[wsfii-discuss] CC accounting disclosure requirements

[Richard Kay]

On Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 05:14:45PM +0100, Adrian Short wrote:
> It's pretty clear to me that cash as we know it will cease to exist in
> a few years and any remaining economic anonymity will go with it. Bear
> in mind, as I'm sure you're aware, that the use of cash in the UK and
> many other countries is already severely limited by money-laundering
> regulations.
> 
> It's a problem that needs to be solved but it's not a problem that
> needs to be solved by every CC system and as many have pointed out,
> may well be antithetical to some of them.
> 
> The great thing about alternative currencies (note the term) is that
> they are additional to the national currency. We destroy the idea that
> most people, most of the time have to use a single currency, whatever
> it may be. When you're using multiple currencies, you can choose the
> ones that are fit for your purpose from the currency toolbox. Those
> that are useful to people will thrive and those that are useless will
> die.
> 
> It's important to be clear about your intentions when designing a
> system and stick to them. That implies that you also know what your
> system is not. Trying to be all things to all people tends to lead to
> a mess. A diversity of projects, each with a specific focus, will
> enable the wide currency scene to innovate and constantly come up with
> better solutions. But not every system will succeed, in fact, most
> will fail.
> 
> In more specific terms, I've been trying to address the line between
> disclosure and privacy in my own software. It's tricky and it's always
> going to come down to a value judgement. There seem to be three
> approaches:
> 
> 1. Everything is as private as possible on principle.
> 2. Everything is as public as possible on principle.
> 3. Work out which questions in specific circumstances a member might
> legitimately want to ask about another member and provide as little
> information in that context as they need to answer those questions.

In the interests of simplicity and modularity of development,
I think most double-entry zero start accounted currency 
requirements are likely to be met by 3 possible
members' agreements:

1. The model LETSystem agreement which is that other account
holders using the same currency are entitled to know others
balances and turnover, in order to build confidence allowing
trade to take place. 

2. An arrangement suggested for baby-sitting circles, where
all the parents want to know who does what for whom and when. 

3. This one isn't a CC at all - a supermarket issuing
all the trading points in its private currency wants to
know what all the user balances are and no-one else
is allowed to see anything. The reason for supporting
this one in multi-currency software is that supports the
generic multi-currency accounting through a single 
user interface requirement more fully. 

> 
> I'm going with number 3 for this specific system but I can see how
> both 1 and 2 will appeal to many people. There would be nothing to
> stop someone being a member of many systems, each with different
> policies.
> 
> To give a specific example, it's taken as read in most LETS that
> members know the other members balances? Why? Because it appears to
> show whether they're in good standing and therefore are trusted to
> trade with. However, it's quite meaningless and can lead to wrong
> conclusions in almost every situation (large positive balance, large
> negative balance, balance near zero.) The trading volume, length of
> membership and average trading volume over a specific period is highly
> relevant to answering that question, though. Therefore, I will not be
> disclosing members' balances to protect them from misinformation,
> rather than in the interests of privacy.
> 
> I'm quite relaxed about aggregate system-wide statistics and I think
> most people are, with the exception of trying to avoid presenting them
> in a way (ie. in real time) where they might inadvertently reveal
> information about specific members.
> 
> Let a thousand currencies bloom!
> 
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