cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41384718
Previously, I made a post about Crowdbucks, but I just had a random (most likely stupid) follow-up thought.
What if the issue isn’t which currency to use — but the assumption that it needs to be “real” currency at all?
What if, instead of money, there was something like FediCoin / FediBucks / credits / points (name doesn’t matter), NOT crypto, and NOT blockchain — more like how platforms such as Wattpad operate?
Or like how carnivals and fairs work: You exchange real money at a booth, and in return you get tokens or fake currency that are only usable inside that ecosystem.
Some comparisons:
Wattpad coins
App “credits” or points
Forum reputation systems with unlocks
Arcade tokens
Fair/carnival tickets
In a Fediverse context, this could hypothetically be used for things like:
Supporting instance costs
Boosting posts or creators (opt-in), which could then potentially be exchanged for real currency (maybe, idk)
Unlocking cosmetic or convenience features
Community rewards instead of ads
Again, not crypto, not speculation, not “number go up.” More like an internal exchange or contribution system that stays inside the Fediverse.
So my questions are:
Is this fundamentally incompatible with Fediverse values, or just unexplored?
Would this be more acceptable than direct monetization or ads?
Could something like this remain optional and non-extractive?
Has anyone already experimented with something similar?
I don’t have the time, energy, or technical knowledge to build something like this — just curious whether this idea is interesting, terrible, or already solved.
Would love to hear thoughts from people more familiar with Fediverse economics and culture.
EDIT:
It gives off Japanese Pachinko vibes.
So if they have real cash value, how do you secure a distributed currency system without a blockchain? How do you stop the creation of fraudulent tokins?
Such a system could be set up relatively easily with GNU Taler. The problem is rather on the legal side for the organization that holds the funds and converts it to the tokens. Unless you are registered as a bank there are severe limitations on how much money you can hold and covert.
Stripe has the connected account system where they work as the money transmitter, so one could build a system where you just need to keep track of the IOUs and Stripe is the one collecting and sending payments. It's how Github sponsors work, and it's how I set up the Communick Collective
Then you have a central org you need to trust with the money. It's not really distributed or federated system anymore.
There is no need for a central org. It could be many different ones all using the same Taler software. In fact given the legal limitations that's probably the only way to do it.
Couldn't each one decide how much to charge and pay for their tokens? Like a swarm of countless centralized currencies, rather than a single decentralized one?
Taler isn's a currency but a payment system. So yes, each token generating entity (exchange) would have their own token. There could be some sort of backend settling mechanism between exchanges (I think Taler is working on that), but basically the person receiving the token would have to redeem it with the same exchange that issued it. Legally it can't be directly exchanged back to fiat money, but the exchange could issue a service contract with the person and pay them according to the tokens they hold.
The coins themselves don't have any monetary value.
What you do is you purchase the amount that you want, on the platform server that you are planning on using them on.
Ie Peertube.
You would then tip / etc with them.
And then, the creators, etc. that you pay, would then be able to cash out those coins for real currency.
But again, why go through all this trouble instead of just sending money through a payment processor?
The ability to 'cash out' means they do have monetary value.
Then I guess that the term "Trade In" might be better.
As I mentioned in the post, it's similar to how Pachinko Rules work.
Whatever the term, if the coins can be exchanged back into a real currency or goods, they have real value, and as such they're as good cash.
Wikipedia:
That's still not going to work without either a blockchain or central trusted management org of some kind.