Twollars a simplified, non-URI version of Prowl?
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els
Mar 23, 2009, 6:11:21 AM3/23/09
to prowl-users
from http://newcurrencyfrontiers.blogspot.com/2009/03/about-month-ago-eiso-kant-and-mac.html:
"Twollars (why they are an important step forward)
About a month ago, Eiso Kant and Mac Taylor released Twollars.
Twollars is a twitter-based “thank you” currency that allows users to
join by simply participating. To participate, you only need tweet in
the following format: Give [amount] Twollars @[twitter user] for
[reason]. The Twollars server continually searches the global twitter
stream for text matching this description. It downloads the tweets (to
prevent them being deleted), and tallies a user balance based on the
tweets the user has given and received in this format. The user
balance and transaction history is completely open, meaning anyone can
see it. This helps prevents fraud. After all, how different might have
Enron behaved if their books had been open?
Eiso and Mac have set the arbitrary amount of fifty twollars (TWs) as
the starting balance for anyone participating. They have also proposed
a non-profit fundraising component where Twollars donated to charity
are matched by conventional money donated by a business once a certain
Twollars threshold is reached.
However, what makes Twollars an important evolution in currency design
are not the surface level details. Twollars is using a very popular
existing platform (Twitter) for transacting and accounting. Most
currency efforts to date have depended on a separate platform
specifically designed for currency exchange. While this has yielded
some limited results, people who want to participate have been forced
into walled gardens. Twollars gives added functionality to an existing
user identity thereby lowering the entrance barrier. There are
numerous Facebook applications that make use of this principle, and
many of them could be thought of as a kind of currency. However, few
people think of them that way, and their use value is somewhat
questionable (do I really gain any value from having a sheep thrown at
me?).
Community currencies have frequently charged a yearly fee (in
conventional money) for membership in their “currency club.” With the
advent of Twollars, this approach has become outdated. Lowering the
cost of failure for participating in a community currency will likely
make the idea far more appealing for the potential user. The fact that
Twollars is on an existing platform, where the use of the currency
promotes the currency itself gives Twollars a viral quality that other
currencies simply don’t enjoy.
Even more significantly, according to Eiso, they are close to
releasing a version of Twollars that allows for user generated
currencies. People would be able to define their own currency by
simply defining a hash-tag for it. For instance a Portland based time-
bank focused on the film community might use “#pdxfilmtb”. The
Twollars server would tally transactions bearing this hash-tag
separately from others. A simple mutual-credit architecture would give
the power of a time-bank to any and all people willing to participate
for free. Here finally we see the dawning of what many of us have been
waiting for: a free, multi-currency platform that demystifies money /
currency, and empowers the user to define their own economic exchange
networks.
Eiso and Mac are also very wisely using the K-I-S-S principle (keep it
simple stupid). Many of us (myself included) in the currency world
have a tendency to over-complicate matters, especially when it comes
to the user experience. Someday soon, we will need a nuanced platform
that can describe any currency imaginable, but for now a simple mutual-
credit architecture (like LETS or a Time-banks) will be able to engage
a wide array of people who haven’t considered the possibility of using
community currency before.
In addition, Eiso and Mac have both been very open to the ideas and
input from other members of the currency world. By releasing their
beta version and soliciting input from the community, they have
adopted one of the key success strategies of social web innovators. I
can’t overemphasize my enthusiasm for the Twollars project.
Congrats!"
"Twollars (why they are an important step forward)
About a month ago, Eiso Kant and Mac Taylor released Twollars.
Twollars is a twitter-based “thank you” currency that allows users to
join by simply participating. To participate, you only need tweet in
the following format: Give [amount] Twollars @[twitter user] for
[reason]. The Twollars server continually searches the global twitter
stream for text matching this description. It downloads the tweets (to
prevent them being deleted), and tallies a user balance based on the
tweets the user has given and received in this format. The user
balance and transaction history is completely open, meaning anyone can
see it. This helps prevents fraud. After all, how different might have
Enron behaved if their books had been open?
Eiso and Mac have set the arbitrary amount of fifty twollars (TWs) as
the starting balance for anyone participating. They have also proposed
a non-profit fundraising component where Twollars donated to charity
are matched by conventional money donated by a business once a certain
Twollars threshold is reached.
However, what makes Twollars an important evolution in currency design
are not the surface level details. Twollars is using a very popular
existing platform (Twitter) for transacting and accounting. Most
currency efforts to date have depended on a separate platform
specifically designed for currency exchange. While this has yielded
some limited results, people who want to participate have been forced
into walled gardens. Twollars gives added functionality to an existing
user identity thereby lowering the entrance barrier. There are
numerous Facebook applications that make use of this principle, and
many of them could be thought of as a kind of currency. However, few
people think of them that way, and their use value is somewhat
questionable (do I really gain any value from having a sheep thrown at
me?).
Community currencies have frequently charged a yearly fee (in
conventional money) for membership in their “currency club.” With the
advent of Twollars, this approach has become outdated. Lowering the
cost of failure for participating in a community currency will likely
make the idea far more appealing for the potential user. The fact that
Twollars is on an existing platform, where the use of the currency
promotes the currency itself gives Twollars a viral quality that other
currencies simply don’t enjoy.
Even more significantly, according to Eiso, they are close to
releasing a version of Twollars that allows for user generated
currencies. People would be able to define their own currency by
simply defining a hash-tag for it. For instance a Portland based time-
bank focused on the film community might use “#pdxfilmtb”. The
Twollars server would tally transactions bearing this hash-tag
separately from others. A simple mutual-credit architecture would give
the power of a time-bank to any and all people willing to participate
for free. Here finally we see the dawning of what many of us have been
waiting for: a free, multi-currency platform that demystifies money /
currency, and empowers the user to define their own economic exchange
networks.
Eiso and Mac are also very wisely using the K-I-S-S principle (keep it
simple stupid). Many of us (myself included) in the currency world
have a tendency to over-complicate matters, especially when it comes
to the user experience. Someday soon, we will need a nuanced platform
that can describe any currency imaginable, but for now a simple mutual-
credit architecture (like LETS or a Time-banks) will be able to engage
a wide array of people who haven’t considered the possibility of using
community currency before.
In addition, Eiso and Mac have both been very open to the ideas and
input from other members of the currency world. By releasing their
beta version and soliciting input from the community, they have
adopted one of the key success strategies of social web innovators. I
can’t overemphasize my enthusiasm for the Twollars project.
Congrats!"
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