Abstract

We specify a dual-currency gift system in which a fungible currency (peer-to-peer money gifts) and a non-transferable, expiring time currency (pledged hours of one person's time) run as one economy with no exchange rate, currency conversion or redemption window between them. An automated intermediary agent mediates every cross-currency flow under five rules: suggested money amounts are computed with no time-quantity input; no money gift is solicited at the moment a pledged hour is redeemed, and no prompt points back into the pair; interfaces name the occasion of a time gift and never display its quantity; reference amounts are small units set only by the intermediary, sized with regard to their anchoring effect; and the two currencies connect only through a free, optional new gift that settles nothing. On expiry of an unredeemed pledge, the pledger may direct an anonymous gift from a common fund to a verified nearby person, with no meeting; the lapsed hour is never valued. The paper argues that the intermediary role cannot be held by a party with economic interests, which would leak rate information, could be paid to bend the rules, or would drift toward monetizing what they withhold; rules-versus-discretion and trusted-third-party arguments are named as precedents. Prior art includes crowding-out and repugnant-market studies, time banking, game currencies with restricted conversion, and the Terra/Luna mint-and-burn collapse as anti-example. Limits: the system governs only its own surfaces; neutrality is an alignment claim; whether fixed constants could replace the intermediary's remaining discretion is left open.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Download

Share

COinS