Quote from: apullman on March 08, 2014, 03:29:17 PM

Quote from: oldnbold on March 08, 2014, 09:04:02 AM

Quote from: makoto1337 on March 07, 2014, 04:40:29 AM

Quote from: oldnbold on March 05, 2014, 11:34:09 AM

Quote from: makoto1337 on March 05, 2014, 05:52:28 AM

Quote from: ashapasa on March 04, 2014, 08:03:08 AM

Quote from: makoto1337 on March 04, 2014, 01:37:58 AM

With the sudden success of Aurora (even it if is a bubble), it is apparent that crypto needs to have an impact in the physical world.

From this, one idea is to donate NEM to start a cooperative village where people use NEM in their daily lives. This should be a remote area that is self-sufficient. Even if there is not internet access, we might be able to set up satellite internet infrastructure. I think that would be an amazing demonstration of how crypto could be used anywhere for secure, decentralized transfer of money.

Another thing to keep in mind is that we wouldn't want to interfere with the local culture of the area. I envision setting up some NEM access points (places with internet) and then people can go use those, with minimal interference into their language and culture.

The question is, where could we do such a thing? It should take a lot of time and dedication from people working locally in an area.

Some ideas are:

1) Bhutan. I think I have seen users from Bhutan on bitcointalk. We could set up solar satellite internet access in some remote village and have everyone in the village conduct transactions in NEM using iPads or something similar. There are some villages that are quite a few days walking from any large city and people are mostly self-sufficient. We would need to have someone local there to run things.

2) Japan. With so many people moving to big cities, there are places in the countryside that are extremely secluded and people grow their own food and make a lot of things themselves. Even in the countryside, though, there is ample electricity and cellular infrastructure, so people would be able to access a P2P network. Also, the government here does not consider crypto to be money and it is currently not regulated.

3) Ukraine. I know people that I definitely trust in western Ukraine near Poland (Lviv). There are some small villages in the Carpathian mountains that are fairly secluded from outside influence. The people I know in Lviv would probably be willing to help or maybe run this full time for us if we provided the resources.

These are some ideas, but as a community, it would be great if people could come up with ideas on how to establish a NEM co-operative. If done right, NEM could make all the major news networks and generate some great publicity. The more important thing, though, would be that we could help real people improve their lives, while respecting their culture (for example, people in a remote village could sell goods online using NEM).

Mokoto I guess u are referring to me

. Ok I like your idea, I thought about it and it looks very hard to implement. I have asked my friend (Tsel_bt) who works for the Ministry of trade and industry to see if something like this could be done. He is in-charge of setting small cottage industries in villages like the ones you mentioned.

First of all, almost all farmers in Bhutan are illiterate or only semi-literate, ipads are sadly a luxury for most folks in Bhutan,they cannot afford it. The currency is highly regulated by the central bank and any alternative payment system must be approved by them. Lastly it would be an almost impossible transition for people who have never used the internet to overnight shift to using cryptocurrency as a payment mechanism.

That said, its still a good idea, I will get in contact with friends in the RMA( central bank) to see if it would be allowed. If we can get their approval we can proceed further.

Sounds great.

I think if we could do something like this, we would set up all the infrastructure based on donations from the community and charity donations from the genesis block. Doing this with people who have never used the internet before would be ideal I think, because it would force us to make a simple interface on top of NEM.

Another point I want to stress is that it would be great to do this in a way that is complementary and not disruptive to culture. Therefore, I don't think the government needs to worry too much. In remote areas, I think having a crypto-based payment system would be preferred in rural areas like that, because people could have access to their money when traveling and wouldn't have to travel with lots of cash.

The idea is to get crypto out into the real world and try to make a difference without changing local cultures.

There's a recently published report http://www.franceculture.fr/emission-le-magazine-de-la-redaction-monnaie-locale-monnaie-a-taille-humaine-2014-02-21 regarding two 'local money' projects based on LETS (Local Exchange Trading Systems) principles: one in the Basque country and one about to be launched in Montreuil (Northern France). A key aspect of the Basque Country local money is that it is seen as helping to strengthen the Basque culture (including its language).

Seems to me that NEM could play a similar role for the many regions around the world which have a LETS system in place and which want to retain/strengthen their identity/culture. NEM could also overcome a problem with all local money schemes, one which can hinder their widespread adoption in the particular region - they aren't convertible (either easily or at all) into the country's main fiat currency.

I made a similar post in the NXT discussion thread a week or so ago following a reference to LETS being a possible fit with NXT, but the subject hasn't been pursued any further since then so far as I'm aware.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.msg5319878#msg5319878

Here is more information on LETS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_exchange_trading_system

It's a good idea. Does anyone want to spearhead this?

Given that others think the idea of a possible fit between NEM and LETS has merit I'd be happy to do some more preliminary research but as I'm a supporter of both NXT and NEM (I hope not inconsistently) it should probably left to a NEM purist (as it were) to spearhead specifically NEM's introduction into the LETS arena. Nevertheless I would hope that both NEM and NXT could have a role to play.

It seems that there are hundreds of LETS schemes around the world so there's plenty of room...at least for the time being; i don't know what other alt coins may be doing in this respect, if anything. I doubt however that the other genuine 2nd generation coins, against which NXT and NEM are going to be competing, would be interested in LETS - from what I can gather, they seem to have their minds on what they would undoubtedly regard as higher things. But the real action, IMHO, will be at the grass roots level.

Having a low cost smartphone will be really good for the NEM ecosystem in the developing countries. A $25 smartphone is in the works.
www.digitimes.com/news/a20140225VL200.html

As I mentioned on in a earlier post once the core NEM is complete it maybe a good idea to look at using existing feature phones and SMS gateways. The use of M-Pesa in Kenya is an example of what can be done will relatively simple technology that already exists

KC