givesalt blog A new kind of wealth

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This is a blog by myself, Sky Wickenden, and my project to create a new economic system that has the ability to replace the capitalist free market as the main means by which we exchange value.

Am I crazy?

It's a good question. I've given up a good job in difficult economic times to begin an insanely ambitious project to completely and radically change the global economic system. Oh, and along the way I'll be developing new governmental systems, a new form of law, overhauling education and solving global warming. I do wonder sometimes, especially now that I've actually committed to giving it a shot, if I am completely barking. Well, if I am, at least I'm going to have fun along the way; I've never felt more motived or happy with my work than I am right now.

I'd like to share my vision with you. Hopefully bring you along for the ride, in return I'd really appreciate a few words of encouragement every now and then – especially when I get to the difficult bits.

I'll start with my vision of the future, imagine a world in which:

• Judges are selected in a way that intrinsically makes them have as little bias as possible and are renowned for their fairness.
• You can choose politicians that really represent your concerns – so closely, that if you could vote in parliament, you would vote in almost exactly the same way your representative does.
• Business leaders and managers become facilitators and have no more power than anyone else.
• Global warming and ecological care lie right at the heart of the economic system.
• Global resource issues, such as crude oil, water and food are effectively addressed.
• Not only provides an even greater degree of social mobility than the free market, but inherently brings you towards people you enjoy working with.
• People and businesses are rewarded for openly sharing their inventions and novel ideas, rather than having to lock them up with intellectual property.
• Downloading any file, be it music, a film or a novel is not only free but encouraged and their creators are rewarded.
• The economic system is even more efficient than the current one.
• Inherently encourages localisation of production/consumption where that makes for more efficient use of resources.
• Is not driven by consumption, but by equality, transparency and accomplishment.
• People are valued more by how much they give rather than how much they take.
• An end to state based conflict (war).
• Achieving all the above whilst furthering our freedom to choose how we live our lives. Opening up carrier and education opportunities

Not only do I think that it is possible that the changes above could happen. I think that the only thing that will stop them from happening is a disaster so large that it knocks us back to the stone age. These changes have nothing to do with me or my plans, I just think that I understand what is happening well enough to catch the wave a little earlier than most.  The blog is aims to explain why I see this as inevitable.

There are two premises on which my predictions above are based:

Firstly, there is our collective desire to shape the world – and we tend to try and shape the world in a direction that encourages greater behavioural freedom.

Secondly, the technology, and in particular communications technology, that is available at the time defines what kind of social structures are possible.

These two premises will be the focus of this blog. Alongside more concrete posts about the economic protocol I am developing as I move towards an alpha release.

Whilst I am fairly convinced about the overall direction in which the world is heading, I am not nearly so certain that my particular implementation of a solution is right in all its details. I'm looking for as much feedback as I can get to help make the system as usable as possible.

The Reading Guide is a good place to head to next.

If you want to keep up to date with new posts, then you can be notified by the Twitter feed, the Facebook group, or the RSS feed.