Money by the people, for the people
NPoS (Polkadot relay chain) / Encointer Association will build a consortium for parachain governance / democracy (one person one vote) for everything concerning local currency parameters (meetup locations, demurrage rate ...) every community decides for themselves
So the Encointer identity system simply requires every participant to be available to attend regular meetups, which are held at the same time everywhere, and to use the Encointer app on site to confirm their attendance.
Zurich
200
Alain Brenzikofer
Encointer enables communities everywhere to generate their own, autonomous currency, and use it to stimulate the local economy.
Economically deprived areas often struggle to generate growth. People have skills and products to sell, but lack the purchasing power to buy from others.
Encointer’s free, easy-to-use technology enables any community to generate their own currency and distribute it regularly and equally among all active participants to boost local economic activity.
Encointer provides a way to increase the local money supply and keep it circulating. The value of each community currency is determined by local supply and demand, rather than changeable macroeconomic factors.
Each Encointer currency is subject to demurrage, which means that if you store it in an account, the value will decrease each month. This encourages all participants to spend rather than hoard their Encointer income, so everyone benefits.
Each participant attends regular physical key-signing events to show that they are a unique person, which prevents anyone from claiming multiple incomes. In this way, the Encointer protocol establishes a community web of trust without demanding proof of identity.
Around 1 billion people have no official proof of identity, according to World Bank data. That’s no barrier to using Encointer, because no state-issued ID is required. Encointer income is accessible to any human with a smartphone.
Encointer community currencies are distributed unconditionally, at regular intervals, to all active participants. But if anyone can join and nobody needs an official ID, how is misuse prevented? For example, how can users be sure that an individual participant cannot claim the currency twice under two different identities?
Encointer’s unique, practical identity system is based on the fact that a person can only be in one place at one time. Here’s how it works:
Every participant agrees to make themselves available in person for key-signing meetups, which are held simultaneously at regular intervals in all locations.
