de una CE para sostenerse con sus propios recursos y llevar a efecto relaciones económicas voluntarias y satisfactorias con otras Comunidades.

La salud de una EC en una CE se puede deducir del porcentaje de UE que son productoras y consumidoras a la vez, es decir, reciben pero también dan algo. En algunos contextos se usa la palabra “prosumidoras”. Cuánto más alto sea el porcentaje de prosumidoras, mejor, ya que hay muchos elementos que aportan al sistema y no solo consumen los recursos.

En una hipotética CE que no use dinero como medio de intercambio habitual en realidad la moneda es el trabajo y lo que se consume es el producto del trabajo. Si todos consumen pero no trabajan, es insostenible.

Pero algo similar ocurre cuando es el dinero el medio de intercambio. Si por alguna razón muchas UE tuvieran dinero pero fueran meras consumidoras del producto del trabajo de otras se alcanzaría rápidamente una situación insostenible. Las UE productoras acabarían con una gran cantidad de dinero que no podrían utilizar en la Comunidad y, en consecuencia, se produciría un colapso.

¿Qué novedad aporta el uso de una criptomoneda a la economía circular de una comunidad?

Partiendo de las condiciones reales de la economía en el mundo, la aceptación de criptomonedas supone para las distintas CE una gran ventaja:

independencia de entidades controladoras, Estados, sistemas bancarios e intermediarios financieros.

Pero también un inconveniente:

cambios constantes en el valor referencial de la criptomoneda dado que éste está determinado por la oferta y la demanda en un mercado especulativo.

Aún así el inconveniente no es grave ya que:

1.- No es difícil vender la criptomoneda rápidamente en tales mercados para obtener otra moneda que cada UE considere más útil o apropiada para ese momento lo que puede ser otra cripto o moneda fiat.

2.- Es plausible que, tratándose de una criptomoneda de emisión finita, se prefiera ahorrar en todo o en parte esperando que su valor referencial sea mayor en el futuro, dado que su implantación y uso son progresivamente mayores.

Así que el uso de una criptomoneda en una CE conlleva ventajas y no demasiados inconvenientes. Más aún si esa moneda es adoptada por Comunidades Económicas (CCEE) unidas por objetivos o ideales comunes que la aceptan como parte de su propia cultura económica.

Esto último aún no ha sucedido de una forma evidente más que con una: Faircoin que, como sigue un modelo económico particular, presenta características específicas con sus propios retos.

EL CASO FAIRCOIN

Como ya he tratado muchas veces de esta moneda me centraré en el asunto que atañe a este artículo: la creación de CCEE con EC usando Faircoin.

Características adicionales

- Existe una doble valoración del Faircoin: la de los mercados, como casi todas las demás criptomonedas y también el valor consensuado por la propia Comunidad Global que la ha adoptado (Faircoop).

- El compromiso de Faircoop de cambiar Faircoin a moneda Fiat al precio consensuado a cualquier UE afin a los ideales de la Comunidad que precise ese cambio.

Para entender el enorme reto que esto representa y, aún, su viabilidad tenemos que entender también la realidad de cómo se aplica el concepto de CE a Faircoop. Realmente no hay una CE global sino pequeñas e incipientes CCEE locales más o menos desarrolladas.

CE Local es toda red de productoras, comerciantes y consumidoras que pueden interactuar entre sí con facilidad. Básicamente es el concepto faircoopiano de Nodo Local.

Caso hipotético:

Si en tales CCEE Locales se aceptaran y se movieran Faircoin al precio variable de mercado, tampoco habría más inconveniente que los propios de cualquier otra criptomoneda que, como hemos visto, no son inconvenientes graves ni mucho menos. Las aplicaciones monedero o wallets mostrarían el valor referencial del momento y las relaciones económicas se llevarían a efecto con normalidad. Podría cambiarse a moneda Fiat o facilitarse ese cambio en cualquier momento.

Por otra parte, persistiría la ventaja de las criptomonedas finitas que, creciendo la comunidad que las usa, su valor referencial respecto a las monedas inflacionarias de los Estados, podría ir aumentando. Con ese aumento de valor, el poder adquisitivo de las personas que tienen esa criptomoneda también aumenta y todo esto se produce de una forma en la que nadie resulta perjudicado.

Caso actual:

Pero, si en las CCEE Locales se mueve y acepta Faircoin al precio consensuado por la comunidad y este es notoriamente mayor que el precio determinado por los mercados, nos situamos en una posición que requiere una enorme inteligencia y capacidad de maniobra ágil para que dichas CCEE Locales sean viables.

Nótese que, a todos los efectos, las CCEE Locales se comportan como pequeños Estados independientes (económicamente hablando).

MIentras el valor de mercado y el valor consensuado son tan diferentes las CCEE Locales pueden, en cualquier momento, recibir entradas masivas de Faircoin procedentes de cualquier UE con un rol meramente consumidor. Y esas situaciones no serían sostenibles ya que esos Faircoin tendrían que ser cambiados al valor consensuado (desgraciadamente mucho más alto que el del mercado) drenando rápidamente las reservas de Fiat de Faircoop.

De ahí que las soluciones no pueden ser simplemente buscar otras entradas insostenibles de Fiat que volvieran a ser drenadas aún más rápidamente.

Es muy importante considerar operativas más lógicas. Entre ellas:

- Volver a consensuar a la baja el valor previamente consensuado. Esto es algo que parece incompatible con las propuestas fundacionales de Faircoop. Y, en todo caso, una bajada modesta tampoco solucionaría el asunto salvo que se llegase a igualar aproximadamente con el valor de mercado. Otra aproximación sería establecer un valor consensuado variable pero más estable, revisándolo, por ejemplo, cada mes. Tampoco es perfecto pero es una propuesta novedosa y flexible.

- Que todas las UE establezcan límites (diarios/semanales/mensuales/totales) de la cantidad de Faircoin que pueden aceptar de forma sostenible. Y así que cada una de ellas solo maneje cantidades que pueda asimilar, utilizar o ahorrar sin tener que cambiar a Fiat.

- Reforzar las redes en base a UE prosumidoras (consumen pero también producen, dan y reciben a la vez). Dicho de otra manera: aceptar Faircoin al 100% entre UE prosumidoras y no aceptar o aceptar en un % a las meramente consumidoras. Esto implica aceptar Faircoin siguiendo un modelo similar al de las monedas de crédito mútuo, modelo que podría hacerse mucho más flexible en cuanto las posibilidades de cambiar Fair a Fiat mejoren.

Estas son las características especiales de Faircoin. Como he dicho siempre, es una experiencia económica única en la historia que merece toda nuestra atención, respeto e, incluso, participación activa. Sin embargo, también hay que señalar que precisa una capacidad de maniobra rápida para lidiar con un sistema económico capitalista que no tendrá el menor reparo en destruirla si no se puede o no se sabe maniobrar con la suficiente celeridad e inteligencia.

También, como he dicho siempre, soy optimista.

#criptomonedas #FairCoin #economía circular

0 notes

lewisgabriel84z31 · 6 years

Text

Faircoin: The Small Price of $0.22 Can be Worth Millions

Faircoin, this asset is worth only $0.22. Something so small can’t even register on the global financial radar. Even in crypto exchanges, if we look at daily trading volume it’s nothing more than a slight glitch.

Ranked at 1134 on CoinMarketCap, this little asset presents a very reliable lifeline for its users. According to Sporos, a crypto enthusiast based in Athens, faircoin can be found everywhere in the world. He says he hasn’t relied on banking services for no less than 8 years thanks to this asset. If we look at the events from the last decade or so, Sporos’ definitely did well to stay away from banks.

Located in an anarchist stronghold in Athens, Sporos runs a faircoin information center. There are over a few hundred similar centers located all around the world. The centers are stocked with many homemade products like honey, soap, perfume, olive oil, tea and even jewelry. Of course all the products vary depending on the location on the center, but they all have one thing in common. They can all be purchased with faircoin.

If the provided information is accurate, we’re looking at over 620 centers all around the world. Sporos refers to them as the ecosystem of faircoin. This ecosystem includes a transportation sharing app combined with an AirBnB alternative and faircoin-based financial institution. The institution is called the Bank of Commons and is completely tax-free.

Faircoin redefines being human

In this global network, nodes aren’t exactly nodes. Usually, nodes are the computers, but in the faircoin ecosystem each human is a node. This node forges the links between local initiatives and the global ones. This is referred to as a FairCoop.

The people or nodes of this ecosystem have their agreement and they always trade faircoin at a fixed rate of €1.2. This consensus was reached back in January by an assembly of faircoin nodes. Essentially, this completely invalidates the official price at CoinMarketCap.

The story of faircoin finds its origins back in 2014. This cryptocurrency was abandoned by its initial creator. By all accounts he intended to use it as a pump-and-dump scheme. The project was later discovered by Enric Duran, who has strong anarchistic beliefs.

He had his rise to fame when he robbed almost €500 000 in loans from Spanish banks back in 2008. He later founded a post-capitalist collective named the Catalan Integral Cooperative (CIC). It’s from the website of CIC that Duran started organizing the faircoin community. He managed to transform the small community into an international body named FairCoop. FairCoop is always looking for other likeminded groups to start new initiatives.

Especially with the reputation most crypto projects currently have, faircoin is very easily distinguished. This community is run mostly on trust. The coin was originally build on the proof-of-stake protocol, but in 2017 a new protocol was made titled “proof-of-cooperation” (PoC). This is very light-weight consensus mechanism, which runs on a set of 19 raspberry pies.

Faircoin is in a league of its own

This is a complete counter to the competitive nature of mining. PoC requires all 19 nodes to collaborate in order to validate a block. They are paid for doing so in transaction fees. The block creators require an approval from the FairCoop assembly. This assembly consists of around 280 faircoin users responsible for the decision making.

This of course will push away some of the interested users because this means faircoin has a big vulnerability to centralization effects. Even so, those interested can look forward to an interesting project that can give the start to something new.

You can also check out:

Crypto Legislation Bill in Russia Considered a Failure by Experts

Dubai Will Use an Official Blockchain-Powered System

Bitcoin Rat Pops Up on Wall Street: Ready to Tear Down the Fed

Sidechain: New Bitcoin Sidechain Will Allow ICOs on Bitcoin

The post Faircoin: The Small Price of $0.22 Can be Worth Millions appeared first on CoinStaker | Bitcoin News.

https://ift.tt/2ROrsAU

0 notes

ericrsminia · 7 years

Text

Watch video on YouTube here: [FAIRCOOP FAIRCOIN] - 3 Simple Ways Of Earning With CryptoCurrency - Bitcoin - FairCoop FairCoin [FAIRCOOP FAIRCOIN] - 3 Simple Ways Of Earning With CryptoCurrency - Bitcoin - FairCoop FairCoin ►► http://ift.tt/2eMHb1x ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Simple Crypto Profits is a newbie-proof course how anyone can profit from the CryptoCurrency Boom. Profit Now From The CryptoCurrency Boom! Use My Newbie-Proof Course To Leverage New CryptoCoins Being Launched and Start Earning Extra Cash Today! Learn how to profit from new cryptocurrencies being released Be in full control of your own portfolio, no programs to join Easy to follow guidance, even if you are a complete newbie to cryptocoins Start with a small portfolio of coins and see their value grow! Start EARNING in less than a day Short and to the point videos showing you everything Learn how to profit from mining your own coins Proof (in just one day) cryptogeld We explain how to trade cryptocurrency The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Cryptocurrency Investing Latest Blog Posts on Best Cryptocurrency Ico List by top mobile app developers The Monaco Visa Card offers the world's first cashback program for any cryptocurrency credit card service TOP 5 CRYPTOCURRENCY TO INVEST IN 2017 Your trusted source for Cryptocurrency Crash 2017 videos and the latest top stories in world Cryptocurrency Definition - Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency that uses cryptography for security and anti-counterfeiting measures Cryptocurrency meaning in tamil: Cryptocurrency | Learn detailed meaning of cryptocurrency in tamil dictionary with audio prononciations, definitions and usage , active in the promotion and dissemination of cryptocurrency OneCoin About cryptocurrency ppt is Not Asked Yet Cryptocurrency trading guide reddit This site makes it completely painless to research everything when it comes to cryptocurrency trading guide pdf Bitcoin to ethereum exchangecryptocurrency trading tips redditzasady gry w ruletkę porównanie brokerów kurierskich Induji Technologies is the top result-driven development company offers cryptocurrency trading platform software development service The leading cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken has expanded its offering by including support for a new crypto asset —Tether (USDT) Cryptocurrency trading platform reddit Searching for the best information about cryptocurrency trading platform uk in bitcoin 800 cryptocurrency trading pairs Looking for cryptocurrency trading platform reviews in best stock trading site cryptocurrency trading platform uk org - My CryptoCurrency Trading Bot Review binary options beast download · cryptocurrency trading bot strategy · etoro like sites · http://www com/anyoption-license · cryptocurrency trading bot reddit · searchingprofits auto binary options trading Looking for cryptocurrency trading bot github in best ethereum mining pool cryptocurrency trading blog Latest Blog Posts on Top Cryptocurrency List by top mobile app developers 50 most popular cryptocurrency exchange websites trading Bitcoin, Litecoin and their forks We would like to thank you for visiting us in looking for “Cryptocurrency Exchange Rates API” online The price would be around 130-300€ but because of cryptocurrency mining gpu prices have risen throw the roof Cryptocurrency Mining Hardware Comparison By Hashing Algorithm Cryptocurrency Mining Hardware Guide - Ethereum + Siacoin Cryptocurrency Mining Hardware India If you want to make up to cryptocurrency, New Crypto backed by silver, silver back currency, silver digital currency, SLVR digital currency, silver, SLVR mine, crypto backed by silver, silver tokens, silver coins, digibyte minecraft, digibyte crash, digibyte up, buy Stratis, Blitzcash, digibyte, Crypto crash, cryptocurrency crash 2017, what happened crypto, should i sell my crypto, buy steem cheap, buy dogecoin cheap, cryptocurrency millionaire, list of cryptocurrencies: Bitfinex Bittrex Poloniex Stratis Nexus Expanse Civic OmiseGO Bitcoin Cash TenX Pay Token Verge InfluxCoin Ethereum Bitcoin Litecoin Dogecoin Vertcoin Peercoin Feathercoin ReddCoin NXT Dash PotCoin BlackCoin Einsteinium Myriad AuroraCoin UltraCoin MazaCoin ElectronicGulden GoldCoin FairCoin SolarCoin PesetaCoin Groestlcoin Gulden RubyCoin WhiteCoin MonaCoin BitStarCoin OrangeCoin HempCoin EnergyCoin SaffronCoin EuropeCoin NautilusCoin VeriCoin CureCoin BlakeCoin XCurrency Dirac Boolberry Hyper CannaCoin Monero CloakCoin BitSend CryptCoin StartCoin KoreCoin DigitalNote TruckCoin TrustPlus NAVCoin StealthCoin ApexCoin BitcoinDark ViaCoin Triangles Unobtanium by Jolene Bloomingdale

#[FAIRCOOP FAIRCOIN] - 3 Simple Ways Of Earning With CryptoCurrency - Bitcoin - FairCoop FairCoin

0 notes

iniciativadebate · 7 years

Text

Bank of the Commons: el banco sin banqueros

El Salmón Contracorriente | 12 junio 2017

La semana pasada se lanzó el Bank of the Commons, una nueva herramienta del ecosistema FairCoop que ofrece alternativas para pagos y sistemas monetarios y que apoya la economía cooperativa a escala global y local.

Los sistemas de pagos están copados por los gigantes de las tarjetas bancarias: Visa, Mastercard y American Express dominan el mercado. Frente…

View On WordPress

#Bank of the Commons #ecosistema FairCoop #sistema bancario #sistemas de pagos #sistemas monetarios

0 notes

studios55 · 7 years

Text

II mercadillo EL OSEL

Creando nuestra propia riqueza

16 de diciembre 2017 de 10 a 14h Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Moratalla Os invitamos a conocer distintas posibilidades de intercambio

Estaremos presentes con purogustos de intercambio como ropa, libros y utensilios varios en el Rincón de Oportunidades donde puedes dejar lo que no necesitas y llevarte lo que te haga falta.

Especial ocasión para conocer las nuevas…

View On WordPress

#faircoin #FairCoop #formación #información #mercadillo #monedas sociales #Moratalla #Murcia #OSEL

0 notes

leftpress · 8 years

Text

Shock doctrine of the left: a strategy for building socialist counterpower

Graham Jones proposes a framework for a diverse movement to flourish

(Image: Protest march down 6th Avenue in NYC after Trump is announced winner of the US election)

2016 has been a chaotic year. Twice in the space of 6 months, we have been left reeling by a political event of global significance, with both the Brexit vote in June and the election of Trump in November. In both cases, we knew of the dates in advance, and the possibility of the outcome. And yet in neither case has the left been fully prepared for these moments. We are, as always, on the back foot.

In the weeks following Trump’s victory, many arguments have broken out over what is the best way for the left to move forward. Do we put all our energies into supporting radical electoral candidates like Jeremy Corbyn, or is the rise of fascism the final nail in the social democratic coffin? Do we focus on building egalitarian economic alternatives in the cracks, or smashing the state head-on? Or maybe we just ride it out, just try our best to build a culture of care for each other, to help us survive in this terrifying world before a better one comes along.

Get your Latest News From The Leftist Front on LeftPress.tk → Help Us Gather News (Click for Details) ←

These various ways of approaching social change tend to correspond to broad divisions on the left. For some, like certain revolutionary socialists, direct action to disrupt or destroy systems is the way. Others stay away from the state, creating their own economic alternatives which aim to take over in the future – in workers cooperatives, Transition towns, or creating the ‘digital commons’. A more interpersonal approach is taken in the formation of communities of care, such as among LGBT people, disabled people and people of colour, to try to create spaces and practices which enable marginalised people to survive in the here and now. And of course there’s the electoral route, currently en vogue among the radical left in Britain, aiming to support a social democratic candidate to take power through mainstream electoral means and reform its way to socialism. Drawing on and altering Erik Olin Wright’s typology of strategic logics, we might refer to these as Smashing, Building, Healing and Taming. Whilst these rarely occur in complete isolation from each other, the categories are useful for focusing our minds on the pros and cons of different approaches.

Taken alone, all of these strategies have failed. But all of them have also had their successes. An alternative is to combine their strengths and weaknesses into a coherent meta-strategy, aiming to unify the left around a common strategic framework whilst maintaining the autonomy of groups within it. This is not simply a vague ‘diversity of tactics’, but an analysis of how those different tactics and broader strategies can feed into one another. What follows is a proposal for such a framework; not a blueprint to be dogmatically followed, but an initial idea to be tried, tested, and adapted.

The vehicle for this meta-strategy is an ‘ecology of organisations’.

Core elements of the ecology

Numerous commentators have called for a turn towards an ecology of organisations – Plan C’s theory of the Social Strike, and Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek’s counter hegemonic project in Inventing the Future both rely on this concept. However, an outline of the features of such an ecology, or how it might be built, has yet to be specified. We can combine ideas from social movement studies literature, with those found in the study of ecological resilience and complex adaptive systems, for lessons in how to create a growing, dominant and resilient network of resistance and alternatives. We have to be careful of course, because for all the similarities of dynamics found between social systems and ecologies, they are not one and the same. Social systems are fundamentally maintained through communication of symbols and the capacity for conscious reflection, unlike material ecological systems. But with that proviso in mind, we can nonetheless bring together a series of conceptual tools for some guidance on building counterpower in a network society.

1. DNA

To begin with, each group should have an explicit ‘DNA’. Borrowing from the work of organiser Marshall Ganz, this means a clear and simple layout of their shared story, strategy and structure. The story of a group tells us what is wrong with the world and what could be right; the strategy spells out what the groups will do and what their theory of change is; while the structure reflects the groups principles and dictates how decisions are made.

An organisation’s DNA is used to replicate it virally but sustainably. Instead of a paid organiser slowly building up an organisation in a new area, you deliver a clear DNA through training to recruits, and allow them to work autonomously. This allows decentralised growth and collective action, without an internal hierarchy or command-and-control structure. Clear and replicable DNA also helps to combat the entropy often seen in rapidly growing organisations, such as the ideological drift and lack of strategic clarity of Occupy.

The ecology itself should also have a DNA, to ensure all groups are working in concert, without having to give up their autonomy, and without the ecology needing a leadership. The ‘unity’ is instead inscribed in the organisations themselves and their interactions, with a story, strategy and structure that can resonate together. It should for example make it clear that your alternatives refuse to be sucked into the existing capitalist system, and intend to replace it – as in the callout by Catalan Integral Cooperative for an international network of anti-capitalist cooperatives, which became the FairCoop principles.

2. Replication

The method of replication – and therefore growth – is face-to-face training. It must be comprehensive enough that people can leave with the confidence to start their own subgroup of an organisation immediately. It must contain clear processes for collective action without any top-down control. And it must be bodily and emotionally engaging enough to stir people to start organising.

Although there is no hierarchy to the ecology, there should however be one or more autonomous groups – possibly those who crafted the DNA – whose task is to help keep the ecology healthy and resilient, find where there are gaps, to offer subsequent training to continually develop groups and individuals, and to guide new people through the network. But they should have no decision making power over other groups whatsoever.

Another aspect of replication is training the trainers. Giving people the knowledge, tools and confidence to be able to host their own face-to-face trainings in their local area is key to viral replication, and helps gives a material, geographically contiguous basis to the ecology that can be missing with purely online virality.

3. Catalyst

Chaos is a final critical part of the mix, and is what makes this a ‘Shock Doctrine’. This term, coined by Naomi Klein, is usually applied to the neoliberal strategy of using moments of chaos to privatise public services, start wars, and spread their ideology. The left should be equally prepared for these moments, but instead use them to strengthen our ecology, and eventually (once at an appropriate size and breadth of function) to use that ecology to shut down failed capitalist systems.

Moments of both planned chaos (such as the buzz around a successful direct action and large media coverage) and unplanned chaos (from political events like Trump’s victory) blow apart social and psychological links, providing a short period of time in which systems are freed up to be reorganised. These are the moments for people to be brought into the ecology through training, for new organisations to be formed, and for new links between disparate groups to be established. We should constantly await these moments, and aim to create them ourselves.

The meta-strategy

The ecology’s DNA must take the four logics into account – Smashing, Building, Healing, Taming. It should, in other words:

– allow for direct action, where done specifically to create public support for the ecology,

– facilitate aid to that action through alternative organisations, such as delivering free food to strikes, or providing spaces to organise in,

– foster a caring atmosphere, with support for mental health issues, and a constructive, solidarity-based anti-oppression culture,

– allow people to engage with the state, but only on the basis of gaining reforms which support the ecology – roughly what Andre Gorz called ‘non-reformist reforms’.

The latter might be things like campaigning for the decriminalisation of squatting, removal of laws against solidarity strikes, or lowering the working week. The ecology should refuse to formally support any specific candidate or party – there should even be no mechanism which would allow anyone to make that decision for the whole ecology (though individual groups are free to support whoever they like). It should however be clear about its demands from any government, as encoded in its DNA. Autonomy from the state and political parties is crucial, as otherwise it risks being derailed for reformist means in the long run. But this cannot come at the expense of being able to affect decisions made by these actors. What must be avoided is tight coupling between systems – such as between a movement and a political party – which leaves one vulnerable to shockwaves passing through the other. Too tight an interlinkage would leave the ecology less resilient in the face of a changing environment. This is not to say that there shouldn’t be any engagement with electoral politics, but that a synchronisation of the entire ecology with any political party would be incredibly risky

With this DNA in place, along with the crucial mechanisms of replication (formal training/induction) and a catalyst (planned or unplanned chaos), the four strategies can then become four self-amplifying feedback loops which all strengthen the ecology:

Direct action creates moments of chaos, bringing new people in, and strengthening the ecology. This increased capacity is used to support and establish alternative organisations, which in turn provide material solidarity to those taking direct action (such as in Spain’s ‘solidarity economy‘). New entrants are inducted into an ethic of care from the get-go through the DNA, including an understanding of accountability processes, awareness of oppressive power relations, and of human social needs (such as having fun occasionally!). This makes for a more resilient movement, where those who normally drift away or become marginalised on the left can instead thrive. And as the ecology grows, it gains legitimacy as a political force. This means it is more likely to see the reforms it wants, specifically those which help to strengthen the ecology.

Each strategy is therefore contributing to the growth of the ecology. Energy is absorbed from the social environment in moments of chaos, and new people are empowered. People aren’t drifting away, entropy is reduced. Common goals, strategy and structure are set in the ecology’s DNA, without interfering with the autonomy of groups or individuals.

Grand strategy

So what then? How does our ecology become dominant? It might grow endlessly but still be outdone by capitalism, never mind the dangers of endless growth itself. This is where mass non-cooperation comes in – or if you prefer, the ‘general social strike’

First, the ecology must include local alternative democratic councils outside the state, allowing for coordination in the face of state collapse. This bears some resemblance into the classic strategy of dual power, but here, decentralisation through DNA is again crucial to help prevent these institutions being sucked back into a new authoritarian state.

Once the ecology is large enough, it demands that the state cedes control. If it refuses, we perform mass non-cooperation to shut down those systems. In the meantime, we support our alternatives to take over completely. Showing that our alternatives are capable of running without a centralised state or capitalist enterprises will provide them greater legitimacy, and embed them more deeply in the fabric of society. We can reiterate strikes if necessary to allow consecutive deepening of institutions and crushing of capitalism.

Just ‘organising a general strike’ might sound like wishful thinking, but a very similar model of DNA, replication and catalyst was successfully used by the Egyptian April 6 Movement, and also by the Serbian group Otpor to build a strike that toppled Milošević (though in the case of the latter, let’s not make their ridiculous error of accepting funding from the US government). Both of those movements failed partly because they had no strategy for what to do after the toppling of a regime, and so existing powerful actors took their place. In this alternative strategy, we have alternatives with a shared vision ready and waiting to take over at the moment of a revolutionary rupture.

For all of its horror and unpredictability, chaos is also highly productive – but only if we are properly prepared. In the run up to the US election, some were putting forward an ‘accelerationist’ argument for deliberately voting Trump, in order to cause chaos to the neoliberal order – much as those did who argued for a ‘Lexit’. The folly of this strategy is not so much that it can’t work, but that the left is in no way strong enough (nor for that matter, was a sophisticated enough strategy laid out) to deal with the catastrophic outcomes and prevent it from causing massive harm. Deliberate crisis should only be caused at first on a small scale, and then escalated over time, so that our infrastructure for dealing with the fallout matches the gravity of the chaos created. We are not there yet, not even close. But if we start today, we can create an ecology of organisations and practices that enable us to be ready for the next time society is turned on its head, and to use that to bring about a new world.

Related Stories on LeftPress:

► DEMOCRATIZE THE UNION: LET THE RANK-AND-FILE DECIDE!

► TURNING THE MARCH INTO A MOVEMENT

► IBM EMPLOYEES LAUNCH PETITION PROTESTING COOPERATION WITH DONALD TRUMP

26 notes · View notes

comunicacionabierta · 5 years

Link

One of the priority objectives of FairCoop is to build a new global economic system based on cooperation, ethics, solidarity and justice in our economic relations.

0 notes

crypterxmarket-blog · 6 years

Text

$0.22 Crypto Asset Became a Lifeline for Activists

That's how Athens-based crypto enthusiast named "Sporos" describes faircoin – a tiny, $0.22 asset that in terms of daily trading volume, is barely a glitch on global cryptocurrency exchanges. Although it's listed at number 1,134 on CoinMarketCap, faircoin users aren't phased by the market's disinterest. Instead, they pride themselves on faircoin's utility – which they say serves as nothing less than a lifeline. "I haven't used a bank in eight years," Sporos told Crypterx. Sporos was speaking from the heart of Exarcheia, an anarchist stronghold in Athens, where he maintains a faircoin information center. One of several hundred similar stations around the world, the center is stocked with homemade products like soaps, honey, olive oils, teas and jewelry, all available for purchase in faircoin. According to available data, there's an estimated 624 such centers worldwide, each part of what Sporos calls the "faircoin ecosystem," which includes a transportation sharing app, an AirBnB alternative and even a faircoin-based, tax-free financial institution called Bank of the Commons. Within this network, Sporos refers to himself as a "node." While typically referring to computers, in faircoin, a node is a human representative that forges links between local initiatives and the global faircoin community, also known as FairCoop. And those that are part of this cooperative trade faircoin – even with its price on CoinMarketCap far lower – for a fixed €1.20. It's a strict peg that was decided on by an assembly of faircoin users in January. But while the valuation has been reduced on public cryptocurrency exchanges, Sporos argues the underlying infrastructure remains resilient. He told Crypterx: "Even though if somebody looks at the market price and sees $0.22, and if you have €10,000 you can buy all the coins, and that's it, even though we have this very low price, our real economy is the people." Read the full article

0 notes

86xsite · 6 years

Link

“It exists everywhere.”

That’s how Athens-based crypto enthusiast named “Sporos” describes faircoin – a tiny, $0.22 asset that in terms of daily trading volume, is barely a glitch on global cryptocurrency exchanges. Although it’s listed at number 1,134 on CoinMarketCap, faircoin users aren’t phased by the market’s disinterest.

Instead, they pride themselves on faircoin’s utility – which they say serves as nothing less than a lifeline.

“I haven’t used a bank in eight years,” Sporos told CoinDesk.

Sporos was speaking from the heart of Exarcheia, an anarchist stronghold in Athens, where he maintains a faircoin information center. One of several hundred similar stations around the world, the center is stocked with homemade products like soaps, honey, olive oils, teas and jewelry, all available for purchase in faircoin.

According to available data, there’s an estimated 624 such centers worldwide, each part of what Sporos calls the “faircoin ecosystem,” which includes a transportation sharing app, an AirBnB alternative and even a faircoin-based, tax-free financial institution called Bank of the Commons.

Within this network, Sporos refers to himself as a “node.” While typically referring to computers, in faircoin, a node is a human representative that forges links between local initiatives and the global faircoin community, also known as FairCoop.

And those that are part of this cooperative trade faircoin – even with its price on CoinMarketCap far lower – for a fixed €1.20. It’s a strict peg that was decided on by an assembly of faircoin users in January.

But while the valuation has been reduced on public cryptocurrency exchanges, Sporos argues the underlying infrastructure remains resilient.

He told CoinDesk:

“Even though if somebody looks at the market price and sees $0.22, and if you have €10,000 you can buy all the coins, and that’s it, even though we have this very low price, our real economy is the people.” Abandoned project Speaking to CoinDesk, Sporos described faircoin as “totally the opposite” of all other cryptocurrencies.

“Aside from the blockchain, which is the same technology, the rest, why it is there, the people who use it, the past and the future of it, is totally the opposite,” Sporos said.

Created in 2014, faircoin didn’t originate from its current community. Rather, the cryptocurrency was discovered online by anti-capitalist activist Enric Duran, having been abandoned by its original creator (who allegedly created it as a pump-and-dump scheme).

“Faircoin was just another coin somebody made,” Sporos told CoinDesk. “Some friends found this abandoned project, they liked the name, they bought the coins from here and there with their money, they acquired 50 million out of 52 million.”

A legendary activist, Duran is known for robbing nearly half a million euros in loans from Spanish banks in 2008, before founding a post-capitalist collective, the Catalan Integral Cooperative (CIC).

“What they wanted to do was use the legal system and find bureaucratic loopholes to create their own internal economy and structure outside of the state, where people can satisfy their basic needs,” bitcoin developer and early faircoin technical advisor, Amir Taaki, told CoinDesk.

From his site in the CIC, Duran organized the fledging faircoin community into an international body, named FairCoop, that seeks collaborations with groups that share similar ideas.

At the time of writing, “nearly one thousand freelancers, cooperatives, worker-run businesses and small companies accept faircoin for their work and services,” that serve up to “15,000 users in total,” Duran and a faircoin core developer that wished to remain anonymous told CoinDesk in a joint statement.

Simply providing “tools for political disobedience,” Sporos said that faircoin often works in tandem with other local currency efforts, providing economic tools for communities to differentiate themselves from state forces.

“Faircoin doesn’t have an objective. Whoever uses it has an objective,” Sporos said. “It’s not a community, it’s many communities, collectives, cooperatives, individuals, even people who use it not based on ideology, but just as a tool.”

He continued:

“It’s just a tool, just a tool to avoid taxes, states, banks, whoever is monitoring your private life.” A trust-based system Consisting of small, community-oriented efforts internationally, faircoin is distinguished from other cryptocurrencies by its emphasis on trust, which is a defining security characteristic of its blockchain.

“We as faircoin advocates believe that human trust networked relations and decentralized technologies as the blockchain can and should be combined,” Duran and the anonymous core developer continued.

Initially built on proof-of-stake, faircoin switched to a new way to protect its cryptocurrency in 2017, named “proof-of-cooperation” – an ultra light-weight consensus mechanism that runs on a set of 19 raspberry pies.

“The whole system runs on 60 watts, so two light bulbs,” Sporos told CoinDesk.

Seeking to disable the competitive nature of bitcoin mining, proof-of-cooperation requires that all 19 of these nodes must collaborate in order to validate a block – a task for which they’re paid for in transaction fees. Compared to other cryptocurrencies, at a mere 19 block-producing nodes, the underlying group responsible for keeping the network moving are less broadly distributed.

And that’s because, in order to become one of these nodes, faircoin deploys a social vetting process – intended to protect its economy from bad actors, like hackers or speculators.

The underlying block creators – comprised of what is known as a “cooperatively validated node” – must be approved by the FairCoop assembly, a network of roughly 280 faircoin users responsible for making decisions, to ensure their ideological commitment to the project.

For some, this means faircoin is vulnerable to centralization affects, such as censorship resistance, but according to Duran, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are just as centralized, due to the relatively few companies that can participate in the mining process.

Plus, the developers emphasized that while block creation is essentially a federated process, anyone can run a full node to verify transactions are accurate.

But the trusted, human element underpinning the blockchain doesn’t stop there. For example, as well as agreeing on cooperatively validated nodes, the FairCoop assembly is responsible for making technical changes to the network, such as fees, block weight and other things, without requiring a system-wide upgrade, or hard fork.

Additionally, the majority of faircoin is held in a reserve that is managed by a small set of key holders. These key holders, also called “nodes,” are responsible for distributing the cryptocurrency to “small, dense communities” that use faircoin within their own local economies. Social challenges As such, there’s a high degree of social coordination that underpins the faircoin ecosystem, which Sporos described as “extremely challenging” given the diverse groups present within the international body.

“Human governance of things can be weak, complicated, can be conflicting, can be human,” he told CoinDesk.

For example, while faircoin seeks to maintain a stable exchange rate to protect against speculation, the cryptocurrency got swept up in the rising market prices last year, leading to a community decision to increase its valuation from €1.00 to €1.20.

Since then, the markets have plummeted, leading to the miscorrelation between its market price and local trade. As a result, the faircoin reserve has insufficient liquidity to properly manage the ecosystem, leading to a poor distribution of wealth among the networks of faircoin users.

The exact figures of the reserve aren’t discussed within the faircoin community (a source told CoinDesk that “no one can know” its contents, for fear the knowledge would be corrupting). But speaking to CoinDesk, faircoin enthusiast Matthew Slater described it as “critically low.”

“Faircoin’s stability is designed to remove market risk, but in the case of a crash it’s the reserve that takes the hit,” Slater said.

While the fixed price was originally increased due to rising markets – the cryptocurrency was officially priced at a mere €0.05 for a number of years – Sporos told CoinDesk that while it’s okay to increase the exchange rate “you cannot go back.”

“Everything will crumble down. It’s not economically rational. Exactly because you are committed to acknowledge the official price. That’s why you cannot go back,” he said.

Slater, an economist theorist, took a similar stance, citing “psychological reasons” for not bringing down the exchange rate.

“It’s governed by people that don’t fully understand the market characteristics,” Slater contended, adding: “There’s an attempt to create an alternative economy but it cannot fully disengage from capitalism.”

Additionally, the small set of nodes that underlies the blockchain comes with its own problematics. For example, the nodes need to be online constantly in order to function – so if a node operator drops off grid, the blockchain will stop processing transactions.

But according to Sporos, while the social coordination is at times highly challenging, it’s precisely this grounding in the human condition that gives faircoin its strength.

“Tomorrow if an electromagnetic storm wipes out the worlds hard disks, the guys who have bitcoins will not have any wealth the next day,” Sporos said, concluding:

“Even in the super crash, we just turn off the fucking blockchain nodes and use our telephones. ‘Hey brother, hey comrade, hey compañero.’ That’s what we do. So this is the real economy, the real wealth, it’s relations and trust.” Faircoin image via Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)

#Cryptocurrency #Bitcoin #Ethereum #Coins #Tokens #Crypto

0 notes