Sensible Money: Designing a Sustainable Economy (WHY2025)

Economic models are increasingly challenged for destroying our planet. But it is not easy to design a sustainable alternative. In a follow-up on my OHM talk "hacking for bankers", I would like to present a few realistic currencies that we can use to move away from the unsustainable path that we are currently walking. We could build a profitable yet sustainable grassroots movement. At OHM2013 I gave a talk entitled _Hacking for Bankers_ where I explained the perverse motives in the present monetary system. This talk presents solutions. They are grassroots systems, that redefine money by choosing another basis for it. A humane basis. * **Sensible Bullion.** Founded on precious metals such as gold and silver, stored safely in a vault, with (title of) ownership claimable by the one who presents the corresponding digital coins. While the coins exist, they can circulate for online trading. Great for long-term savings, neutral for spending, but difficult to handle for investors. * **Sensible Energy.** Trading in sustainable energy at zero cost at a parallel energy market. In the Netherlands, we have rolled out so much sustainable energy that the energy market is giving a push-back instead of handling it with storage systems. Bypassing this market allows at least wind and solar energy to give each other mutual support, expressing that these are dependent elements in our country's sustainable future, and that they need to evolve together. * **Sensible Focus.** Economic theory teaches us that human attention is the most valuable asset overall. But since money expresses something else, it makes _business sense_ to optimise humans (and humanity) out of products and services. Were money to express the actual focus of a human being, then the world would be a different place. * **Sensible Dinosaur.** What if we put a (monetary) value on unexcavated fossil fuels? Would we then be able to resist digging it up and burning it? If we created such a money, could it pay for climate debt? Perhaps to correct the inequalities caused by climate change? Or maybe to pay for CO₂ recovery measures? Essential to all these currencies are a few guiding principles, with details in the [Book of Sensible Taler](http://book.sensible-taler.org/): 1. Currencies must be **fully backed** by an underlying value; this leaves no room for inflation 2. The underlying value cannot be borrowed, so **no interest** can be charged. Deep **participation with profit-sharing** offers a substitute investment mechanism. 3. Digital money entitles the owner to **claim the underlying value**. Payment systems must have **legal structures** to maintain this property even after bankruptcy. 4. Expenses are out in the open, there ore **no concealed fees** or indirect costs. Different underlying rules about the workings of money triggers people to make different choices. This is how these monetary system designs can focus on sustainability, rather than mindlessly chasing short-term profit. Such a system can co-exist with the fiat money issued by governments. And the digital money form is founded on [GNU Taler](https://www.taler.net/en/), it is fit for secure and private online payment at least as easily as fiat money. This project is kindly supported by [NLnet Foundation](https://nlnet.nl). Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/UHHGZT/