Talk:Respect currency

Proposition for pratical implementation of respect currency: Bitcoin

Bitcoin is virtual currency which means that it can be shown to fulfills the properties of the respect currency when supplemented with the following observations:

• "Once given, respect currency should gradually diminish in time, so that the respect should be gained constantly"

⇤1 : This can lead to uncontrollable inflation. Respect theory works equally well if the players want to collect more buying power without diminisihing the value of the currency. --Smxb 17:36, 2 August 2011 (EEST)

• "Highly respected people should be able to show more respect (i.e., their respect is valued more by the society)"

⇤2 : Highly idealized goal, which only works for the benefit of all when/if people learn what is the benefit of the whole. Consequently, herd thinking may result from this requirement at the current level of sophistication, just as in the present system. For example, most voters of a southern European country respected the incumbent prime minister of theirs enough to vote him into power twice despite the fact that in other countries he is disrespected. Just like it is possible to amass money, respect can be accumulated to an inner circle which becomes all the more powerful not for the benefit of all. --Smxb 17:36, 2 August 2011 (EEST)
--3 : In terms of money, could this requirement read 'rich people can dole out more money' or 'rich people's money is worth more than poor people's money'? --Smxb 17:36, 2 August 2011 (EEST)

Bitcoin could act as a practical way of moving towards a more abstract respect currency. It is superior to the normal currencies for the following reasons:

1. It does not suffer from inflation as normal currencies (inflation can be controlled and is predictable as what comes to reserves)
2. Central banks can not control the generation of the currency
3. Banks are not needed in transactions
4. Bitcoins are fully exchangeable for real money and products
5. Bitcoins are virtual, which means that operating the virtual money system is cheap
6. Bitcoins cannot be traced or forged
7. Bitcoins can be split into smaller and smaller 'pieces'

Bitcoins can be acquired by 'mining', in exchange for goods, services and real money. At the moment, in the creation phase of the crypto currency bitcoins can be simply earned by dedicating servers to the p2p-network. In the future the reward will be based more on traffice control resources.

Possible problems:

• Powerful server providers collect more bitcoins in their reserves (this is balanced by randomization of the distribution process and by diminishing the reward over time)
• At present, small size of bitcoin market can lead to large fluctuations in demand prices (free market philosophy)
• if popularity is gained, direct intervention attempt of traditional banking institutions

Even if these risks are real, no harm is done if the bitcoins are not taken out of the virtual system. They can still be used as prototype of respect currency, whose transaction mechanism for real currency has already been established and therefore collecting them as a bonus on top of real salary, for example, would be a motivating factor for many knowledge workers (even if the amounts would be small), because it could be done completely independently of the bureaucrats of government institutions.

Proposition: dedicate a few servers for p2p and earn a few bitcoins. Start distributing fractions of them as 'honors' to Opasnet users.