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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Fw: the world's first debt-free electronic currency
Date: 	Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:26:31 +0200
From: 	Paul Nollen <paul.nollen at skynet.be>
To: 	paul.nollen at skynet.be




Hello ,

from the

FEASTA Newsletter 27th July 2009  http://www.feasta.org/  (a modern
version of the Silvio Gesell system in Worgl)

.....................

*The Feasta Liquidity Network*

(Richard Douthwaite and others are volunteering on this project -
unfunded as of yet.)

The Feasta Liquidity Network group is hoping to launch the world's first
debt-free electronic currency in County Kilkenny early in 2010. Firms
and private individuals will be given "quid" to enable them to trade.

The newly-elected Mayor of Kilkenny, Malcolm Noonan, is enthusiastic
about the plan which should enable the county council to avoid some of
the drastic spending cuts the fall-off in its income would otherwise
require it to make. Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce is also keen as it
hopes that the system will boost trading in the town and allow its
members to pay their bills more easily.

However, both the council and the chamber have yet to take a final
decision on whether to support the scheme. The Feasta group hopes that
their decision will follow a demonstration of the system in the city in
September. The system software is being written to meet the deadline.

"The council and the chamber have both to support the system to enable
it to go ahead" says Ciaran Mulloy, a member of the Feasta group who
attended a meeting with the Mayor and the chamber in Kilkenny this
month. "It won't work without them. The council has to be able to pay
some of its workers in quid and the workers aren't going to accept being
paid that way unless they can spend the quid in the local shops."

The shops should accept the quid because they will know that the council
will accept them back in payment of business rates, water and refuse
disposal charges. They should also be able to use them to pay their own
workers and to buy local goods and services.

FutureProof Kilkenny, a local group which promotes Transition Initiative
ideas, is working with Feasta to set up the system. It is keen that a
paper currency should be issued to operate alongside the electronic one
to give the latter a face and make it seem real to the public.

Users will transfer the electronic quid to each other either over the
internet or by using Laser-type chip cards. Every shop will be equipped
with a special terminal. At a later stage, it will be possible to make
transfers by mobile phone. Only low-value notes will be issued to be
used for small transactions.

"Quid will be given to the users to spend into circulation because it is
the users who create the currency's value. If they didn't accept it, it
would be worthless," Ciaran Mulloy explains. "If you earn it and spend
it quickly, you'll be given more. If you try to save it, a bit will be
taken away each month. There hasn't been anything like this before
because the technology hasn't been available. "

The importance of the system from a Feasta perspective is that it
enables people to continue to do business as the euro system breaks
down. "The euro gets into circulation when people go into debt" says
Richard Douthwaite, a member of the group. "Now that we've passed oil
peak, the world economy can only shrink.

"Nobody should risk borrowing when incomes are shrinking as there won't
be the money to pay the debt back. So the world's debt-based money
systems will break down. We want Kilkenny people to show that the
Liquidity Network is a viable alternative."

The group has four volunteer programmers who discuss progress every
Wednesday evening via Skype. It is looking for more, especially if they
can write Python. There is a lot of information about the project on the
Feasta website and the group has its own site at
http://www.theliquiditynetwork.org <http://www.theliquiditynetwork.org/> .

.............

Regards

Paul



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