Michael Linton On Open Money
- 5
- Add a Comment
To summarize Michael Linton’s presentation at this year’s Gnomedex:
A paradigm shift happens in its 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. Some time 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 in competition 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.
[tags]gnoemdex7, gnomedex, gnomedex07, gnomedex2007, michael linton, open money, open source money, social money network[/tags]
5 Comments
Wally Burfine
September 20th, 2007
at 5:28am
Chris,
Money is not a zero sum game. The reason money was developed was so the government (the King, the Cesar, the Pharao) could take his taxes. The took something for nothing.
If money was a zero sum game, the amount of things (goods and services) would be constant and the amount of money would be constant. However we keep adding time and use up consumables while the government keeps creating money. It’s a rather complex semi- “something for nothing machine”
GadgetGadget.info - Gadgets on the web » Blog Archive » Michael Linton On Open Money
September 20th, 2007
at 8:24am
[...] Peter Suber wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptMarkets 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. … [...]
Allan
September 20th, 2007
at 11:43am
Chris,
I enjoy and look forward to your columns, but …
…This is a childish, unaware. and disappointing post. It (fairly or not) suggests your guru is charismatic but either a charlatan or borderline autistic. If you actually knew something about economics you wouldn’t spout naive drivel like this.
Business » Michael Linton On Open Money
September 21st, 2007
at 12:18am
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptCommunity currencies are not replacements or alternatives for money. They are used with money. It is tax accountable where tax applies. Not in competition with anything, not impeded or in conflict. It is open, but not public. … [...]
shadowmyth
September 24th, 2007
at 7:51pm
Money being the ultimate social network, it is obvious why we are so limited in our ability to be truly social at work. We are told to act ‘professional’, wear clone like clothing, and not express too blatantly our individuality. We need to not only disconnect from the current money paradigm, but the children of consciousness it has fostered. These thought forms that limit our expression and freedom as people, are the very things that have brainwashed us into playing this insidious game. Who would play a card game, when you KNOW the dealer has a stacked deck? We are puppets to this monetary system.
As for you Allen, you invest your criticisms against an idea of freedom, and are cynical in your capacity to think beyond the very box you now live in. You ought to open up your mind and look not to why it cannot be done, but how it can become. It is people with such limited perspectives that keep us entrenched in an oppressive society.