From Critical Mass to Commitment: Rethinking the Fetishization of Currency
Today’s landscape, dominated by consumption, colonialism, and capitalism, leaves societies fractured — much like the aftermath of a…
Today’s landscape, dominated by consumption, colonialism, and capitalism, leaves societies fractured — much like the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. Our collective energy was harnessed for destructive ends and we, the residual atoms, strive to reestablish connections, perpetuating a cycle of destruction by adhering to a ‘critical mass’ ethos.
The term “critical mass”, derived from nuclear physics, has permeated various fields — from sociology to business, and surprisingly, community currencies. It denotes a threshold where enough individuals adopt a new idea or behavior, supposedly enabling self-sustaining growth and impact. The concept gained prominence in business, particularly concerning technology adoption, with Everett Rogers’s book “Diffusion of Innovations” in 1962. Rogers utilized it to delineate how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology proliferate.
As a physicist-turned-grassroots economist, I often confront the question: “How many users must a currency have to gain critical mass?” Embedded within this inquiry is a Kool-aid delusion and fetishization intertwining currency and critical mass. It presumes that a currency is merely a network effect of users — if enough people accept XYZ, then XYZ is a currency — and that is deemed good.
However, applying “critical mass” to human behaviors and sustainable systems presents considerable challenges:
- It oversimplifies intricate human behaviors and social dynamics.
- It disregards diverse motivations and opinions, assuming a monolithic response post-threshold.
- It promotes a one-off push, while sustainability calls for continuous effort and adaptation.
- It risks dehumanizing individuals, treating them as indistinguishable units.
- It overlooks the personal and emotional aspects of decision-making.
In light of these considerations, we realize that we must shift our focus from ‘critical mass’ to the quality of commitments and connections when creating grassroots economies that support sustainable practices and well-being.
In our fight against capitalist domination, we’ve been programmed to prioritize currency. After all, it is necessary for survival. Yet, a more frugal and fruitful approach begins with our commitments. Instead of the vague concept of “currency”, we need to contemplate the foundational commitments that generate value.
A commitment represents a promise. Loyalty points or vouchers, for instance, are embodiments of promises made by businesses. These individual commitments can amalgamate into a mutual credit — a potent, indigenous financing instrument for resource cooperation aimed at collective well-being. Each commitment, while holding its value and functionality independently, contributes to a larger construct when pooled — not a critical mass, but a liquidity pool that can regenerate, flow, and circulate.
Quantity of users does not determine the quality of the instrument. Instead of aspiring for a “critical mass”, we should foster trust, care, commitment, and long-term planning. Our central query should not be, “How can I reach critical mass?” but rather, “How can I offer a service people genuinely desire?”
A mutual credit essentially is a pool of audited and accepted individual commitments from which members can draw fairly — it thrives on trust, an asset more valuable than any currency.
By reframing our perspective, we can focus more on building trust, relationships, and community around a service or product, instead of chasing an illusory critical mass of users.
To truly foster sustainable systems for well-being, our focus should be on nurturing mutual trust, aid, care, and credit, rather than fetishizing or obsessing over the attainment of a “critical mass” based currency. The real value lies in individual commitments and the trust we place in each other.
Currency may be a result of this process, but it isn’t our starting point. We start with us — expressing our value and commitment to ourselves and each other.