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Has anyone experimented with barter nfts? I borrow a cup of sugar from neighbor and issue him a “cup of sugar nft” … solves dual coincidence of needs problems without a fungible currency. Crypto-hardened IOUs.
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I can't tell if this is serious, but giving a neighbor a cup of sugar is not a transactional interaction. You're building a relationship with them by giving them sugar. Maybe they'll rescue you from a burning house one day because they think you're nice.
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If you can only barter with people you have a relationship with, your circle of potential creditors will be smaller than Dunbar's number. What if you need to borrow some specific thing and the only people in town who can lend it are folks you've never met before?
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It's not about bartering, it's about monetizing things that are of inestimable value. I'd give my child a lifesaving organ, but wouldn't sell it. I eagerly do volunteer work for free, but I'd charge a lot if I didn't believe in the cause. Kindness towards a neighbor is priceless.
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What is talking about is a kind of mutual credit system. Some anarchists think such a thing could totally replace money. It wouldn't stop you from giving altruistically, infact I'd expect more people would feel liberated too. It would vie to displace commerce, not charity
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A common critique of blockchain's champions is that there's a tendency to monetize what should not be. When replacing a system everyone uses, it's important to understand it deeply. The example in the post was not one where you would ever apply instruments of commerce.
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Believe me, I think about that tendency all the time. This isn't that. a cup of sugar is just a shorthand illustration. Obviously the big-picture implications would not be for things you typically ask of nextdoor neighbors you're already close with.
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I get the intention and there's a lot of interesting stuff there. But the example of monetizing giving your neighbor sugar was *so terrible* and it matters. It confirms the worst misgivings detractors have: that the people who theorize on the tech understand little of the world
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I did not argue because you have absolutist judgments here, not because I’m conceding what you think is a self-evident point. I reach conclusions you think are “terrible,” so you assume I have no experience of “sugar cup” economies rather than just valuing them differently.
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My mistake, I thought you chose an example carelessly because you were in the midst of excitement for communicating an idea. It sounds like you're inadvertently proposing that people update a public ledger for every kindness they do for others so they can be repaid.
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Also, it's important for me to say because it's so easy to misunderstand or be cruel on this medium: that I don't think your conclusions are ever "terrible", else I wouldn't read your blog or follow you here.