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Central Banks Nervous As Alternative Currency With David Bowie's Face Goes Viral
Submitted by John Vibes via TheAntiMedia.org,
One of the best ways for the general public to take power back is to develop alternative currencies — both local and global — that allow people to trade outside of the corporate-government banking systems and central bank notes.
Many people in different areas of the world have been moderately successful at implementing local currencies, such as Mountain Hours or Ithaca Hours, which have gained traction in the U.S.
In London, an interesting alternative currency bearing the face of pop singer David Bowie has recently come into circulation. According to Market Watch, the local currency is specialized for the Brixton community in southwest London. It is officially called the “Brixton Pound.”
Tom Shakhli, manager of the Brixton Pound effort, said:
“They are using it because they want to feel connected to the local area. Every time you use it, you’re like a financial activist. You’re taking part in this act which is subverting the norm, which is to hand over your £10 note very passively.”
Shakhli pointed out that the project is intended to make a statement about the foundation of money, as well as provide an alternative to the current monopoly.
Shakhli said that his main goal with the project is to ask:
“What is money? Does it have to be either printed by the state or created by the banks? Why can’t money be localized? Why can’t money feature a pop star or a black historian? Does it have to feature establishment figures?”
So far, there are currently 200 local businesses that have signed up to participate in the Brixton Pound program.
The increasingly popular Brixton Pound is making central banks nervous — and rightly so. Following the success of the Brixton Pound, new alternative local currencies are now popping up all over the U.K. The Oxford Pound, Kingston Pound, and Palace Pound are just a few of the currencies that have been recently introduced. The Bank of England has been forced to respond to these local currencies because of their popularity, deeming them “voucher schemes” and warning the public that they are unprotected when using them.
A document released by the Bank of England claims that:
“Local currency schemes lead to significant and unanticipated impacts on aggregate economic activity.”
According to the document, the Bank of England will also attempt to delegitimize local currencies by
“Design[ing] features and marketing material [to] help users recognise that local currency paper instruments are like vouchers and not banknotes.”
* * *
For the economy to really be in the hands of the people, it is necessary to decentralize the currency and to have an open-source network of competing currencies that are community based and easily exchangeable. While it is impossible to predict how we will trade a century or even five years from now, we can still observe how people are innovating within their own areas and take those lessons into account for when state and bank issued currencies finally diminish in value to the point where they are unusable.
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Fed Reserve notes=voucher scam
Seems to me that France had a pretty good "voucher scam" going in the 1700's that didn't work out too well either.
John Law Lives.
Why does Bitcoin get such horrendous treatment on ZH, but some local paper currency that can be photocopied get's a pass? Cmon guys, stop hating the digital and recognize the advancement behind the marriage of P2P and encryption. Bitcoin isn't perfect, but you should all be laughing at the pathetic properties of these local currencies compared to cryptocurrency.
Fuck no
Next!
Spoken like a true ZeroBrain tard.
Cryptocurrencies are still gaining massive traction, teh only times it gets any mention is due to price movement. Whether it's $50 USD or $5000 USD, Bitcoin and teh cryptocurrencies facilitate transfer of funds outside teh traditional banking system.
Economics are dead simple: If Joe wants a new roof made by John, John makes the roof and Joe writes him an IOU (worth of a new roof). So next time John want something done he knows Joe is good at, John can use this IOU to trade for Joe's work.
When it becomes ridiculous is when Joe can't write this IOU, but only James has the power to write IOU's. Now Joe has to lend an IOU (worth of a roof) from James who writes this IOU with his magic pen. So now Joe uses the IOU to pay John.
What happened?
Joe is in debt with James (who has done no work) equal to the worth of a roof + interest
John has a IOU equal to the worth of a roof.
Joe has to work for James to repay the IOU (worth one roof + interest)
So John has worked hard to provide Joe with a new roof, Joe is breaking his back doing work for James.
And James is best of, doing no work at all but getting Joe to work for him with a strike from his magical IOU pen.
One could say 2 slaves and one master were created, with the power of writing IOU's
Now James can control the economy of their little community, since only he can write IOU's. If he wants a economic boom, he will write IOU's easily without questioning. But if he wants to create a crisis, he refuses to write a single IOU, without these IOU's Joe and John can't trade, so all activity stops..
I like your analogy Publicus - well done.
You better have a few BTC stored away, if your video card dies when SHTF and you show up at an old gamer's house with some chickens, eggs or canned food he is going to chase you right off his property!
Cut to scene of a plugged intersection. No vehicles are running; people are moving beween and around them on foot or by bicycle as they attrend a farmer's market. As they pass Coinhead holds a sign up that says, "Lost all my BTC in the EMP-can you spare a silver nickel?"
An Old Theme
Think of a Hotel/Casino… Vegas, Atlantic City, Monte Carlo, London, etc.
While there, people buy casino chips with local fiat. Those chips can be used to gamble or buy food or other goods while in the casino/hotel. When leaving, people can keep those $100 chips that cost the Casino $0.25 to make or convert them back to local fiat.
What denomination will Gary Glitter's mug reside on?
If the central banks get nervous enough, they will counterfeit these currencies and bubble them to the moon. The same thing they did with gold and bitcoin.
Try to be accurate.
Counterfeit gold???? Paper GLD yes - real gold, no - and you can detect Tungsten
Counterfeit Bitcoin??? Nope - flat out impossible,
Try to corner the market, using Monopoly money they print to buy real gold or Bitcoin .... yes for gold, and they could do that to Bitcoin too.
But they can not do that openly, it would send the price of gold or Bitcoin sky high. Plus it would be a PR disaster for the Monopoly money...
They fucked bitcoin in the asshole sideways. Or did you enjoy the ride from $1,000 to $250?
No such thing as a silver ni....awww I see what you did there!
Seems like so many of the movie script written here involve EMPs that destroy all the grids on the planet. If I was a movie producer I would be yawning and facepalming all day.
Now James can control the economy of their little community, since only he can write IOU's. If he wants a economic boom, he will write IOU's easily without questioning. But if he wants to create a crisis, he refuses to write a single IOU, without these IOU's Joe and John can't trade, so all activity stops..
And probably most importantly, James never writes an IOU for the accumulated interest - i.e. the interest can't be paid because the IOU doesn't exist - and therefore, the debt never goes away.
Wrong... at least, in most situations*.
This is where the velocity of money comes into the equation. As James recieves back his monthly payments of interest and principle, the principle component goes back to where it came from (ie, thin air), but the interest winds up getting spent back into the economy by the bank (in the form of dividends, interest on deposits, wages, utilities, etc), some of which will be returned to the borrower via earnings and who then uses it to make his next monthly repayment of principle and interest. If the money circulates fast enough, there is sufficient flow to cover the interest.
* When this fails is if the banks hoard the interest, or if money velocity in the economy at large drops too low.
Why? Because most people here are morons who want to continue using things like Visa, Mastercard which teh banks happily accept... use those funds to turn around and naked short the metals. ZeroBrains are their own worst enemies!
.......and also, because the majority of Americans would be net losers in a BitWorldOrder. They're the ones who have benefited from teh "dollar" all these years via military aggression and subversion. One aspect not often discussed about cryptocurrencies is their ability to turn the entire world into a massive free trade zone... yes, we know a dirty word... but a good free trade zone where the banksters don't get to skim from the top.
No, that's definitely not true. Most people on ZH would stop using credit the first chance they ever got. I'd wager 50% of people who read ZH regularly would rather accept death than leave any member of their family in debt as a result of their own illness. If there's one thing you can be sure of on ZH, is that most people realize the inherent master-slave relationship that exists with debt.
You two need to get a room.
"You two need to get a room. "
...& that room should probably be a padded cell...
"Oooooh, You'll love a lad insane!"
Santini Air, is that you?
If so, you must be quite important in the ZH community because when I clicked your name all I got was this:
Access deniedYou are not authorized to access this page.
EDIT:
Oh, and welcome to ZH coinhead - you are quite prolific for such a newbie...
coinhead
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Weekend Tyler Shill
Vanilla Rickroll Troll
You meant "Bitcon".
Your answer lies in the facts that illude you. There is no scarcity, only the illusion of scarcity. As the number of alt-coins are as numerous as the stars; thus the lack of scarcity, while enjoying all the exact same properties as each other alt-coin. Who would wish to BUY bitcoin at any premium when there are an infinate number of equal alt-coins with a different name, at a fraction of the cost? Why is your alt-coin better that my alt-coin?
Bitcoin is not just a store of value, it's also a medium of exchange. The altcoins aren't well accepted for trade, because the market isn't demanding more than one or two cryptocurrencies for that purpose. Those one or two that win will have the most value.
Maybe it'll be bitcoin, maybe it'll be one of the competitors, but we won't see infinitely many actually in use.
Network Effect makes Bitcoin better than your altcoins. Why do people value USD over other Fiat currencies? As a UK citizen I would be more likely to accept USD over the Albanian Lek or the Malaysian Ringgit. By all means questions the utility of Bitcoin but to compare it with altcoins is naive.
US dollar is accepted because it is backed by US military and technically one of the best legal systems as well as one of the most stable and robust economies....yes I know there are multitude of shortcomings and reality if far from ideal.
Bitcoin is backed by what?
a Duck.
The Roman Empire also had a powerful military, developed legal system and a large stable economy, but people still lost faith in the Denarius. Bitcoin may collapse, however it won't be due to an unexpected increase in the money supply. The blockchain technology will live on regardless.
The network effect destroys your argument. The winner is the first one with the best properties of money that gets the widest adoption by merchants and consumers. This is the same as fiat, only crypto has better scarcity than fiat does.
You obviously don't understand it enough to be making an assertion about it.
They don't all have the same properties. Perhaps most important, and objectively measurable is the difference in the computing power securing each blockchain. The Bitcoin blockchain is by far the most secure from attacks.
Go google what this all means.
Bitcoin: 7 transactions per second (globally). Requires centralised processing of transactions. Every transaction anywhere can be tracked globally.
Brixton pound: Max transactions per second = number of notes. Truly peer to peer requiring no third party. Completely anonymous.
Excellent point of difference between these two currencies... except - the camera in the marketplace, street, automobile will have facial recognition of you as you make the hand-to-hand transaction.
DEATH TO PRIVACY DESTROYING CAMERAS
And, just deal with individuals and small scale businesses so you can remain relatively free.
Paint spraying drones, here we come...
The recent "Stress Tests" and spam attacks on Bitcoins network disproves your theory of 7 transactions per second. Also, in response to those "Stress tests" the users are now debating a block size increase which is a hard-raise to the TPS limitations you are quoting.
You're uninformed or misinformed. No centralization at any point in Bitcoin.
You're not paying attention! The article makes it clear that there's an organization behind it, managed by Tom Shakhli. The website states "Brixton Pound CIC" as the legal entity.
You're not using common sense either. You can't make a single currency unit out of paper notes issued in a decentralized fashion. Maybe you can have something like a system of IOUs issued in a decentralized way (by anyone), but then the value of the different IOUs would float, therefore you can't have a single unit stamped on all of them like "Brixton pounds" and expect them to be fungible. Or you can have it in digital form, with the currency unit defined by the protocol (in Bitcoin - ultimately based on computational work) and secured by a blockchain.
digital fiat is still fiat
You should double check the definition of fiat.
Dude, one can neither pay rent nor mortgage with bitcoin, nor a loaf of bread or an apple. Can't pay my dermatologist in bitcoin, nor get my only medicine at the pharmacy. Fed Reserve notes are in vogue it seems and I'll use them only if/when I have to.
Gold: hell yes.
Bitcoin: mmmmm. no.
Blockchain: Fantastic though. Lets branch out from there.
A landlord or a dermatoligist, etc certainly can accept bitcoin. If they choose to.
What you can not do is pay your taxes in bitcoin.
ZH bags on bitcoin because it theatens the Russian Central bank, the Brixton Pound, not so much.
Tyler left out the rest of the BoE quote:
"If this gets out of hand the BoE stands ready to counterfeit the Brixton Pound in quantity sufficient to drive it's value into worthlessness. Trust us, we know how to do this. We have a lot of practice."
"Trust us, we know how to do this. "
-Dual Citizen, Goldman Sachs Alumnus
Awesome stuff!
Yes, Mark Carney is a Goldman Sachs Alumnus, and was a frequent critic of them and Jamie Dimon once he became Governor of the Bank of Canada.
Citizenship-wise he is still Canadian only, although his wife is British. He is in the process of applying for British Citizenship. He is not a member of the tribe, if that is what you are insinuating.
Damn straight they do.
bowie is always known for being there to screw you in the ass.
so are these bit ass ccoins?
And call them Ziggy notes
The notes are "Brixton", the coins are "Ziggies"- wasn't Bowie the first rock star to IPO his song catalogue?
Bowie doesn't belong to any of you bastards..
The MAN who SOLD the WORLD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Bd3iJSFyE
Until hearing the song again just now, I didn't recall it being Bowie's - Nirvanna was the last I remembered doing it.
Nice.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2902
I think this song is much more fitting for the Brixton Pound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiQoq-wqZxg
There are quite a few people (Hillary Clinton especially) I would like to see using cans of mackerel as their currency of necessity. A "stack of macks" will get you quite a bit in Federal prison.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122290720439096481
"Prisoners need a proxy for the dollar because they're not allowed to possess cash. Money they get from prison jobs (which pay a maximum of 40 cents an hour, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons) or family members goes into commissary accounts that let them buy things such as food and toiletries. After the smokes disappeared, inmates turned to other items on the commissary menu to use as currency."
May as well have a picture of a tulip on it. Or Russell Brand!
Nah, fuck that. What's next? The Rolling Stones Logo?
Ezra Pound was incarcerated in St. Elizabeth's Hospital on treason...
How about him?
Yep, he didn't know WTF was going on, but then he discovered the FEDRES scam and quickly knew it was more important than anything, everything, he had learned about.
He was ready to use his fame to speak out againt the Fed...
One day I hope to see my own cheery visage grace our banknotes.
if i ever see bernankes face on a note Ill vomit
it'd certainly be a more accurate figure to put on there rather than Jackson
The next time I vomit, I hope it's not on a FR note with Bubble Ben Shalom Zimbabwe's puss; otherwise, I'll know the world has ended and I overslept.
"unprotected" using voucher schemes?
unlike the fiat that are all headed to a sure death soon? I need clarification, sir.
It became a scam by executive order in 1933.
HOW ABOUT BITGOLD?
Careful there David, if you have any association with the Brixton Pound or you may just be "The Man Who Fell To Earth". - Nailgun style.
The US Government considers using the word "dollar" to be counterfeiting.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fbi-busts-mastermind-criminal-issuing-s...
So I was walking along a beach in southern Oregon yesterday and saw several sand dollars - er coins? shells? mollusk skeletons?
Damn! Don't want to go to jail for wrongful use of a copyrighted term...
How do you get the ABC strikethrough function on the toolbar to work in a post? I tried it on the word dollar in my previous post but it doesn't show up when posted.
Nostradumbass
You highlight the word(s) you want to strike out
and then click on the strike out icon like this
Hmmm...didn't work for me either. The highlighted word got struck through doing what I just said, but it didn't go through the 'save' procedure even though the code is displayed on the edit page.
Tech will have to fix it.
I can even see the strike out on the word 'this' above as I type this but it will probably not show up
after I hit the save button.
Yeah, it doesn't work.
Yes GOLDTRADERRR, that is just what I witnessed as I tried to use the function - thanks for the confirmation.
The Fed and US Treasury are patrolling ZH and do not permit it.
Also, it violates Google's trademark.
If you took any of that "money" home, you're subject to 5-10 years and a $10,000 fine. Sand dollars and shells are not accepted as payment; but your teenage daughter or wife are, possibly, as long as the former is underage and the latter is under age 40 and is hot.
The Swiss government does not consider the using the word franc (or franken/franco) to be counterfitting. In fact, for over 80 years there has been a parallel asset backed non-central bank controlled currency (CHW)in competition with the Swiss franc (CHF). It has roughly the same 3B monetary base as Bitchcoin, but without the ponzi scheme aspects and price volatility. One day someone may put the WIR website in English so the BoE can read it.
In the mean time, perhaps the US people need to change their government and central bank.
Use "thaler" instead. The word that became dollar.
Joachimsthaler.
They were silver - reliable weight and purity which made them acceptable pretty much anywhere.
No 'legal tender' laws required.
I foresee a replay of the norfed mint scenario x10000 in the coming months
+1 for the Norfed ref..
Insane!
Sign me up! But I want some 'Major Toms' - gotta be worth ten Brixton's.
Why aren't they called Ziggys?
Those are backed with gold stardust.
My mama said, "To get things done
You'd better not mess with Major Tom."
Any day now in the year of the ...
Can we send all central bankers into space and leave them there?
At least with the pound you are assured of....what again?
taxes
Getting pounded in the buttocks without lube.
Ouch...there was no vaseline in THAT sand.
Coming soon to the USA
The Caitlyn Pound (his ass)
Very popular in California and the deep south.
Wham-bam thank you ma'am
Once it gains traction some greedy psycho will abuse it.
Notes and digital for day by day exchange. High velocity.
Gold, silver, seashells, lead, your commodity of choice for holding wealth. Low velocity.
Yes, if it gains traction, it will likely be abused. However, if the bankers get their wishes and go cashless, shit like this will pop up all over the place, be it paper notes or something else. Black markets will circumvent banks and Uncle Sam will be cut out of the game when it comes to collecting taxes. You don't even need to get into the drug trade for there to be a demand for an anonymous means of trade. I'll betchya that a lot of people like to use cash in porn shops, for example.
"I am holding your kids at gunpoint,and beating and tazing you, as a prelude to your arrest for the utilization of an unauthorized currency to purchase that food there, which will also be confiscated. Do you have any contraband-gold, or know of where any may be? This will go easier for you and your kids if you do."
Zion is a scheme, not an ethnicity..
Yes, TPTB in the UK are true reptiles. It is no accident that the authors of 1984 and Brave New World each hail from England. The U.S. is warm & fuzzy by comparison.
Then watch how quickly and how violently the government will try to crack down on alternative currency users. If you think the war on drugs is crazy, you ain't see nothin' yet. System D, bitchez!
They should be prepared with a replacement or a system at any moment, this would help, and it would show even more what lengths bankers will go to to control the system of value and trade, it would open a few eyes, this should spread in the west, as western fiat is the worst of the worst, worthless sheite.
It shouldn't be too hard to be a few steps ahead of the banksters.
That's an interesting point about alternative currencies in a cashless society. I hadn't really thought about that driving an alternative currency rather than hoarding of the official one. But of course the official one will be made non-negotiable.
Maybe I better stock up on some nice linen paper and lots of laser toner.
If it comes down to that, I'll start selling seed packets for what they cost in the late 1800s. A silver dime. I'll personally be leery of anything without a pretty solid guarantee that its value won't evaporate overnight.
Well, if you ARE going to start printing your own local alternative currency please make sure that you don't use a color printer with display tracking dots.
From the "seeing yellow" web site"
So if you do print your own on a color laser printer make sure it's bought second hand with cash at a garage sale.
Yellow ink? That cartridge is always out of ink. I don't understand why.
Banksters are always nervous when their rigged, 3-card Monte, Ponzi game is exposed for what it is...
but but...they were here first, so their flem flam bucks are real, right?
Are they really implying that the value, and thus usefulness of little people's currency has any protection what-so-ever?
It's not lying when the government does it.
Yes, it is.
There you go, being logical again. The Ministry of Truth thinks you should stop that. Here, have a soma.
Your not going to beat these bastards with paper and coin,however they are not ahead of the game on bitcoin and e-commerce capital raising models being developed...we do have to develop an alternative to these bastards who aren't lending to entrepeneurs but only zombie banks and approved Knights of the Pentagram table Buffet,Soros,Icahn etc
"This is The BoE to Major Tom.....Your currency is dead"
Commencing meltdown....printers on
Much, much nicer then Mugabe's face on the 1 trillion note.
I've always been a fan of Bowie.
Unprotected? So I'm proteced when the official fiat is devalued by 5%/yr with money printing and banks/corporations/insurers get bailed out on the public dime?
If that's protection I'm the Pope.
Bless me, your Holiness, for my government has sinned.
None of this would be an issue or even come to existence if the central banks didn't overplay their hand
The need to maximize profits among Banksters and elected politicians was just too strong. They could not help themselves.
Monty Python Pounds (MPP) would be great scrip. Terry Gilliam's art would be fantastic on the bills, and the currency reserves could be eldeberries, herring, and coconuts shells to bang around. Maybe even a grail.
I already got one!
MPP should be commonly referred to as Newts.
God, I can hear Sir Bedevere now...."And what also makes a currency float?"
The 100-lb note would be printed on a board with which you can hit yourself in the head. And it would actually weigh 100 lbs.
too literal -1 for you
go grab a big gulp and try again
Only if there's a Can We Have Your Liver 20.
That'll be 15 Norwegian Blues.
They could also have a 1600lb note for really big purchases.
"Look Mate, your currency wouldn't Voom if I put a trillion pounds through it. The currency isn't pining for the fijords it's bleedin demised!"
after Gordon Brown you more or less have Monty Python Pounds anyways so why not make it official the top denomination be it a swallow,shruberry or whatever should definately on the flip side have the monty python angels blowing trumpets with their arses 'ín blissful ignorance we trust'
might as well have the Legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh on it, it pretty much resembles the squid
now if only the squid's animators could up and have a heart attack, freeze frame, and keel over...
How much are ten shrubbery in Ziggy Brixton Pounds?
Have you guys ever had a tiramisu craving? I'm here at the checkpoint and nobody's got any tiramisu.
Hell yeah, lets go to a Thomas Jefferson currency backed by silver, Bowie can be on the back because.... well..you know.
Whowever has or uses alternative currency had better hope it finds a Goldilocks zone where it is popular enough to retain its value and not so popular that it poses a genuine threat to the profits of the puppetmasters. It only takes a couple of phone calls and all that stuff is suddenly illegal. Next they make examples of some people and then it will become just another excuse to expand the police state and the prison system.
Ithaca started in 1991 with over 900 active users. Not bad for a small town legal barter system.
I like barter because I find so much stuff that has just been carelessly discarded here at the checkpoint.
This could be fun. The U.K. has a deep subculture of radicals with more creativity, craziness and cajones than anything happening in the U.S. No doubt Big Brother will try to smash this hobby but they better watch their collective a$$e$. Go to it lads.
How about creating a Freddie Mercury pound with Freddies picture and him guzzling a big fat cock with a Queens crown on his head?
Make it rainbow colours for the LGBT community worldwide.
''Its a kinda MAGIC''
Gay pounds will be immensely popular because if the BoE objects just yell ''Homophobes;;
I would prefer Black Sabbucks myself, but I can see "Qbux" gaining popularity - add some "flair" to yer plain ol' dollars.
If I have to get down on my knees one more time today I'll pass out!
It's not easy staring at crotches and smelling fartboxes all day long with NO tiramisu!
shouldn't the 1 be inside the O for a bowie note?
All money is a "voucher scheme" and what destroys them is too many vouchers. The primary focus of capitalism since Reagan has been the creation and storage of excess vouchers. Inflating asset prices, not the general economy.
V-OUCH!-er scheme.
USD. 30yr mortgage.
First 20 year pays for your privilege to be ruled by The FED.
Last 10 years pays down the original principle.
Som ting rong here!
Just destroy one or more vouchers for every new voucher you create.
The central banks aren't worried about Brixton bucks per se - they are worried that the masses will start to realize that there is no difference between a note with the Queen on it or a note with Bowie on it. The only reason either has value is because enough people agree that they do. Enough people could STOP agreeing about them as well.
Scots already know this.
None of the Scottish notes in circulation in Scotland are "legal tender". They circulate nonetheless and work just fine. All notes are just vouchers.
I have Clydesdale bank notes:
Bank of Scotland bank notes
and
Royal Bank of Scotland bank notes
Forgot. Yes you also occasionally see Bank of England bank notes too. So that's 4 completely different sets of bank notes in circulation. If your typical Glasgow ned can cope with this I think most people can.
Ding Ding Ding!
You got it.
One is obviously a voucher scheme and the other is also obviously a voucher scheme.