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BobDollars

BobDollars. Individually issued money backed by a few others.

Some goals of this currency system:

The idea starts with each person issuing vouchers for their future goods or services. For example, Bob the baker issues vouchers called BobDollars, and guarantees he will sell a loaf of bread for a BobDollar?. To give them a chance to circulate and facilitate non-bread-related trade, he may only guarantee to accept the BobDollars for bread after some period, say a month. To make sure he can sell bread he makes, rather than having the vouchers outstanding for decades, he requires the vouchers to be used before they’re, say 3 months old.

So far, BobDollars would be undesirable to people who don’t know and trust Bob or who don’t want bread. So Bob could come to an agreement with someone who wants bread to back the vouchers. Sam the sandwich maker commits to accepting 3 BobDollars for a sandwich, which she will use to purchase bread. Sam will only commit to accepting 300 BobDollars, so by mutual agreement, Bob is limited to issuing 300 BobDollars in that currency. He may issue other currencies (BobYen?, BobCredits?) with different guarantees, but too many would confuse people. Suppose Bob wants to issue more than 300 BobDollars. Instead of agreeing to limit to 300 BobDollars, he agrees to keep to 1000 BobDollars, and gets another couple of people to back 200 BobDollars each. Then each holder of 10 BobDollars may trade them in for 1 sandwich, a couple of other items, and 3 loaves of bread. If Bob cheats them, they just lose the 3 loaves of bread out of 10.

Bob may also prepare in case something stops his ability to make bread. He may reserve the right to give another item instead of bread. Maybe he has a supply of canned food, so he makes that the alternative, or maybe his insurance organisation does, or maybe he he picks a skill that doesn’t need his bakery equipment, such as proofreading, and reserves the right to perform that service instead of giving bread.

Discussion

Transferred by copy and paste from CaspianMaclean

OK, I missed something. Why is Bob limited to issuing 300 BobDollars? Or, later in the story, 1000 BobDollars? Did I skip over the whatever-it-is that prevents Bob from issuing millions of BobDollars?

I don’t want to worry about the issue of perishable goods yet, so assume it is non-perishable bread.

I’ve heard some people try to explain economic concepts using a blacksmith making nails ("How were rural blacksmiths paid in early New England?"). I’ve heard other just-so stories involving the blacksmith paying for stuff with slips of paper that were backed by heavy sacks of nails he kept in back … until he realized that he could get away with printing a few more slips of paper than the number of sacks of nails he really had. Eventually leading to fiat money with no backing at all ("Interesting Economics").

No you didn’t skip what prevents too many BobDollars. I haven’t really specified whether there’s a central register, as in LETS, and it keeps track of balances, or printed money is used. With a central register, it can be programmed to allow Bob to set the limit, and then the backers know how many BobDollars they are backing. I hadn’t worked out a more decentralised limit, but you could make it that all the BobDollar? backers need to sign or stamp the BobDollar? note for it to be valid. Or maybe I’m answering the wrong question. The only thing that prevents Bob from issuing lots of BobDollars is his reluctance to incur that much obligation, or the reluctance of the other BobDollar? backers to incur that much obligation. If they agree, they can do it, but they are taking on specific obligations, not just inflating currency.

I read the main part of what you linked to (not all the comments). The EleventhRound? story in your second link shows an annoying feature of money created by borrowing from a central bank (the stranger in the story): it is impossible to pay it all back plus interest. However if the stranger in the story had accepted real chickens instead of chicken tokens it could have worked okay. Whether that’s a fair payment for the convenience of money is another question.

it is impossible to pay it all back plus interest.

I agree that it is impossible for the stranger to receive payment of all (#families * 11) rounds at one time, when only (#families * 10) rounds exists.

However, if the stranger receives a little payment at a time, and puts some of that payment back into circulation, then it is possible for the people to completely pay it all back, with interest.

For example, say the stranger requires 1 round from each family each year for 11 years, accepting only rounds on “payment day” that year. Say the stranger occasionally “buys” a chicken or something else (with a round) on some other day, same as any other villager buying a chicken with a round. Imagine the stranger puts a total of exactly (#families * 1) rounds back into circulation during those 11 years. Then on the last payment day, at the end of those 11 years, the village gives the last of the rounds in circulation back to the stranger, who ends up with all existing rounds, all (#families * 10) rounds.

… perhaps say something more about what happens if the stranger “buys” even more stuff, leaving rounds in circulation indefinitely … perhaps say something about “Wikipedia:_bad_money_drives_out_good” …

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