An Economic Vaccine for COVID19

An Economic Vaccine for COVID-19 How Local Currencies Enable Economic Resilience

The Human Cost of this Crisis is Tragic ● Global crises affect us all, especially the most vulnerable ○ They need our help! ● But long term effects will run even deeper…

A Helpful Analogy ● The global economy is like a circulatory system for humanity ○ Currency flows opposite of goods & services to keep us all alive ● COVID disruptions will be like a series of economic heart attacks ○ Credit & liquidity crises will disrupt the flow of currency

Economic Fallout Has Only Just Begun ● Markets got spooked & stocks tanked, but it’ll get worse ● Economic effects are like falling dominos ○ ○ ○ Without work, people can’t shop, pay rent or mortgages Without people spending, businesses shutter & go bankrupt The downward spiral continues, and currency circulation slows ● But people still need to eat, live & stay warm ○ Supply & demand are still there, but there’s NO CURRENCY flow!

But There’s HOPE for Liquidity Crises! ● Turns out, this happens all the time in rural Kenya ○ Farmers need workers & workers need work, but often there is no CASH to make the connection ● Local currencies help immensely, like the Community Inclusion Currencies launched by:

How does it work? ● Red Cross “invests” international donor funds by minting local currency & donating it to the community ○ ○ ○ ● Enables local trade & currency flow Localized spending keeps more value in the community Community currency has guaranteed reserve & liquidity Governments, foundations, etc could support struggling communities directly with impact investments ○ #CommunityLeveraging over #CorporateBailouts

Community Inclusion Currency Stats ● The most exciting crypto project no one knows about: ○ Unbanked Kenyans using bonding curves on ‘dumb’ phones ○ 12,000+ rural villagers paying for basic needs w/ CICs ○ 20x more effective than traditional cash aid ○ 40+ new currency deployments in 50 regions in rural & urban Kenya ○ 100k+ transactions supporting local trade ○ Hugely successful for local economic resilience

Organizations Involved with #CICs Team Sempo multiply

What is the Commons Stack? An open-source technical & cultural toolkit for the Commons Currency Systems are Public Goods!

Next Build: Commons Stack Tools ● #CICs will use the Augmented Bonding Curve for liquidity & interoperability between different local currencies ● Resilient economies designed with Token Engineering can mitigate economic crises like this one ● We need to model & simulate these tools so anyone can launch a robust & interconnected community currency

Ethical Economic Design ● We should design economies like we design national power grids, using established engineering practices ○ ○ ○ Cascade failure protection Fault sensitivity analysis Holistic system simulation ● Bonding curves can also act as a “parachute”, mitigating market freefalls like what we saw on Black Thursday.

“Too Big to Fail” to “So Big it Fails” ● Centralized vs Distributed Currencies ○ Mushrooms don’t die from heart attacks ● Monoculture vs Permaculture Economics ○ Imagine if your country ONLY grew one crop ● Complementary currencies can offer us diversity & resilience

A Global #CIC Rollout? ● High leverage economic intervention to COVID19 ○ Fosters community determination & empowerment ● Local currencies diversify our money systems ○ Greater resilience, can represent a variety of value ● Red Cross feasibility studies being carried out in 7+ countries ●

Join the Community & Help Us Build Become a member of the Commons Stack Trusted Seed & join us in our mission: commonsstack.org/apply

Support our Gitcoin Grants ● ● ● ● TECH: Commons Stack: Iteration 0 Commons Simulator cadCAD Bounties Commons Dashboard Prototype ● ● HEALTH: Giveth 2.0: Fight COVID-19 COVID-19 Aid for Kenya w/ CIC’s ● MEDIA: Token Engineering Community

Follow Our Progress ● Twitter ● Telegram ○ @commonsstack ○ t.me/commonsstack ○ @grassecon ○ t.me/CICBlockchain ○ @tokengineering ○ t.me/tokenengineering ○ @cadCAD_org ○ t.me/cadCAD_org 🙏 Thanks for Listening! 🙏

Further Reading ● ● ● ● ● Learn about the Commons Stack Trusted Seed Read the Grassroots Economics Whitepaper A documentary on Kenyan Local Currencies Forbes article on Community Inclusion Currencies When a Woman Saves, A Community Wins by Rebecca Mqamelo

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