Financial collapse

[Buster]

Two questions:
In the event of a general financial collapse, could Digital Coin step in to fill the void? In which case, how would Perpetual Coin be valued?
For the sake of day to day convenience, would it be possible to have Digital Coin notes? In which case, could anyone print their own notes, or would each community, region, country print theirs as appropriate for the need?

[Jordan]

I don't know how close to reality digital coin is yet - I don't believe there are any serious technical hurdles, but if the collapse started tomorrow (it won't), then the digital coin will not be ready.  What is needed, in my opinion, to make digital coin work, is for enough people to get together and then put together the bits of code needed for administration and then to start up a network - much like the LETS networks that already exist.

As for printing them, I'm unsure.  In an online world, each digital dollar can be checked instantly at transfer, thus greatly stifling the ability to counterfeit. If they are printed - which would essentially be the printing of the encryption key (a very long number), then it would be much more difficult to verify at the point of transaction?  Perhaps, if bar code printing and scanning is used, then it is possible. That technology is quite mature. 

Am I missing something here?  Could be.  Paul help please!    

[pzyktzle]

Digital Coin will rely on a particular technology in order to work. currently that technology is almost there, but not yet.

when it is, DC in the form of Perpetual Coin, will start out linked to a basket of currencies, and that way PC could be valued relative to all national currencies.

from an initial review by an economist at the university of queensland, DC could be a beneficial system to fall back on in the case of banks refusing to lend, or as you have stated, financial collapse.

i should not have to state this, but all my comments are based on my understanding of DC, which changes and (hopfeully) grows. the concepts are actually fairly simple, but implementing the technology is not.

[Paul Grignon]

Digital Coin idea is based on technology in development at http://www.maidsafe.net

You can keep tabs on their progress, ask questions or invest!

In my proposal I assumed bottom-up implementation.  DC would be one option among several for local alternative currencies.

If adopted top-down, ie. by governments,  then government could print paper "cash" as now.

That said, there are examples of private paper currencies.

In Canada the most universal is Canadian Tire Money  http://corp.canadiantire.ca/EN/Media/FactsAndStats/Pages/CanadianTireMoney.aspx

Near where I live is Salt Spring Island  http://www.saltspringdollars.com/

Personally I think it would be better if only government issued paper currency and guaranteed its value as ONE PC for payment of taxes. 

However in a chaos collapse situation we would have to make it up as we go along with whatever is available to us.   In "the Essence of Money" Anton cuts up a unique piece of fabric into little pieces and attaches a signed IOU.  The IOU plus the fabric piece are required for redemption.

For example, at a weekly market, each seller could issue IOUs attached to some piece of fabric stamped with a unique potato block print.  Make  a new potato pattern each week to prevent counterfeiting.


Paul