Review: Open Currency Standard

[pmbug]

Saw these people exhibiting at the State GOP convention last week. They were selling copper and silver rounds from various private mints:

http://www.opencurrency.com/

They are creating a marketplace for barter / commerce using metals. I don't know a whole lot about them right now - I need to spend some time reading their site, but I thought I'd mention them anyway. Perhaps someone here has heard of them before and can provide their thoughts.

 

[benjamen]

I have looked into this website in the past. It seems to be hard to find a list of vendors that accept these tokens as payment. However, it does seem more geared into you buying to the system that allows you to sell these tokens.

It looks like a good idea initially, but I am on the fence about how it is actually being done.

 

[69mach351]

There are a couple of concerns that I would have.

1. If this was to work, a lot of people would have to buy in to it. As previously stated, finding a vendor to take these will probably be hard. The concept is nice, but if you can't use it to put food on the table or to keep the lights on, it isn't going to be worth much.

2. You also are using standard currency (The U.S. Dollar) to purchase a new form of currency (with a premium added on) that will be less accepted in society. So you are paying more for something worth less, that will be accepted less places.

3. There is no reason that this could not be done with coins that are already produced, and have less of a premium put on them. They seem to be the same size as most coins, so what makes them special?

In short, I think they are selling a concept, rather than a useful item. I am interested to hear what others think.

 

[HCA1961]

There are a couple of concerns that I would have.

1. If this was to work, a lot of people would have to buy in to it. As previously stated, finding a vendor to take these will probably be hard. The concept is nice, but if you can't use it to put food on the table or to keep the lights on, it isn't going to be worth much.

2. You also are using standard currency (The U.S. Dollar) to purchase a new form of currency (with a premium added on) that will be less accepted in society. So you are paying more for something worth less, that will be accepted less places.

3. There is no reason that this could not be done with coins that are already produced, and have less of a premium put on them. They seem to be the same size as most coins, so what makes them special?

In short, I think they are selling a concept, rather than a useful item. I am interested to hear what others think.

I think you hit the nail on the head:judge:, 69Mach351.

 

[bushi]

...not to mention, that creating alternative currency systems is actually illegal in most countries, and quite severely punishable by law. Gubbermints don't like competition in key areas, especially they hate competition and free markets in places that would free people from being skinned and robbed blind by them.

 

[69mach351]

...not to mention, that creating alternative currency systems is actually illegal in most countries, and quite severely punishable by law. Gubbermints don't like competition in key areas, especially they hate competition and free markets in places that would free people from being skinned and robbed blind by them.

They would miss out on taxes too. That is what the real problem is.

On another note, I wonder if they would let me trade labor for gold that they are selling on their site. See how much they believe in it themselves