Sacred Capital in the Bay Area

Ahead of the crowdraise in November 2017, Jonas, Jared, Sid and Sima have been interacting with interesting people in the Bay Area. Here’s a reflection from Sid about ‘The old and the new of progressive economics’
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San Francisco always has room for divergent conversations that leave you thinking about the world in different ways. All through our week here we’ve been interacting with people who’re pushing the bounds of finance. Today was one of those days that stood out in particular since we saw two ends of the spectrum. We witnessed some of the roots of progressive finance as we know it today, as well as where the world is headed in the future.
Over dinner we were held by an inspiring conversation with Arno Hesse. Over the decades he’s given birth to some incredibly ground-breaking initiatives. One of them, called Edible Credibles was probably the earliest expression of a token based system, where food sellers and producers could raise capital without relying on the mainstream wealth system. Bernal Bucks was yet another initiative that helped communities foster a great flow of capital in local communities. All these initiatives were run in a pre-blockchain era, but held the same principle i.e. enabled a community of people to design and run their own wealth systems.
Across the San Francisco bay in Oakland, we came across a futuristic organisation though. ECSA, or the Economic Space Agency (Yes, that’s what they’re called!) is looking at current designs for blockchain platforms and think they’re just not enough. Platforms like Ethereum and EOS were incredible in getting things moving in the blockchain world, but in the long run may not be fluid and flexible enough to adapt to the needs of the world. Instead of building out a platform, ECSA prefer to think of themselves as the economic fabric that would guide the flow of capital in a highly collaborative world.
The next two paragraphs summarize what they’re trying to create. I’ve broken down the jargon as much as possible but bear with me if it all gets too esoteric!
Their first creation Economic Space lays down the foundations that would allow individuals and organisations to operate on the blockchain with even more freedom. When an organisation ‘lists’ on Ethereum, it ties you down to its inherent rules. However, in an ideal situation, you pick and choose across platforms in a collaborative manner. Economic Space allows you to do just that, without tying yourself to a particular platform.
Economic Gravity, their other creation effectively allows much smoother conversation between different entities within the same ‘space’. It’s kind of like a collaborative network, but where you don’t risk selling your data and opening yourself completely to each other. Instead, you can reach an agreement for shared services by exchanging tokens with one another.
It’s quite likely that the two paragraphs above didn’t make too much sense to a lot of you. I think that’s perfectly fine. What you do need to understand, is that we’re all set to see collaborative platforms like ECSA taking the dreams of individuals like Arno even further. So as an individual, you will see wealth that’s even more fluid and incredibly vast. The universe will not only expand, but will also include entities of all kinds — from organisations of all sizes, to creative intentions and even individuals who’re looking to raise capital.
These certainly are exciting times for the world of finance :)

