Our Community Economy
The current global economic system is outdated. At HSC, we are creating a more compassionate and effective model – a Community Economy and platform that aims to meet our needs in real-time while we co-develop paradigm shifting economic systems.
We’re doing this as a collective based on a “plurality of value,” where we recognize all of the different kinds of resources available in the group and mobilize them for use communally.
Our system and digital platform helps facilitate the practical valuation and flow of all identified resources & forms of value and makes it possible to utilize them to meet our collective needs. HSC is primarily a contribution-based ecosystem where people can exchange services & goods without the need for fiat money.
This is a type of complementary or alternative economy – it’s not meant to completely replace our current system (at least not yet) but to act alongside it, and by doing so, help all members to thrive without prioritizing financial means as a primary measurement of value.
What it does:
The Community Economy framework we have implemented here at HSC is specifically designed to support professionals, independent contractors, changemakers and entrepreneurs to meet our needs by:
- Activating the value that’s already here
- Matching unused resources with unmet needs
- Collectively empowering our personal and professional paths
- Centering trust and relationship building
- Keeping assets in the hands of those contributing
- Co-creating a foundation for societal transformation.
How The Model Works:
The HSC Community Economy is designed to facilitate abundant value flows so that resources get to where they are needed with the least resistance and most benefit. There are 3 steps and 3 value flow methods.
The basic idea is simple, using these 3 steps:
- We identify all the value and resources that we’ve brought together.
- We figure out how those resources can be of benefit to members in the pool.
- We collectively facilitate the flow of those resources to where they’re most helpful and needed.
1.) Identifying value
The actual value we activate is found in a multitude of forms, such as:
- Social Capital: referrals, cross-promotion, reputation, exposure, network expansion, community support, wellness support, collaboration opportunities.
- Intellectual Capital: knowledge, expertise, systems, templates, professional development.
- Experiential Capital: the exchange of services, consulting, or sharing of experience and wisdom.
- Financial Capital: payment for services or operational roles, technology sharing, group investments.
- Cultural & Spiritual Capital: meaning and purpose exploration, cultural development, improving connection with self and others.
2.) Figuring out how our resources can help each other
This step is achieved through the system’s design, as well as being a focus for collective exploration. Members discover for themselves and others where value is appreciated in the way that it helps members to meet their needs and fulfill the collective purpose of the community.
Each member is guided through their own “asset inventory.” What are their skills, gifts, knowledge and offerings? What are their available time and financial resources? What potential community contributions can you bring with you?
This also includes the sharing of who we are – this could be our interests, how we want to participate in the community, or what we’re looking to receive out of it. In other words, we can bring our “whole person” to the collective and find opportunities for mutual exchange along the whole spectrum of professional & human needs. By doing so, we can fully unleash all the value we have, just by being who we truly are.
3.) Facilitating and engaging in the value flows
Members then add their assets to the collective pool and engage with the community economy. Value is channeled to where it’s needed, via exchanging and sharing in a container of reciprocity and mutual support.
The 3 Value Flow Methods
Exchanges are facilitated through 3 primary methods…
1.) Connecting with each other, guiding our needs & offerings to their places of benefit
Just as trees absorb nutrients from the soil and return them to the ecosystem through leaf litter, we form a connected web of value that the collective energy of the group funnels intuitively to where it’s needed.
We do this through our detailed member profiles and our needs and offerings database. These tools are used to create beneficial matches, both within our own collective, and also in a larger interconnected network of communities.
2.) Contributing to the community & being rewarded with tokens
You can think of the HSC system as a contribution-based economy. The more we all contribute to the pool, the more there is to synergize and nourish the whole. All the many contributions made by members make up a large portion of the value flows that circulate throughout the community.
Generally speaking, these contributions come in three main forms:
- A range of tangible + intangible contributions such as facilitating a meeting, referring a new member, writing promotional content, or adding to our template library.
- Time which usually means a contribution to internal operations roles and tasks
- Fiat money.
All contributions are rewarded with community tokens. Our HSC tokens are an internal form of community currency and represent all of the value that members add to the pool. The community itself decides what it considers a valid contribution, and the token value of each contribution made.
Tokens are not directly exchangeable for fiat money, nor are they the primary currency of the economy – the community asset vouchers, backed by tangible value committed to by each member, is the primary currency.Tokens can be converted into vouchers for goods and services. In this way, the value created stays in the collective, and members are essentially earning free services and goods.
Member contributions also carry with them other rewards such as reputation, exposure, appreciation, and further opportunities for collaboration. As the collective grows more robust, some contributions will also be rewarded at least partially with fiat money.
3.) Commitment vouchers for services & goods
In some circumstances, it’s easier to simply exchange our services and goods in a marketplace, rather than facilitating a need or offering through a connection. However, as we know, the conventional “free” market and mono-currency system is severely limiting – one example being that a lack of fiat currency can prevent an otherwise perfect exchange match. I may have something someone needs, and they may need what I have, but if they don’t have money to pay me, exchange becomes difficult.
This is why we use a system of exchange at HSC called Commitment Pooling, developed by Will Ruddick and Grassroots Economics. This is a type of mutual credit system, a non-monetary exchange of goods and services.
Members add commitment vouchers to the pool for their goods and services that others can redeem. You can think of it like a gift card for each member’s store. Instead of an Amazon or Target gift card, it’s a “Newman’s Tech Services” gift card or a “Zoë’s Consulting” gift card. This voucher represents a member’s promise to provide the goods and services that they’ve offered up.
For every voucher added, a member receives a credit on their account and can then redeem any other voucher in the pool. For each voucher redeemed for goods and services, a member receives a debit on their account. All of this is real value added to the collective “value bank,” backed by the promises made by the members.
The pool as a whole is curated by the community, and ongoing adjustments are made to allow it to operate smoothly. This includes assigning a relative value index to each of the vouchers so that the community can define what value means to us.
A Big Resource Pool
At the end of the day, all three of these methods are just different ways for members to add contributions to our collective pool. We’re all making deposits and withdrawals to/from the collective account, and it’s the mechanisms by which they’re added and how the value flows are exchanged that provides the difference.
