by Guest Contributor | Jul 24, 2017 | Opinion
Written by: Mark McCarron, Pheonix Digital Currency
Phoenix Digital Currency is a new, open, peer-to-peer, cryptocurrency, which will be entering full release in the next few months. Similar to Bitcoin, in that anyone can set up a client/server, we’re quite different from other cryptocurrencies at the same time. Our currency is pegged to the dollar, has a fixed valuation, is anonymous and comes with advanced anti-theft features.
It has also been designed with the needs of enterprises and retailers in mind, both to provide consistent pricing and easy integration into existing environments. We don’t, however, see this as the be-all and end-all of how currencies can function. When Bitcoin first emerged, it showed the world that currencies could evolve. This is how we see Phoenix Digital Currency and we have planned for this from the outset.
When looking at the issue of Universal Basic Income, we were quick to understand that governments cannot afford this. Where does the money come from? Taxes on the rich, more public debt or simply loans? None of these seems very likely, but the AI revolution is almost here and we need options before people are unemployed in large numbers.
One idea that Phoenix Digital Currency has been exploring is a single underlying currency option. Whilst on the surface you would have your nation’s respective currency, behind the scenes, it would be part of a single, broader currency. A universal currency is one that is not traded as a commodity, it is merely branded differently within each nation. This means that currency cannot devalue, as devaluation must occur with respect to something.
Why is this important? Well, let’s say I wanted to print off $50 million for everyone on the planet and offer them $500,000 per year. With currency as a commodity we can’t do that, as no one would view our currency as having worth. But with a single underlying currency, there is no one to convince.
Inflation and demand are the next big issues. Normally this idea would fall flat here, but with AI almost upon us, the cost of labour to business will remain fairly flat rather than increasing to ridiculous levels as businesses try to tempt employees back to work. A fast food burger won’t suddenly cost $1 million because staff are looking for $100,000 per hour.
This means that we can achieve the goals of a Unified Basic Income in a manner which doesn’t burden the taxpayer. In fact, it is even possible to end taxation altogether as a principle of economics.
This has been a short introduction to an idea, known as ‘Formal Proposal Number One’. Please join us at phoenixdigitalcurrency.com to share your ideas.
All features articles are opinion pieces, and express opinions not endorsed by Basic Income Earth Network or Basic Income News.
by Andre Coelho | Jun 8, 2017 | News
Kerry Frank, a consultant in research and analysis for Mondato, has recently written an article discussing the relation between basic income, government institutions and cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency is a digital currency that uses cryptography for security. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are decentralized systems based on blockchain technology, information on which can be found over on VanillaCrypto.com. A lot of people use Bitcoin to trade stocks and shares online, as over the years, it has become a popular way to increase your income. Most people decide to look into cryptocurrency by visiting a trading site, yet others make the decision to look for something like this “used innosilicon a10 pro” to create their own digital currency and then selling them to the many sites. It could be a great way to be able to get stuck into the process of cryptocurrency. That being said, if you’d like to find out more about cryptocurrency trading, then researching trading applications such as the bitcoin revolution app could help you to further your knowledge of this growing field.
In the article, she argues that progression towards a basic income is only possible with a “comprehensive digitization across the board to manage administration and monitoring costs”. This is required on a global scale, since digitization has covered more ground in the Global North than in the Global South. For example, only 50% of all adult individuals globally have a registered bank account, according to the World Bank.
The article also points out that cash transfer programs, for example in India and Kenya, bring about increases in individuals’ willingness to take on loans, make savings or invest. Recent data from the GiveDirectly test pilot already shows that financial inclusion is a welcomed side-effect, since many participants would not have joined formalized financial networks if not for the experiment.
It is argued that cryptocurrencies are a viable means to disburse cash payments on a massive scale. Actually, this possibility has been presented and discussed before, in several articles. One such systems is Resilience, which uses redistribution and dividend pathways as a defining programming feature. However, only a few people are knowledgeable enough to use such a system, and even fewer who may understand its internal workings, as Kerry Frank also raises in her article. This constitutes, of course, a barrier to basic income implementation in a cryptocurrency version. For now, the cryptocurrency takeover of the world’s financial system is on hold. However, this could mean investing in cryptocurrency might still be lucrative to those aiming to take a slice of the pie in the near future.
Kerry concludes that cryptocurrencies and traditional government programs (of cash distribution) need not be mutually exclusive, while there are advantages and challenges with both approaches.
More information at:
Kerry Frank, “Universal Basic Income: G2P on steroids or an opening for cryptocurrencies?“, Mondato, April 25th 2017
J. Shapiro, “Can cash transfer programs help bring about financial inclusion?“, Microfinance Gateway, April 2017
Austin Douillard, “US/Kenya: New study published on results of basic income pilot in Kenya“, Basic Income News, March 27th 2017
Cameron McLeod, “BitNation: Recent advances in cryptocurrency see basic income tested“, Basic Income News, March 30th 2017
by Cameron McLeod | Mar 30, 2017 | News
Johan Nygren, a basic income activist, is currently exploring if basic income can be implemented using cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency are digital currencies whose value and number of units are regulated by encryption techniques, outside of any central banking system. Understandably, not everyone is going to have a clear idea as to what cryptocurrency is all about, but this is why sites like cryptoexchangespy.com exist. Doing a bit of research is better than doing none at all, especially when it comes to something as interesting digital currency.
If this is something that you are interested in then you can find out how to buy cryptocurrency here.
You might also have heard about Ethereum. Put simply, Ethereum is a global, decentralized platform for money and other applications. Using Ethereum – a block chain network – you can write code that controls money, and build applications accessible anywhere in the world.
Currently, cryptocurrencies can be used as a means of payment in various spheres. Additionally, freelancers who work in digital industries also accept cryptocurrency as a means of payment. If you’d like find out more information about becoming or hiring ethereum freelancers, the Freelance For Coins is a useful resource that can put you into contact with freelancers where you are.
A cryptocurrency-based basic income will be funded with taxes grown within a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. P2P is an architecture for building computer networks that’s focus is on equality and sharing among peers, each user consuming and supplying information to the network. Nygren’s experiment aims to use decentralized ‘swarms’ of users to distribute a basic income through what Nygren calls ‘dividend pathways’.
A dividend pathway is “the world’s first peer-to-peer financial security,” where every transaction opens up a pathway, to a global network of connected users. RES, Nygren’s crypto-currency, is then shared through a branching scheme with all who are connected to the pathways – those on the BitNation network. The branching scheme is analogous to our network of veins, pumping information instead of blood. With the growing interest in cryptocurrency continuing, this type of scheme will give more opportunities to businesses who wish to use cryptocurrency to pay employees. Business owners can check out these Interesting Bitcoin Statistics in 2020 to not only learn more about all available digital currencies but how they compare against bitcoin, before testing this new P2P model.
This model tests whether a network can electronically divert income to users, in this case using a small tax levied on financial purchases and exchanges made over a system called BitNation; the process is called Swarm Redistribution. Nygren writes that “the whole experiment is public, transparent, auditable, [and] includes a close-down switch in case a bug is discovered.”
BitNation, a Decentralized Borderless Voluntary Nation (DBVN), provides public services to its naturalized citizens. As a virtual jurisdiction, the main difference from traditional governments is voluntary allegiance to its constitution – membership is open to anyone and involvement limited only by the user. As a blockchain-based structure, government activities are transparent. Its mission, according to founder Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, is to “get rid of geographical apartheid” and offer “better and cheaper governance services.”
Nygren’s swarm redistribution theory assumes that ongoing transactions with the crypto-currency RES will infuse BitNation’s cybereconomy with a branchwork (think the blood analogy) of paid-forward value additions. This would mean extracting essentially a value-added tax (VAT) along the way and pooling a coffer for the basic incomes’ distribution. The model theorizes that growth is incentivized by the desire for personal return and altruism, or a desire to contribute to social resilience (more information can be found here).
BitNation’s current population of nearly five thousand users with roughly fifty thousand daily transactions involving the cryptocurrency ETH could eventually provide the structure for a basic income for its users.
(more…)
by Kate McFarland | Jul 5, 2016 | News
Johan Nygren — previously featured on Basic Income News for his work on BitNation and its application to basic income — is now designing a system he calls “Resilience,” which is capable of implementing what he describes as a “Darwinian basic income.”
Although he supports basic income, Nygren is pessimistic about the possibility of a state-funded policy, since he believes that “cryptography dis-intermediates the very ability to exert centralized control.”
Nygren has developed his Resilience system as an alternative:
I’ve been working on designing new types of incentives that could enable universal basic income even in a world where taxation has become impossible. The idea behind the system, that I call Resilience, is to reward people and companies for choosing to consume from entities that donate to the system. When they do so, they will inherit what I call a Taxeme, that will extract the same amount of wealth when someone else consumes from them. The system is based on paying it forward, and rewards people for spreading a behavior of donating part of their income.
Those who pay forward a Taxeme will get rewards from future people and companies whose transactions and business grow outwards from where the Taxeme originated, forming a perpetual wealth redistribution cycle that is driven not by violence, but by something similar to the golden rule.
Nygren explains Resilience in a recent post on Ethereum, including videos and sample code.
Johan Nygren, “Crypto-states make taxation impossible – Darwinian Basic Income is the Future,” Ethereum, June 14, 2016.
Thanks to my supporters on Patreon. (To see how you too can support my work for Basic Income News, click the link.)
by BIEN | Jun 25, 2015 | News
This article lists the cryptocurrency projects that are establishing basic income programs without the help of governments. If you’re thinking of investing in cryptocurrency, speak to a blockchain consultant. They will be able to better inform you about the market and the latest developments in it. For example, you can now buy Bitcoin with your PayPal account in under 10 minutes. Take a look at this review to find out more. The benefits and drawbacks of cryptocurrency schemes are discussed, noting that cryptocurrency basic income programs are innovative in that they operate outside the political process and can make an immediate change. With cryptocurrencies like bitcoins becoming more and more interesting to both parties online as well as off as a viable source of currency, there are individuals who are interested in finding out more about it. For those people and everyone out, there is a well of information available online. Some can use places such as btcnn for all the latest bitcoin news as well as information on other forms of cryptocurrencies. In order to trade cryptocurrencies for other assets, customers currently need to seek the services of a cryptocurrency exchange. If your business deals with cryptocurrencies and is therefore thinking of launching it’s own cryptocurrency exchange, head to https://dex.openledger.io/white-label-solution/ for more information. However, while there is a lot to learn about this new age of cyber currencies, there are still several drawbacks. The two major drawbacks of these programs is that many of the world’s poorest people lack access to technology and, since verifying users would be difficult, Sybil attacks where individuals or groups rob the fund by claiming grants from multiple accounts remains possible.
Nathan Schneider, “The Cryptocurrency-Based Projects That Would Pay Everyone Just for Being Alive” Vice, May 29, 2015
