Whuffie bank launches
The concept of Whuffie is pertinent to this blog. With so many connections online and so many tiny transactions that are almost worthless (in current measures), the idea of a reputation-based currency is interesting. Web-heads spend so much time interacting in tiny ways with so many people. And it's valuable to us, otherwise we wouldn't do it. So perhaps a standard currency would encourage more fluid transactions online. It's a big idea, originally by Cory Doctorow, and it'll be interesting to watch it develop.
Here's their TechCrunch50 presentation:
Your Whuffie balance is derived by their algorithm. It's derived from your contribution (retweets), your reputation, endorsements from others and the content of your messages. People can make Whuffie deals with each other, or they can pass it around. And the plan is to allow people to use Whuffie for cash transaction as well. There are Whuffie credit cards and you can print bills.
It's at this point that I get confused. The Whuffie needs an exchange rate with the dollar. And so the Whuffie needs to have a perceived value for that to happen. So what it actually is is just a measure of a person's contribution to the web. This is valuable. I can understand someone's contribution without knowing them.
Whether it can become a realworld currency remains to be seen. That requires scarcity. Doctorow's novel described a post-scarcity economy where everything was free for the taking. We haven't reached that yet. There's an abundance of information online. But the value of the information depends on its context. And that might be the problem with Whuffie. It's not based on context. It seeks to create a standard value for reputation. But reputation, as pointed out in the questions session, is based on your relationship with the person, which is context.
