I’m a long time follower of the Maidsafe project. When I first heard David speak about it on the Let’s Talk Bitcoin podcast, I was blown away and really started to realise what type of system that could be created to help us all on this wonderful planet.
I love Bitcoin and the incredible problem it solves and how much potential it has. Maidsafe though, if successful could have equally if not greater potential.
Anyway, with all the political turmoil at the moment in the UK and the rest of the world I have been pondering again the possible solutions to all the problems our society is facing. I recently read a book by a very forward thinking guy called Charles Hugh Smith. His book has a very long title but I think it gives you a good understanding of what it is about. It’s called:
‘A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All: The Future Belongs to Work That Is Meaningful’
Here’s the amazon link:
Although I noticed a few problems in the technical side of his blue print, I really do think he is onto something with his ideas. We now have the technology of crypto-currencies which solves the money problem. Obviously scalability is an issue we need to see solved and also the method for governance needs to be effective. If these things are solved we have one other thing I’d like to see solved, which Maidsafe is attempting on some level: The way to issue newly created money to new labour and services, and especially to them public services we all need so much, Hospitals, Schools, etc.
If we could create a system that is like this and like described in the amazing book I’ve mentioned I think we could start to really put our world on the correct path. Most people wouldn’t have to understand the technical side of it so much, they would just realise this new system is serving them much better than the old system.
So, I know a lot of you guys are very busy helping the Maidsafe project come to fruition, but if you get chance could you please give the book a once over and let me know your opinion.
By the way, thanks for all your efforts on the Maidsafe project. Please don’t give up, it seems so close now.
Sorry it took so long, but here it goes with a basic summary of his plan:
He calls the systems CLIME
– CLIME is an opt-in system. No one is forced to participate.
– CLIME uses a self-funded monetary system that can’t be hijacked by the central state, bank or banks, and most importantly, it does not create money via borrowing it into existence.
– In CLIME, community groups organize work (via inherently messy and disorderly democracy) to meet scarcities rather than rely totally on markets to decide what’s profitable/unprofitable. Markets serve a function, but they have fatal limitations.
– CLIME is 1) a new ontology of work and money 2) a new political system 3) a new economic system, all of which can grow organically because they are opt-in, decentralized and distributed.
The Goals of CLIME
Create an infrastructure of opportunity (individual opportunities for increasing security, capital and well-being) and a secure income for everyone who chooses to perform work that contributes to the capital and well-being of their community.
Provide this infrastructure of opportunity and a secure income for everyone regardless of ethnicity, gender, creed, etc., and without relying on any state or political-financial Elites’ approval or funding.
Create incentives (via secure income and opportunities for increasing capital, knowledge and well-being) for contributing work to the community that expands material, human, social and symbolic capital for individuals, households and the community.
Organize the work to use best practices that fit the community’s material and social realities.
Organize the work to maximize the matrix of needs and leverage, i.e. prioritize the projects so those with the lowest cost in money and labor that produce the highest yield are done first.
Enable the sharing of knowledge and capital between community organizations and individuals on a global scale, so both intangible capital (knowledge and skills) and financial capital can be leveraged to increase capital, opportunity, security and well-being (COSWB).
Limit privilege by disincentivizing gaming the system, falsification of data, misrepresentation, cheating, corruption and fraud via revoking the membership of groups and individuals who violate the rules of membership.
Enable the free movement of individuals and capital between community groups and between the system’s own marketplace and the market economy.
Keep the cost of establishing a new community group low enough so that any motivated individual can start their own group to organize work in the community.
Protect the system from co-option or coercion by states, banks, local elites, warlords and every other form of centralized power and privilege.
SYSTEM-LEVEL SPECIFICATIONS
The purpose of CLIME is to eliminate the want, coercion, exploitation and desperation of poverty globally.
CLIME eliminates poverty by guaranteeing all participants a wage for labor performed in service of the CLIME community group that the participant voluntarily joined.
The CLIME software does not recognize gender, ethnicity, creed, etc. All members have exactly the same rights and responsibilities within the system, and all groups must obey the same rules.
CLIME is a self-organizing, adaptive global system based on a set of simple rules for how the system operates and a set of simple rules all members must follow.
The CLIME interface is very easy for new members to set up, navigate and use.
CLIME is self-organizing: the software used to manage each community group is open-source and can be installed for free by anyone who wants to establish a qualifying community group.
CLIME is designed not just to alleviate poverty, but to provide its members long-term financial security via guaranteed wages, positive social roles in their community, ways to generate surplus income and accumulate capital. CLIME enables the pursuit of happiness for every member.
CLIME is a global institution that integrates technological, financial, economic, moral, sociological and political dynamics into a model for distributing productive social roles, opportunities to better oneself, wages and decentralized technologies appropriate to an era of Degrowth.
REPUTATION / VERIFICATION
Each member’s work claim is verified by objective evidence (a low-resolution photo of before and after, drone imagery, etc.) and the authentication of other members.
The reputation of each member and group is ranked by the accuracy of their reports of their own work and the work of others, on the integrity of their transactions within the marketplace (did they provide the payment or product as advertised), their service within their group, and on their service as reviewers/auditors within the CLIME system.
Fudged or inaccurate reports reduce a member’s rating, as does poor work, poor service to the group (low attendance, skipping work-group meetings, etc.) and unsatisfactory transactions. Accurate reports, excellent work, participation and transactions boost ratings.
Groups are also rated on their compliance with system rules, their work performance and their service to the community.
Individuals whose membership has been revoked for non-compliance or breaking the rules may re-apply for membership after a waiting period, but their reputational rating will be marked by their dismissal until their work record warrants an improved rating.
I’d love you guys to read the book and let me know what you think.
Once its global or dominant or dominant in a region I think it should provide a basic income regardless of work. Disincentivising work is not the issue in an age of automation and battery backed solar. Work lacking real as opposed to contrived necessity will never have dignity or security. If we can automate it away it should not be done for money by a human. The most important thing is that people cease to do things for money that they otherwise wouldnt. See Basic Income Earth Network.