Time banking seems to be mutual aid if there's no pricing, no profit, and roles rotate. If it mimics wages or contracts, it can be taxed. Intent and structure decide.
Note that with commitment pooling you are free to denominate commitments in time. A pool of people's commitments denominated in hours is a very cool kind of time bank.
These are almost exactly the points by which we were able to get US 501c3 IRS charity status for Simbi.com -- "exchanges" in the Simbi community are non-contractual mutual aid -- essentially, just people volunteering for each other in an organized way.
Thanks. Just to contrast ... Simbi seems to use internal credits to trade services, resembling a time-banking marketplace .... structured, transactional, and incentive-based.
Commitment pooling is different: it’s relational, trust-based, and framed around voluntary care, not earning. No fixed prices, no buying - just mutual promises fulfilled over time, with community-curated access. It's as if anyone can create their own version of Simbi credit and exchange with eachother.
Simbi seems to have built a beautiful engine for peer service, now imagine evolving it into a trust commons where Simbi can be pooled with any other form of commitment.
> imagine evolving it into a trust commons where simbi credits can be pooled with any other form of commitment.
we have indeed been imagining how to let simbi integrate with the wider world for at least a couple of years now!
simbi functions somewhere more halfway between favors or informal commitment pooling amongst friends or community members, and the transactional/earning/"this currency is real" model that you perceive in your review of Simbi.
in fact, Simbi is moreso an attempt to bridge the mental gap westerners have between doing favors for friends (commitment pooling) and entering into transactions with strangers ("money") -- on Simbi, you end up doing favors for strangers, because everyone is a member of the same trusted community (sound familiar? just online-based -- they are complimentary, the local and global strategies to create these connections)
so the formal definitions are certainly a bit different, but simbi credits are both framed and used by our members in in the same way as formally-pooled commitments: "relational, trust-based, and framed around voluntary care, not earning" -- simbi members are ultimately just doing favors for each other, and prices are rarely fixed or even that meaningful, and "earning" has no meaning on the platform, because large amounts of simbi credits tend to be relatively useless at compelling any action.
and while there is just one simbi community/credit, that's just a technical limitation -- I assure you, we see simbi's system evolving toward the ability for anyone to "create their own version of Simbi credit and exchange with each other"!
That's a wonderful comparison. I'm just in the beginnings of getting my head around this subject and although there is a universal truth to that there are many variations in different countries.
I think this is knowledge that could be collectively pooled accross countries.
Brilliant and timely breakdown of how this works! How lending partially bypassed taxes makes me think of how the ultra wealthy bypass taxes with constant loans in their stock. We can play the same game in a way that frees humanity rather than extracting from it xoxo
Time banking? I wonder what the implications of that would be.
Time banking seems to be mutual aid if there's no pricing, no profit, and roles rotate. If it mimics wages or contracts, it can be taxed. Intent and structure decide.
Note that with commitment pooling you are free to denominate commitments in time. A pool of people's commitments denominated in hours is a very cool kind of time bank.
Great points!
-No one is hired or compensated
-Transfers are recognition-based, not contractual
-Participation is voluntary and peer-curated
-There is no profit* or speculation
These are almost exactly the points by which we were able to get US 501c3 IRS charity status for Simbi.com -- "exchanges" in the Simbi community are non-contractual mutual aid -- essentially, just people volunteering for each other in an organized way.
Keep it up, Will!
Thanks. Just to contrast ... Simbi seems to use internal credits to trade services, resembling a time-banking marketplace .... structured, transactional, and incentive-based.
Commitment pooling is different: it’s relational, trust-based, and framed around voluntary care, not earning. No fixed prices, no buying - just mutual promises fulfilled over time, with community-curated access. It's as if anyone can create their own version of Simbi credit and exchange with eachother.
Simbi seems to have built a beautiful engine for peer service, now imagine evolving it into a trust commons where Simbi can be pooled with any other form of commitment.
thanks for the analysis, Will!
> imagine evolving it into a trust commons where simbi credits can be pooled with any other form of commitment.
we have indeed been imagining how to let simbi integrate with the wider world for at least a couple of years now!
simbi functions somewhere more halfway between favors or informal commitment pooling amongst friends or community members, and the transactional/earning/"this currency is real" model that you perceive in your review of Simbi.
in fact, Simbi is moreso an attempt to bridge the mental gap westerners have between doing favors for friends (commitment pooling) and entering into transactions with strangers ("money") -- on Simbi, you end up doing favors for strangers, because everyone is a member of the same trusted community (sound familiar? just online-based -- they are complimentary, the local and global strategies to create these connections)
so the formal definitions are certainly a bit different, but simbi credits are both framed and used by our members in in the same way as formally-pooled commitments: "relational, trust-based, and framed around voluntary care, not earning" -- simbi members are ultimately just doing favors for each other, and prices are rarely fixed or even that meaningful, and "earning" has no meaning on the platform, because large amounts of simbi credits tend to be relatively useless at compelling any action.
and while there is just one simbi community/credit, that's just a technical limitation -- I assure you, we see simbi's system evolving toward the ability for anyone to "create their own version of Simbi credit and exchange with each other"!
lots of work with folks within the holochain ecosystem lately to try to enable this long-term, but could just as easily see this system running on top of celo or even sarafu directly! analysis: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rcWOhjN6f-jFXDKi5bNUxooWBO7enFWHmJqCFHE1bno/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.ah65mauizcui
That's a wonderful comparison. I'm just in the beginnings of getting my head around this subject and although there is a universal truth to that there are many variations in different countries.
I think this is knowledge that could be collectively pooled accross countries.
Yeah it feels like a rabbit hole at times dealing with each country.... Would be amazing to have an open repository of due diligence for each.
These folks are the closest https://www.theselc.org/community-currencies-resources
Brilliant and timely breakdown of how this works! How lending partially bypassed taxes makes me think of how the ultra wealthy bypass taxes with constant loans in their stock. We can play the same game in a way that frees humanity rather than extracting from it xoxo
not to mention loans on their life insurance and the increase in their balance sheets from the life insurance.