Bank Thyme

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Greetings. I have been considering many things. Is there any community interest in starting a community bank that can store value in things other than cash currency. I would like to deposit some silver bars and be able to borrow against their value. If anyone would like to play banker - please respond. If there are a few of us, we can meet either on-line or somewhere in Ashland to work out details.

I posted this message at the Ashland Community network.  One of the first functions of Existence should be to design the criteria for establish a community bank.  I would like to be able to bank seeds, tools, equipment, labor, and food.  In addition we can encourage local businesses to use our own internal currency as barter exchange.  If the community has access to materials via microloans, then we can jumpstart new means of organizing productive work, while paying for it through community caring and sharing.

Meanwhile the squash grows fertile, and the seeds should be dried and put up for next summers use.  I am open to ideas about how to store materials that are held by the bank - and to clarify the agreements that need to be in place to have this community resource.  I am not interested so much in what is legal as to what will work in practice.  That is why existence is a game - so that we can think through some novel ideas.  Trust is going to become a much more negotiable currency than money ever was.  Lets begin designing the new foundational bank of the future.