Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy

specific situations. This broader notion

of currency as an earnable and

deployable commodity extends to many

other nonmonetary currencies beyond

reputation and health, such as intention,

attention, time, ideas, and creativity.

Currency Multiplicity:

Monetary and Nonmonetary

Currencies

Altcoin multiplicity is just one venue of

currency multiplicity in the modern

world. More broadly, we are living in

an increasingly multicurrency society

with all kinds of monetary and

nonmonetary currencies. First, there is

currency multiplicity in the sense of

monetary currency in that there are many

different fiat currencies (USD, CNY,

EUR, GBP, etc.). Second, there are many

other nonfiat, non-blockchain-based

currencies like loyalty points and airline

miles; one estimate is that there are

4,000 such altcurrencies. 174 Now there is

also a multiplicity of blockchain-based

cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin,

and Dogecoin. Beyond monetary

currencies, there is currency multiplicity

in nonmonetary currencies too (as just

discussed), such as reputation, intention,

and attention. 175

Market principles have been employed

to develop metrics for measuring

nonmonetary currencies such as

influence, reach, awareness, authenticity,

engagement, action taking, impact,

spread, connectedness, velocity,

participation, shared values, and

presence. 176 Now, blockchain technology

could make these nonmonetary social

currencies more trackable,

transmissible, transactable, and

monetizable. Social networks could

become social economic networks. For

example, reputation as one of the most

recognizable nonmonetary currencies

has always been an important intangible

asset, but was not readily monetizable

other than indirectly as an attribute of

labor capital. However, social network

currencies can now become transactable

with web-based cryptocurrency tip jars

(like Reddcoin) and other micropayment

mechanisms that were not previously

feasible or transnationally scalable with

traditional fiat currency. Just as

collaborative work projects such as

open source software development can

become more acknowledgeable and

remunerable with GitHub commits and

line-item contribution tracking,

cryptocurrency tip jars can provide a

measurable record and financial

incentive for contribution-oriented

online activities. One potential effect of

this could be that if market principles

were to become the norm for intangible

resource allocation and exchange, all

market agents might begin to have a

more intuitive and pervasive sense and

demonstration of exchange and

reciprocity. Thus, social benefits such as

a more collaborative society could be a

result of what might initially seem to be

only a deployment of economic

principles.

Demurrage Currencies:

Potentially Incitory and

Redistributable

Currency is one such core concept in

blockchain technology that is being

stretched, extended, and reunderstood:

currency as a digital token, a facilitation

mechanism for quantized transfer. Within

the notion of currency is the idea of a

demurrage currency. Demurrage means

carrying cost—that is, the cost to carry

an asset. The term originated in the

freight and shipping industry to indicate

the extra charge or cost associated with

the detention in port of a vessel by the

ship owner, as in loading or unloading,

beyond the time allowed or agreed upon.

In the cryptocurrency sense, demurrage

can mean being deflationary (value

losing) over time, thus incitory

(stimulatory) in that it incites some form

of action taking (i.e.; spending) in the

shorter term to realize value before it is

lost. The currency itself thus encourages

economic activity. Demurrage, then, is

the compact concept of an attribute, the

idea of an automatic motivating or

incitory property being built in to

something. Further, another aspect of

demurrage currencies (or really all

digital network–based asset allocation,

tracking, interaction, and transaction

structures) is the notion of periodic

automatic redistribution of the currency

(the resource) across all network nodes

at certain prespecified times, or in the

case of certain events. Demurrage

features could become a powerful and

standard currency administration tool.

Freicoin and Healthcoin are two

examples of uses of a demurrage

currency with a built-in mechanism for

action taking in the form of spending.

Demurrage currencies might be ideal for

the implementation of Guaranteed Basic

Income initiatives (GBIs), systems

whereby all citizens or residents of a

country would regularly receive an

allowance—a sum of money sufficient to

meet basic living expenses. GBIcoin or

Freicoin could be a straightforward

currency for basic living expenses that

runs out or resets on a periodic basis

such as weekly, monthly, or annually to

keep the system streamlined and efficient

without artificial overhangs created by

hoarding. The money would be more

like a coupon, expiring after certain

amounts of time. The currency loses

value, so the incentive is to spend it or

just not use it.

A GBIcoin like Freicoin would likely

not be the only currency, but would be a