Barter Exchange Management Software

[Joe ~CuroMuto.com]

For the past five years I have worked on a barter exchange / community currency software project called CuroMuto. this name being a combination of two latin words, curo means something like 'manage, administer, provide money' and muto meaning to change, alter / exchange.

During the past few weeks I've been learning about the openmoney memes. Having now set my google alerts to 'openmoney' I have been introduced to this group. I'm glad you are here.

Many of the principles I've seen in the openmoney memesphere are present in the curomuto system and I would like to push for further development to add flexibility and options in that direction., in order to serve the obvious demand for open currency systems. It is my hope that members of this online community will accept this invitation to take a look at curomuto.com and provide feedback and ideas for furthering the developments of curomuto in order to help cultivate this software into
harmony with openmoney ideals and real world applications.

also, honestly, I hope some of you will like it as is enough to decide
you want to set up a barter exchange online and start a currency already.

so please check out the curomuto barter software

Any web developers, pr experts, investors, or barter experts interested in providing feedback and or assistance are also invited to leave comments or contact me to discuss this project.

.

[onewhouse]

Hi Joe,...checked into Demo > Browse...but didn't find much activity/product recorded on offer. It seems to me that there are ebooks and products are on offer at real dollar value...and even there the choice is very limited...Of course I could be wrong...
Cheers,

[Joe ~CuroMuto.com]

Hi onewhouse, thanks for the reply. The demo isn't an active marketplace, it's an example site for people to see how the software works. Live sites have their own independent directories of barter listings.

[onewhouse]

Thanks for clearing this up...Those who replied to you in more detail are more knowledgeable on your subject, so I could also learn about your initiative from their comments...Cheers, Otto. Might want to look me up at http://twitter.com/ecoTwollar

[Michael Linton]

Dear Joe,

I've had a look at your site and it does seem another well featured mono-currency management package, another among several similar. But apparently (at least to me at first glance) it totally lacks any openmoney features.

To meet openmoney basics, users must be able to create and operate currencies on their own terms. The last graphic on http://openmoney.editme.com/nowofmoney shows the requirements quite clearly, I think. The question you need to address is whether you think it's worth modifying your software to implement this.

cheers, Michael

[Joe ~CuroMuto.com]

Thanks Michael, that doc definitely spells it out.

I believe I can have multiple currency functionality implemented in curomuto without too much of a problem. Just add a currency id to each transfer, each account balance entry gets the same, and then a 'create a currency' page. Probably should add too a 'about this currency' page which will have content editable by the account which created it and perhaps some stats about that currency?... and with such a page this might as well blend into a groups type model.

As of yet, is http://omclient.heroku.com the most complete software for multi-currency platform? Developing the inter-server transfers may be bit more of a challenge but the idea has always appealed to me and it will come to fruition in time.

For accounting purposes, wouldn't it be a hassle to manage adding up the income/expenses from so many currencies? Especially since each one would likely have a different value relative to the national standard, a value which would be hard to put into definite terms. Another question, how shall we issue these currencies? via lines of credit as fiat or asset backed models do, or what is the openmoney idea for issuance?

I've seen some of your video talks on openmoney, excellent presentation.

Appreciate your time and efforts,
Joe K.

[matslats]

Joe,
Here is what I learned from implementing multiple currencies in my system
Mostly, yes, it's just a matter of adding a currency ID to the transaction but also consider
A currency identifier field to the form.
A way to limit the number of currencies
Permissions to edit currencies
Visual ways to distinguish between currencies.
You might need to transfer some system properties to make them currency specific.
Need to change the balance display to cope with an arbitrary number of balances
If you have a running balance display, this will get messed up.
You might want to view transactions by currency.

On another note, you might give some more thought to how you are selling your current offering. Who exactly is going to make the decision to purchase, and how should you be pressing their buttons? Watch this space for an announcement of my own multiple currency software implementation in Drupal

[Michael Linton]

Thanks Joe, this is very useful and I am sorry I've been swamped the last few days and not responded earlier.

I think your summary of the implementation covers the main issues. There are (of course) more details, for instance in the currency management, and graduations in the user privileges, but basically if you can do one, you should easily be able to do many, without much more than the points in your summary - add cc ids and allow users to create.

The code at heroku is in some sense - principally around user identity, domains within domains, cc creation - the most developed, but it isn't likely to go much further in its present direction, Eric is now working on http://metacurrency.org and that will make the heroku code obsolete. Hugh Barnard has released the ccLite package, and Geoff Chesshire has his approach running at Regenerosity. We are currently using (as an interim) Eric's earlier working system at http://alpha.openmoney.info, which, although almost feature bare, can keep accounts as shown in http://openmoney.editme.com/nowofmoney.

For accounting purposes, differentiation is an asset not a problem. We don't intend to add them up, as each cc is unique and shouldn't be considered as formally interchangable with any other. User can buy and sell cc from each other at whatever rates they like, but the system shouldn't try to do it for them. The basic level of open money issuance is open mutual credit, with whatever added bells and whistles people want and coders make possible. But I see from your blog that there's much it would be good to discuss. Maybe we can arrange a time to talk?

Thanks for your compliment on the video, but please note they are less presentation(s) than a plot in progress.

[Joe ~CuroMuto.com]

Hello Everyone.

Now that summer travels are done,
I'm diving into this project head first.
Expect a beta soon.

I'll start with multiple currency requirements and release a beta, then get feedback and expand from there. Thank you matslats for the advice, much appreciated, and good luck with the drupal module you're working on. And thank you Michael for the summary and history of thus far developed openmoney systems. It is my hope that CuroMuto can become useful to everyone interested in using multiple currencies in their communities or business groups.

If anyone would like to help fuel this development, buy the CuroMuto barter exchange management software. Mention this site and I'll give you half off the openmoney upgrade once it is complete (offer valid up to release date). Humans gotta eat food! Enjoy Today.

Here's a link to CuroMuto

[matslats]

Joe,
For the next version of my module, I'm making a platform-independent mutual credit banking application. This will provide an API so that other platforms such as Joomla can build community currency applications with less concern security, arithmetic, performance and other things. Using this API would enable you to concentrate on usability, deployment, options and customisation, and Joomla specific code.
Then your users would either rent a bank instance on a secure server, or host their own. This API is in first draft at the moment, but I intend to have it working by the Spring. If you are interested to read the first draft, use this API, or participate in its development, email me.
Matthew

[Joe ~CuroMuto.com]

smart strategy. seems my best option would be to mash curomuto into this API.
I'll private message you with my email address.