City/Sync Context:Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | From Citizens to Contributors | First off, I want to thank @peth.eth for engaging with me on this topic publicly. Working publicly often means addressing criticisms, justifying your position, and reestablishing poorly explained concepts in a more detailed manner. Those critiques inspired me to channel a more defensible posture for why I am proposing th...

City/Sync Context:Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | From Citizens to Contributors | First off, I want to thank @peth.eth for engaging with me on this topic publicly. Working publicly often means addressing criticisms, justifying your position, and reestablishing poorly explained concepts in a more detailed manner. Those critiques inspired me to channel a more defensible posture for why I am proposing th...

City/Sync Context: Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | From Citizens to Contributors | Recomposing Government Legitimacy | Decentralized Self-Reliance Foundations of Authoritarian powerWhen people think of authoritarian regimes, they often imagine dictators at podiums and military parades with all the latest toys of warfare. These images capture the theater of power but not its foundations. Authoritariani...

City/Sync Context: Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | From Citizens to Contributors | Recomposing Government Legitimacy | Decentralized Self-Reliance Foundations of Authoritarian powerWhen people think of authoritarian regimes, they often imagine dictators at podiums and military parades with all the latest toys of warfare. These images capture the theater of power but not its foundations. Authoritariani...

City/Sync Context: Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | From Citizens to Contributors | Recomposing Government Legitimacy | Decentralized Self-Reliance | Embedding d-emocracy In Authoritarian StatesThe motivation for writing this essay is to provide more context to the vision behind City/Sync. The details of why and how are too complex to capture in a single essay, and in many ways, these essays have been ...

City/Sync Context: Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | From Citizens to Contributors | Recomposing Government Legitimacy | Decentralized Self-Reliance | Embedding d-emocracy In Authoritarian StatesThe motivation for writing this essay is to provide more context to the vision behind City/Sync. The details of why and how are too complex to capture in a single essay, and in many ways, these essays have been ...

Chapter 2: Revealing Civic-Labor / If wage labor is unraveling and UBI is insufficient, my hypothesis is that the next market of value rests in the domain economists call the informal economy, and within that, a more specific subset of it around civic-labor. Civic-labor includes all the forms of work that keep communities functional but are not priced by markets or integrated into formal employment systems. Economists have long known that GD...

Chapter 2: Revealing Civic-Labor / If wage labor is unraveling and UBI is insufficient, my hypothesis is that the next market of value rests in the domain economists call the informal economy, and within that, a more specific subset of it around civic-labor. Civic-labor includes all the forms of work that keep communities functional but are not priced by markets or integrated into formal employment systems. Economists have long known that GD...

City/Sync Context:Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | From Citizens to Contributors | Recomposing Government Legitimacy _______ So, “decentralization” has become one of those words people throw around without really pausing to think about what it means in practice. It sounds sleek and futuristic, maybe even a little rebellious, like an antidote to everything broken in politics and government…but the reali...

City/Sync Context:Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | From Citizens to Contributors | Recomposing Government Legitimacy _______ So, “decentralization” has become one of those words people throw around without really pausing to think about what it means in practice. It sounds sleek and futuristic, maybe even a little rebellious, like an antidote to everything broken in politics and government…but the reali...

Chapter 3 - The Structure of a Public-Sector CurrencyThe dialogue around a public-sector currency is often met with confusion, as it doesn’t follow the traditional backing of value for currency in the market-circuit. Historically, the value backing for money within the market-circuit has come from either the convertibility of commodities or the actions of state-authority. Each providing some attribute that...

Chapter 3 - The Structure of a Public-Sector CurrencyThe dialogue around a public-sector currency is often met with confusion, as it doesn’t follow the traditional backing of value for currency in the market-circuit. Historically, the value backing for money within the market-circuit has come from either the convertibility of commodities or the actions of state-authority. Each providing some attribute that...

City/Sync Context:Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | In my previous writing, I introduced the City/Sync project and, in doing so, touched on a fundamental concept central to the vision I am presenting. Upon reflection, I realize I did not provide the explanation it deserves. I am going to take the time to rectify that now. à la modeThe discourse surrounding modes of production is often oversimplified. Terms such as capitalism, socialism, and communism ...

City/Sync Context:Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | In my previous writing, I introduced the City/Sync project and, in doing so, touched on a fundamental concept central to the vision I am presenting. Upon reflection, I realize I did not provide the explanation it deserves. I am going to take the time to rectify that now. à la modeThe discourse surrounding modes of production is often oversimplified. Terms such as capitalism, socialism, and communism ...

City/Sync Context:Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | The idea of citizenship has long been treated as the foundation of political belonging. To be a citizen of a state or a city is to belong to its demos. The history of citizenship has historically been built on exclusionary principles, and it has defined who counts and who doesn’t, who is the ‘we’ and who is the ‘they’. The passport, the residency permi...

City/Sync Context:Original Video on dPAN’s | Local Chains as a Civic Coordination Framework | The Logic & Philosophy of a Bifurcated Economy | The idea of citizenship has long been treated as the foundation of political belonging. To be a citizen of a state or a city is to belong to its demos. The history of citizenship has historically been built on exclusionary principles, and it has defined who counts and who doesn’t, who is the ‘we’ and who is the ‘they’. The passport, the residency permi...

Chapter 4 - Civic-Currency in Practice It is one thing to imagine that people could receive credits for civic work and spend them on public goods. It is another thing to embed that logic into real municipal institutions, with real capacity limits, real political oversight, real staff turnover, and real budgets in question. A civic currency is a proposed p...

Chapter 4 - Civic-Currency in Practice It is one thing to imagine that people could receive credits for civic work and spend them on public goods. It is another thing to embed that logic into real municipal institutions, with real capacity limits, real political oversight, real staff turnover, and real budgets in question. A civic currency is a proposed p...

INTRODUCTION Several years ago, I began developing an idea that would eventually lead to me writing a short essay on the idea of a Bifurcated Economy. At the time, the core argument was straightforward…modern societies are headed toward a two-circuit economic structure. One circuit is driven by markets and profit, while the other is driven by civic participation and public goods. The first is measured and optimized by GDP, wages, capital flows, etc. The second is unpriced, invisible, and is c...

INTRODUCTION Several years ago, I began developing an idea that would eventually lead to me writing a short essay on the idea of a Bifurcated Economy. At the time, the core argument was straightforward…modern societies are headed toward a two-circuit economic structure. One circuit is driven by markets and profit, while the other is driven by civic participation and public goods. The first is measured and optimized by GDP, wages, capital flows, etc. The second is unpriced, invisible, and is c...