Decentralized Currency Systems

Ever since payment card usage began becoming more common, there has been correspondingly less need for physical representation of currency as cash or coins. The transformation of money into a digital concept has been extended to mobile implementations such as M-Pesa in Kenya and Google Wallet in the US.

What is less widely known is the history of complementary, community, or alternative currency systems that predate the digitization of money. I propose a brief (30 minute) session to discuss background information on what I call decentralized currency systems, share insights to recent developments in that field, and offer my two-cents on ways to move forward through a system wherein currency is traceable to how it was earned. I feel that this session would be especially relevant to the current economic environment and relates to concerns raised by the Occupy movement as well as ongoing handling of euro-currency/Greek debit crisis.

Categories: Session Proposals |