Outrunning Collapse: The alternative currency solution

James Corbett

BoilingFrogsPost.com

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Alternative Markets, Barter Systems, and Local Co-ops are the Lifeboats That Will Save Us

Interview with Brandon Smith, founder of Alt-Market.com

Eric Blair

More and more people are becoming aware of the complete system failure we're experiencing in the United States and around the globe. As the true nature of the control system is revealed, people tend to feel as Howard Beale did in Network when he said, "first, you've got to get mad...and scream, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" 

But once that anger at being lied to for so long subsides, then we must get on with the business of taking action to make the world more just and hopeful for our children.  Many people will take to the streets to protest certain aspects of the current system. Others will do everything in their power to inform or warn their peers of the coming iceberg. Those are good and necessary functions, but they won't stop the Titanic from sinking.

It seems the broken system will continue to take on water despite the best efforts to affect change within it.  That's why some are suggesting to jump ship now before they run out of lifeboats.  By jump ship, I mean function outside of the system as much as possible.  The faulty economic system is only propped up by our belief and support of it.  When we operate outside of it using alternative markets, barter systems, local cooperatives, and competing currencies, we not only provide a lifeboat to many frightened passengers, but the paddles as well.

Below is my email interview with alternative market activist and founder of Alt-Market.com, Brandon Smith.  He explains the need and benefits of using alternative markets as a form of protest and survival:

EB:  What was your motivation for starting Alt-Market?

Decentralized currencies thriving in Greece during Euro crisis

Dees Illustration

JG Vibes
Activist Post

Since the market crashes and bailouts that took place in 2008 it has been no secret that the world economy is on shaky ground. For years, those of us who were concerned about the future have been wondering and speculating as to what mediums of exchange would replace the sinking debt based currencies that now stretch across the globe.

The central bankers that got us into this mess will no doubt be using the media to propagandize the world into accepting a worldwide monopolized currency. This is already being hinted at by politicians and finance tycoons in mainstream interviews on an almost daily basis now. Their excuse for this move is that it would stabilize the economy, but this is provably false.

The real reason for this maneuver is obviously to centralize control of the financial markets. This was the same mentality that created the Eurozone, which is now crumbling and ruining the lives of millions. If what we are experiencing now has taught us anything, it should be that having an economy in the control of so few hands, and totally untouchable by market forces, will breed corruption, monopoly and poverty.

New Alternative Currency - Summit County Mountain Hours (Video)

Adam Kokesh

Website: Mountain Hours Currency
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Is Bitcoin the End of State-Controlled Currency (video)

Reason TV



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Bitcoin Triples Again

Image Source: Bitcoinme.com

Jack Hough
Smart Money

The online currency has minted off-line millionaires. But for how long?

The world's fastest-gaining currency has tripled in price again. Last week, SmartMoney reported that the Bitcoin had exploded from an exchange rate near zero to more than $10 in about a year, making it one of the top-returning assets of any kind. On Wednesday the currency topped $30.

If returns like those seem otherworldly, perhaps its because Bitcoin is a world unto itself. To recap, it's is a purely online currency with no intrinsic value; its worth is based solely on the willingness of holders and merchants to accept it in trade. In that respect, it's not so different from fiat currencies like the dollar or Euro, but whereas governments back such money, Bitcoins lack central control.

In another way, the appeal of the Bitcoin echoes the appeal of gold. Instead of a central bank, a computer algorithm dictates their supply. Today there are six million Bitcoins, a number that will grow at a steadily slowing rate until it approaches 21 million, but no more. As with gold, some see such limited supply as built-in protection against inflation that could result from runaway government budget deficits. Gold, of course, has been a store of value for thousands of years and has at least some industrial use, whereas Bitcoins are brand new and exist only on the Internet.

For some early adopters, Bitcoins have turned from a hobby into a windfall. MtGox.com, the main exchange for users swapping Bitcoins for dollars and other currencies, charges buyers and sellers a fee of 0.65% for its brokerage service. (The name stands for Magic the Gathering Online Exchange, but the Bitcoin dabbler who bought the domain didn't bother to change it.) As recently as a few months ago, the site generated just pennies a day in income. By Wednesday it was making more than $40,000 a day.

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RELATED ARTICLE:
Bitcoin: Decentralized Underground Barter Economy

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Max Keiser: Bitcoin is the Resistance Currency


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What Will Collapse First, Bitcoin or the Dollar?

Source: BitcoinMe.com

Silver Shield
Don't Tread On Me

I have been inundated with all of this talk about Bitcoin. I first stumbled upon it a few months ago and made a snap judgement that is smells like BS and looked no further into it. Now that I have been asked by multiple sources to either endorse it or ask my opinion on it, I looked into it further. What I found makes me believe this is another Elite concoction designed to fool people.

When Wikileaks first came on the scene, I immediately fell for it hook, line and sinker. In theory it sounded awesome. Secretive hackers created a site that allow secrets to be revealed while keeping the whistle blower’s identity safe. It had a multilayer protection that would prevent it from being shut down. It even had a cool James Bond character in Julian Assange, that made the story so intriguing. The longer the story played out, the more I became concerned that this was an elaborate scam. (Read: Beware of Patriot Pied Pipers) After a while, my suspicions we confirmed. (Read: Wikileaks: CoIntelPro PsyOp) Now that I look into Bitcoin, the same suspicions arise again. It has all of the elements of a great freedom idea. It has  decentralization, open source, peer to peer, privacy, and debt free money. The more I look into it, the more it reeks like a high level scam.  In this hour long YouTube video there is an interview with two leaders of Bitcoin, Gavin Andresen and Amir Taaki.

Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency

Source: BitcoinMe.com

Brett Wolf
Reuters

Two senators are pressing federal authorities to crack down on an online black market and "untraceable" digital currency known as Bitcoins after reports that they are used to buy illegal drugs anonymously.

Democratic Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder and Drug Enforcement Administration head Michele Leonhart in a letter that expressed concerns about the underground website "Silk Road" and the use of Bitcoins to make purchases there.

The letter prompted a discussion among Bitcoin enthusiasts about whether the government was capable of closing related bank accounts and thereby stifling the currency.

The senators released a copy of their letter on Monday. It cites recent media reports that some tech-savvy individuals were using an "anonymizing network" known as Tor to gain clandestine access to Silk Road and buy illegal drugs. 

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RELATED ARTICLE:
Bitcoin: New Decentralized Currency 


RELATED VIDEO:
Bitcoin: Currency of Resistance


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New Decentralized Currency Stimulating Underground Barter Economy

New grassroots cyber currency, the Bitcoin, may provide the perfect vehicle to operate outside the establishment economy and snub the all-powerful banking cartels -- it's decentralized, quasi-anonymous, and its supply is regulated by an algorithm to actually create deflation over time.

Source: BitcoinMe.com

Eric Blair
Activist Post

The masses are beginning to understand that the greatest threat to human freedom is the international banking cartel and their debt-based monetary system. Together with governments, they squash any manifestation of a free marketplace and personal freedom. Between runaway money printing, corporate cartel control, subsidies and taxes, and regulations and fees; the free market is nothing more than an ideology -- for now. 

As the "Too Big to Fail" private banks consolidate even further with the help of their central baking partners and government puppets, it would seem that they form an all-powerful cartel.  They force us to use their monopoly money to pay for all necessary goods and services.  They track every economic transaction to plunder as much manufactured taxes and fees as possible.  Income taxes are extracted to prop up the debt-based system, the Wall Street casino, the domestic surveillance prison, and endless wars. And on top of that, the consumer is ravaged by increasing inflation.  Indeed, the system smashes personal and economic freedom.

Utah Legalizes Gold, Silver Coins As Currency

Josh Loftin
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah legislators want to see the dollar regain its former glory, back to the days when one could literally bank on it being "as good as gold."

To make that point, they've turned it around, and made gold as good as cash. Utah became the first state in the country this month to legalize gold and silver coins as currency. The law also will exempt the sale of the coins from state capital gains taxes.

Craig Franco hopes to cash in on it with his Utah Gold and Silver Depository, and he thinks others will soon follow.

The idea is simple: Store your gold and silver coins in a vault, and Franco issues a debit-like card to make purchases backed by your holdings.

He plans to open for business June 1, likely the first of its kind in the country.

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Forbes Predicts U.S. Gold Standard Within 5 Years

Paul Dykewicz
Human Events

A return to the gold standard by the United States within the next five years now seems likely, because that move would help the nation solve a variety of economic, fiscal, and monetary ills, Steve Forbes predicted during an exclusive interview this week with HUMAN EVENTS.

“What seems astonishing today could become conventional wisdom in a short period of time,” Forbes said.

Such a move would help to stabilize the value of the dollar, restore confidence among foreign investors in U.S. government bonds, and discourage reckless federal spending, the media mogul and former presidential candidate said. The United States used gold as the basis for valuing the U.S. dollar successfully for roughly 180 years before President Richard Nixon embarked upon an experiment to end the practice in the 1970s that has contributed to a number of woes that the country is suffering from now, Forbes added.

If the gold standard had been in place in recent years, the value of the U.S. dollar would not have weakened as it has and excessive federal spending would have been curbed, Forbes told HUMAN EVENTS. The constantly changing value of the U.S. dollar leads to marketplace uncertainty and consequently spurs speculation in commodity investing as a hedge against inflation.

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Greece Mulls Plans to Exit Eurozone, Start New Currency

Acropolis Wikimedia Image

Christian Reiermann
Spiegel Online

The debt crisis in Greece has taken on a dramatic new twist. Sources with information about the government's actions have informed SPIEGEL ONLINE that Athens is considering withdrawing from the euro zone. The common currency area's finance ministers and representatives of the European Commission are holding a secret crisis meeting in Luxembourg on Friday night.

Greece's economic problems are massive, with protests against the government being held almost daily. Now Prime Minister George Papandreou apparently feels he has no other option: SPIEGEL ONLINE has obtained information from German government sources knowledgeable of the situation in Athens indicating that Papandreou's government is considering abandoning the euro and reintroducing its own currency.

Alarmed by Athens' intentions, the European Commission has called a crisis meeting in Luxembourg on Friday night. The meeting is taking place at Château de Senningen, a site used by the Luxembourg government for official meetings. In addition to Greece's possible exit from the currency union, a speedy restructuring of the country's debt also features on the agenda. One year after the Greek crisis broke out, the development represents a potentially existential turning point for the European monetary union -- regardless which variant is ultimately decided upon for dealing with Greece's massive troubles.

Given the tense situation, the meeting in Luxembourg has been declared highly confidential, with only the euro-zone finance ministers and senior staff members permitted to attend. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Jörg Asmussen, an influential state secretary in the Finance Ministry, are attending on Germany's behalf.

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Peer-to-peer currency takes banks out of the picture

SpringWise

A few months ago we looked at Irish CurrencyFair, a peer-to-peer site that effectively removes banks and other middlemen from currency exchange. Pushing the peer-to-peer concept even further into the world of finance, Bitcoin is a collectively managed and open-source digital currency that's completely independent of any central authority.

Now in beta, Bitcoin bills itself as “the first digital currency that is completely distributed.” In essence, that means that it's managed collectively by a global network of users, so no bank or payment processor is required between buyers and sellers in any transaction. Users begin with Bitcoin by downloading its client program for Linux, Mac or Windows, thereby creating a digital wallet and associated Bitcoin address for themselves. Next, very small quantities of Bitcoins are available for free from the Bitcoin faucet, but to get larger ones, users can visit various currency exchanges and sites. They can also accept Bitcoins as payments for goods and services. Either way, once they have Bitcoins — abbreviated “BTC” — users can spend them at various participating online merchants for a wide variety of goods and services. It's free for merchants to accept Bitcoins, and there are no chargebacks or fees. Currently, there is no charge for processing Bitcoin transactions, but eventually a small fee of about one bitcent will be charged every transaction to one of many competing Bitcoin “miners,” who create Bitcoins in a controlled way by running a dedicated program. A video on YouTube explains the Bitcoin concept.

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How to Start Your Own Private Currency

It's not as complicated as it sounds. You can "back" it with gold, or mimic an I.O.U. for one hour's worth of work. All you need is a system other people can understand and, most importantly, trust.

Alternative currency Berkshares

Derek Thompson
The Atlantic

Here's a nightmare scenario shared by some mainstream investors, goldbugs and Ron Paul devotees: The year is 2013. Inflation has the U.S. economy in a stranglehold. International investors are fleeing to the far corners of the globe. The dollar is in a free fall, and Americans are scurrying to protect their wealth. What do you do?

Start your own currency.

It sounds complicated, but really it's as simple as three steps. First, amass a bank of stuff. Let's say gold. Second, decide on a sensible unit for your new currency. Let's say one "Derek Dollar" token is worth a gram of gold. Third, convince a critical mass of people to use it so that "Derek Dollars" are redeemable not just within my group of friends, but among shops and merchants around the world. Voila, we've got our own private currency.

No gold? No problem. The easiest way to start a currency is to draw up an I.O.U. system that allows your friends to trade hours of work. Hundreds of shops in Ithaca, NY, accept "Ithaca HOURs," a local currency backed, not by gold, but by man-hours. I spend an hour mowing an Ithaca lawn and receive a paper note for one HOUR. I walk to the barber's, hand him the piece of paper, and he cuts my hair. Now my neighbor's grass is shorter, my hair is kempt, and my barber is one HOUR richer. And it's all thanks to transactions that might not have happened were it not for a private currency.

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Monetary Reform Begins with Competing Currencies
The After-the-Fed Solutions Debate Begins


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Use the Dollar or Else

Only use our monopoly money.
Terrorists use silver and gold
Dees Illustration

Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.
Lew Rockwell

Look up the phrase "a unique form of domestic terrorism" on a search engine and you will turn up a story about a man whom the US government is trying to cage from now until the time of his death.

And his crime? His unique form of terrorism? He minted silver and copper coins and sold them. In other words, he did what innumerable entrepreneurs from the beginning of time have done. He attempted to provide consumers with a store of value. No one was forced to buy. He met a market demand, and that’s it.

Whom did he hurt? No one. Unlike illegal drugs, which the government bans on grounds that it doesn’t want us to hurt ourselves, these silver coins did not endanger their users. They only gave people an option on what to do with their money. Did the proprietor attempt to claim that these were legal tender for monetary exchange? No, he sold them for what they are.

Federal government seeking to make forms of bartering illegal after court ruling

Kenneth Schortgen Jr
Examiner

The Federal government is trying to establish bartering private currency of any type as an illegal enterprise in a false interpretation of the court's recent conviction of Liberty Dollar's owner Bernard Von NotHaus.

In a case where the government used conspiracy and counterfeit charges against NotHaus to establish that he intended to mint and illegally replace US currency with a private one using silver coins, the US Attorney is now parlaying the conviction to say that this ruling sets a precedent against any private barter transactions which use any form of currency besides established Federal Reserve Notes.

The Federal government also is seeking on April 4th to take receipt of the $7 Million dollars in silver 'Liberty Dollars' that were minted and sold by Von NotHaus.

The idea for using private currency for barter transactions is not new, and in fact is currently being done in a few cities around the country.  In Detroit for example, a group of businesses created their own barter currency known as 'Detroit Cheers', and several businesses agreed to the use of local currencies in leiu of federal reserve notes.

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RELATED ARTICLE:
Monetary Reform Begins with Competing Currencies

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FBI Busts Mastermind Criminal For Issuing Silver Currency, Demanding Repeal Of Fed And IRS

Private Currency Liberty Dollars/Wiki

Zero Hedge

The FBI, which apparently has no major criminals to pursue, is now busting those who are preparing for the dollar's imminent destruction. Bernard von NotHaus, head of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code, commonly known as NORFED and also known as Liberty Services (his website can, or rather could, be seen here), which since 1998 has been issuing silver coins as a replacement for the relentlessly devaluating US currency, was convicted today by a federal jury of making, possessing, and selling his own coins. " Following an eight-day trial and less than two hours of deliberation, von NotHaus, the founder and monetary architect of a currency known as the Liberty Dollar, was found guilty by a jury in Statesville, North Carolina, of making coins resembling and similar to United States coins; of issuing, passing, selling, and possessing Liberty Dollar coins; of issuing and passing Liberty Dollar coins intended for use as current money; and of conspiracy against the United States."

The devious scheme for which von NotHaus faces up to 15 years jail time: "NORFED’s purpose was to mix Liberty Dollars into the current money of the United States. NORFED intended for the Liberty Dollar to be used as current money in order to limit reliance on, and to compete with, United States currency." In other words make the US currency less credible. We are confident the Chairsatan will take this shining example of what happens to "counterfeiters" of US currency to heart, and promply proceed to release another cool trillion in green 75% cotton/25% linen products, forcing US jails to promptly fill up with millions of subversive elements who no longer wish to interact with the former reserve currency.

Read the FBI's press release

RELATED ARTICLE:
Monetary Revolution Begins with Competing Currencies

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