Mutual-credit-on-blockchain

Emerging Alternative Game position: Modify Accumulation: Variable Ethical frame: Smithian-Rousseauian Divisibility: Fine Uniformity: Fungible

Prototype: Circles UBI

Ports mutual-credit accounting onto a blockchain trust graph; some versions also mint a small universal basic income directly to participants.

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Structural profile

Topology view

Architecture

Game position
Modifies the game; mutual credit substrate plus crypto-native features
Value-signal richness
Single unit per network; some designs add UBI minting
Accumulation regime
Varies by design: pure mutual credit zero-sum; Circles adds minting

Medium-of-Exchange Properties

Divisibility
Finely divisible on-chain, same precision as any standard fungible token.
Uniformity (Fungibility)
Fungible within a given trust-graph network, though UBI-minting variants add per-issuer complexity.
Durability
Durable as an on-chain ledger entry, inheriting blockchain persistence.
Portability
Portable within its trust-graph network; UBI-minting variants still bound acceptance to graph membership.
Acceptability
Narrow — accepted within the specific trust-graph a user is connected to, not universal even within the platform.

Operation

Coordination / discovery
Bounded-trust plus algorithmic-mechanism-design
Governance & issuance
Per-account or per-trust-edge issuance; protocol-level rules
Scale & federation
Global potential; federation through trust-graph topology

Anthropological assumptions

Default ethical orientation
Smithian-Rousseauian; mutual credit assumes capacity for communal trust among members, run through crypto-native infrastructure that still presumes ordinary self-interest at the edges.
Accumulative drive
Drive limited by mutual credit logic; some designs add minting
Status / recognition
Separated through trust-graph topology
Time preference
Variable by design — mutual credit plus optional UBI minting, with no fixed time orientation of its own.

In Practice

Track record
Circles UBI has run live on-chain since 2020 , with a substantial registered user base, though actual active daily use remains a small fraction of registrations.
Governance requirements
Requires joining a trust graph — users must be vouched for by existing members; no central authority, but real social coordination is needed to bootstrap trust.
Resource requirements
A blockchain wallet and gas fees to interact with the network; no capital requirement to receive the UBI issuance itself.