(where Euros is written, read the State currency you want)
WHY NOT?
Euros (EUR) are difficult to keep safe when you have them in the form of bills or coins. In the bank, apart from the fact that they are no longer yours, they become a means of control by the State. In the bank they are easily blocked or seized and, of course, all your economic movements are perfectly registered. But, mainly, the EUR is the expression, the fuel and the vital force of a dark, unfair and oppressive economic system. The EUR represents the violence, the arrogance, the ambition and the avarice of a system imposed by dominant elites. The cause for which almost all types of crimes are committed, including, of course, the ecological crimes that are destroying our world. With Euros you can buy food but also with EUR wars are financed, people are massacred, whales are killed or all the criminal cartels in the world are financed.
Just as you avoid using plastics to not contribute to the deterioration of the ecosystem, although it is not reasonable to think that only your small gesture will save the oceans, we should avoid the EUR to save the world.
THE ANSWER IS IN THE SOCIAL CURRENCIES AND FAIRCOIN
Undoubtedly we need instruments for our economic relationships. It is true that, ideally, there would be no need for coins, but neither can it be denied that they are practical and convenient tools for the necessary exchanges. Social currencies fulfill this function in a local context, empowering people rather than economic macroentities with little or no ethical objectives. Maybe we are so obsessed with the currencies issued by the States that we have not paid due attention to the Social Currencies, but it is also true that, without being perfect tools, they are enormously practical from an activist and economic equity point of view . Their scope is very local and they are mainly focused on circles or networks of trust. This is fine although, as you see, many times we have to go beyond the purely local. And as a reserve, to save a certain amount of value and confidence, that is, to maintain reasonable and practical savings, they are not usually ideal.
Faircoin (FAIR) completes this gap, as auxiliary social currency for global use, in the same way as an auxiliary universal language would help us to understand each other easily without undermining the use of our native language.
FAIR LOGISTICS
Raising an economic system totally different from the capitalism in which we are immersed is not easy. It is easy to make mistakes; maybe because of excessive enthusiasm. FairCoop, in planning the logistics of a revolutionary system around Faircoin, has achieved something very difficult and, at the same time, has gained considerable experience with putting into practice methods that have not come out well at all. It is precisely this experience that makes it possible to maneuver properly if you have the flexibility and willingness to do it in time.
It is interesting that the currency has a fixed comparative value and that it is easy to understand. Many possibilities have been considered to establish this value. Some of these ideas are functional and very interesting like the Fairo based on the "purchasing power". But, basically, the language that we understand well is the EUR. So, in the global FairCoop community it has been established that 1 Faircoin is equal to 1.2 Euros. Getting to this has been a long road (3 years) but now it is irrelevant to describe it.
On the other hand, at the time, it was decided that whoever accepted FAIR could change them to EUR, at the official price determined by the community. And here is the crux of the matter. If we want to create a new economic system, outside the perverse scope of the EUR, this seems a contradiction. And it is.
The basic idea is good: we are in transition and people need EUR as long as they can not live with FAIR. True, but excessively condescending to promote an activist path.
The possible revenues in Euros in Faircoop are relatively scarce:
Freedomcoop: worker cooperative where self-employed workers can issue invoices on behalf of the cooperative, then changing 10% of the income to Faircoin.
Sale of FAIR: If you want to use FAIR and can not obtain them by selling goods or services, you can buy them from FairCoop in exchange for EUR.
Investors: people who, ideally, see in FAIR a way to obtain some benefit and, at times, to reconcile this idea with some kind of reassuring activism.
I have had occasion to briefly examine some ideas about it and, to my mind, I do not feel a sense of solidity. Correct me if I'm wrong: is it that investors buy FAIR and commit to save them for a period of time (even years) in order to exchange them back to EUR at the price that FAIR has when the term has passed? If you do not see the glaring failure in this strategy to obtain liquidity in Euros, I give up and I do not have the courage to explain it in detail.
Basic hacking: FairCoop acquired a large mass of circulating FAIR at a very cheap price at a time when this coin did not interest almost anyone. But not all, because it is useful that a part are bought and sold in speculative markets of cryptocurrencies. As the growing community uses FAIR in an ethical way and speculators can see that the FAIR is used practically in a real economy, in much greater proportion than most other cryptocurrencies, and being the amount of FAIR finite, it is reasonable to think that the price in such speculative markets will follow an upward path for many years. Under these ideal circumstances, speculative markets become a source of Euros for Faircoop. Simply sell a certain amount, convert them to Bitcoin and then sell Bitcoin for Euros. When the price is lower, FAIR is repurchased again. What does not matter, although the opposite idea has been mistakenly transmitted, is that FAIR completely disappears from these speculative markets.
Of course, (factor not entirely predicted) the speculative markets are unpredictable and very manipulable too, especially by those who have greater economic power. In the context of a general, abrupt and lasting fall in the value of cryptocurrencies in general and of FAIR in particular, this whole plan collapses. Maybe the price will rise again in the future. I have no doubt, if FAIR survives in these markets. But intelligence lies in the capacity to reflect and move along safer paths, transcending a strategy that was useful in the past but that can not be the capital piece of a well-designed plan in any way.
DO NOT CALL IT TRANSITION WHEN YOU WANT TO SAY SADNESS
Sad is that we see the Fair as a simple intermediary to get EUR. In a genuine transition towards a just economic model, FAIR can not be a means of life rather than a form of economic activism. I understand, and I say it before some people attack me irrationally, that we still need EUR for many things. But from the moment all FAIRs become bearer checks in EUR, we have built a wall of blindness around us.
I insist that I understand that people need (yet) Euros but the idea of FairCoop, let's not lose sight of it, is an activist idea. Being activists requires intelligence, will and sacrifice in many ways. In FairCoop, for more than a year, we are experimenting with a civil service model, whatever we call it. If you want, a cooperative work model with more or less fixed roles and tasks paid by the hour. It is logical to receive a remuneration in FAIR for the dedication to various necessary tasks. It is illogical to change those FAIR to EUR.
This last statement makes some people very angry. And, even if there are people devoting many hours of their lives to the goal of changing the world, no one should accept more FAIR than they can manage, use or save. That this would prevent many people from devoting their lives to making the laudable goals of FairCoop a reality? Let's relativize, please. In an open and global community there are plenty of people to cover all the necessary tasks. It only takes the will to manage in a truly open and transparent way. Maybe I can not occupy 8 hours a day of a task; but surely 4 people will be able to dedicate 2 hours each. Even 12 people could practically attend any aspect of management or attention to the other 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. And no one would have to receive more FAIR for it than they can assimilate and should not, of course, change them to Euros. As I said, we have most likely created walls that prevent people from contributing freely and orderly. Do not say "no" systematically; Think about it dispassionately! Reality confronts us with our inconsistencies of logic in our plans. Sometimes, reality does it in a violent way when we have not wanted to see the first and softest warnings.
People who accept FAIR should do so to the extent that they can use or save them. This automatically converts FAIR into an auxiliary Social Currency of global scope; with special and very useful characteristics, besides being a powerful weapon in the field of combative consumption and economic activism.
DO NOT CHANGE FAIR TO EUR RESOLVE A VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM
The serious problem is that a ship sinks. A water leaking can still have a solution. Especially if you see it.
Many people agree that the distribution of FAIR has been manifestly unfair and we should not deny this without further ado. There are people who have FAIR since it could be purchased at 5 cents. Some people have accumulated many FAIR since the official price was much lower than currently agreed. I myself have many FAIRs, accumulated over the years. If I go out there with the intention of spending them all buying everything I can, it is quite likely that it contributes in an important way to destroying the idea of FairCoop as it has been conceived up to now. Because all those FAIRs or a large majority would need to be changed to EUR at the official price of 1.2 EUR for FAIR. Do you see it or still do not see it?
HACKING THE SYSTEM SERIOUSLY
Therefore, the solution for FAIR to be truly the global auxiliary Social Currency that we want, is that it is the people who accept FAIR for their products or services the mechanism that balances the economic mechanism.
Producers, merchants and people who offer services in exchange for FAIR must accept them only to the extent that they can use them or save them. That is activism; the rest is to join the car of a pseudo-activist fashion waiting, perhaps, to have more customers.
The speech we have promoted so far is another: "Accept FAIRs and when you need it you can change them to EUROS, whenever you want, at a fixed price agreed by the community".
But now, reality confronts us with the need to be really activists and this implies small discomforts. For example, to call before the restaurant that accepts FAIR and ask if we can pay in FAIR. There are two possible answers:
ā No, I'm sorry, this month we can not accept more FAIR.
Or...
ā No problem!
In online stores the matter is even easier. It is enough to put on sale the quantity of articles that we can truly accept in FAIR.
People will continue to go out and talk about FAIR with enthusiasm, having freed us from the oppressive ghost of the EURO. And we will be delighted, because our currency will be used more and more, advancing with sense and firm step. Progressively, more people will be able to use it in more and more places. And more and more, when we ask if we can pay at FAIR, they will tell us: "no problem!".
Happy anniversary, FairCoop!