I think I saw BillMonk before and it just didn't register. It's a great idea, and your connection with LETS is right on.

I have a friend in Uganda who started a community-based organization. A part of the problem is supporting people to go into the villages to offer services. We've talked about using alternative currencies so that people could get credit for their services rendered. The biggest stumbling block is the idea of giving a gift--even your time--doesn't seem to match well with the idea of money. The second stumbling block is how to keep track. Bill Monk doesn't support Ugandan Shillings, and I'd like to see how the mobile phone SMS works, because that will be important there. But BillMonk sure seems like it would fill the bill for people where money is scarce to earn credits in an alternative money scheme.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "small PC style economy?" The second question I had was how do Gaurav Oberoi and Chuck Groom plan to make money? They are forthright about that:

About Us: What is your profit motive?

Our service is free to use, and we're adamant about not selling your personal information to Evil, Inc. So what's in it for us?

We believe the "social money" market is huge; friends continually have informal debts and shared expenses, and money flows between them. But because of its informal nature, this market has been largely invisible. We intend to build a product so compelling that it becomes the method of choice for managing social money. With enough users, BillMonk could track millions of dollars in person-to-person transactions.

While the core use of BillMonk is and always will remain free, our revenue model will include collaborating with financial institutions to offer settlement services to this entirely new market.


They're really onto something. Right now I'm astounded that most of my friends hate the Internet, but that's changing. And I thik that Bill Monk actually might encourage more sharing, especially of books, CDs, and tools, if my friends would use it. I agree that the "social money" market is huge.

A more formal system could be made to work. I'm not sure exactly how secure the information is. After all Phil you still havent paid me back that $1000 I loaned you last week for strippers and your coke habbit ;-)... See what I mean. It could certainly be abused and that would kill any effectiveness it would have had.

BTW dont worry about paying me back we'll just call it even.