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Contributor answers to the analysis grid. Read-only.
The legislator is the authority that sets the rules of the monetary system: who has the power to issue currency, according to which procedures, and under what democratic oversight. This theme examines the source of legitimacy (state, citizen collective, software protocol), the decision-making mechanisms, and the safeguards that ensure these rules serve the general interest rather than particular interests. It also considers how these rules can evolve and be challenged.
Identification of the legislator of the monetary system:
Identification of the authority with the right to define / modify the mandate of the monetary institution
Type of governance of the monetary legislator, method of setting operating rules:
Operating rules of the monetary legislator
General objective of the monetary legislator:
Targeting, monetary arrowing: What is the objective pursued by the legislator of the currency?
Objective of monetary creation favoured by the monetary legislator:
What are the paths of monetary creation favoured by the monetary legislator?
Type of legitimacy of the monetary legislator:
What type of legitimacy does the monetary legislator respond to?
Type of trust and attributes that legitimize the monetary legislator:
Identification of the elements that underpin users' trust in the monetary legislator.
The monetary institution is the organization that administers the currency on a day-to-day basis: it handles issuance, backing, security, and accounting. This theme describes its nature (central bank, association, cooperative, foundation, decentralized protocol), its governance model, and its degree of independence from political and financial powers. It sheds light on who truly holds the trust and the responsibility for the currency's proper functioning.
Identification and legal form of the issuer of the currency:
Identification of the issuer of the currency and description of its essential characteristics.
Public or private legal entity acting locally, nationally or supranationally.
Centralized / decentralized issuer:
Does the issuer centralize money creation decisions?
Does it give decision-making or execution autonomy to separate institutions, local establishments or autonomous individuals.
For-profit or non-profit issuer: Does the issuer have a profit motive, or does it simply provide a payment and debt cancellation system in the public interest?
Governance of the monetary institution:
Internal operating rules of the monetary institution, decision-making procedures and delegation of powers
Criteria for trust in the monetary system:
What are the preferred arguments used by the legislator and the monetary institution to gain and maintain the trust of users of the monetary system?
List of arguments: institutional, technical, social
This theme describes the currency's "tap": how new currency is created (issuance) and how it is withdrawn from circulation (redemption or buyback). It specifies the required counterparts (backing by a currency, by production, by debt, or by nothing), any ceilings, and the mechanisms that regulate the quantity in circulation. These rules determine the currency's stability and its capacity to finance the economy without causing inflation or scarcity.
1. Mode and methods of issuing money: - Credit: Debt money, against guarantee (promise of repayment) - Mutual credit: time bank (services), crypto-currency (holochain type) - Counterparty: Provision of services, Work or Mining (metallic money, crypto-currency (BTC, ETH...)) - Donation: simple donation, monetary helicopter, airdrop (crypto-currency) - Monetary exchange: currency for currency, purchase of monetary substitutes such as 1:1 local currencies, Diem (Purchase) (modality depending on purpose: no weighting)
2 - Legal or contractual conditions and restrictions on issue: - financial conditions: guarantees, interest rates - conditions of use / allocation - conditions linked to the counterparty: being of legal age, solvency criteria, - location criteria: being a resident - systematic: linked to the system used (depending on purpose: no weighting)
3 - Monetary targeting tools: What tools/actions are used to achieve the monetary objective? - Direct financing through monetary creation: (monetary creation for ecosystem restoration, MEFO vouchers) - Creation of dedicated currencies: eco-cheques, Miles, luncheon vouchers, vacation vouchers, local currency charter, - Monetary policy based on interest rates - Monetary donation to the population: monetary helicopter, conditional monetary helicopter, universal dividend - Creation of complementary currencies allocated to certain people, dedicated to particular activities (charter), - Validation of transactions without a trusted third party (crypto).
4 - Identification of the initial beneficiary, Public authority: - Parliament - Government - Public administration: - Profit-making private legal entity (company) - Non-profit-making private legal entity (ASBL) - Any natural person in the monetary system
5 - Modality of the initial emission: Modality that qualifies the first emission, Regulator: that ensures regulation and makes any operation regular and compliant with a standard.
6 - Monetary sovereignty, monetary dependence, legal tender and hedging: Is currency sovereign? Is it the expression of the sovereignty of the State (£, $), of a union of States (€) or the expression of the sovereignty of another State (CFA franc)? Is the currency dependent, complementary, supplementary, alternative, exclusive (local currency, monetary substitute)? How does it relate to other currencies? - Complementary currency: coverage ratio 1/1 (exchange rate) - Supplementary currency: coverage ratio <> 1 (exchange rate), enhanced complementary currency
Type of currency hedge: The hedge (counterparty or collateral) is the store of value that guarantees the payment instrument. Traditionally, this has been metal (gold, silver), but depending on the currency, time and place. The cover (counterparty or collateral) may have been different, e.g. church assets seized for assignats, but it could also have been land, sovereign currency, a basket of sovereign currencies, public debt securities, indices (carbon) or other.
Monetary functions of money: - Means of payment (only) (MP) - without interest - Reserve of value (RV) - without interest - Reserve of value (RVi) - with interest - Unit of account (UA) / Unit of measure
Economic functions of money: - Prefinancing = debt money - Financing = non-debt money / example: - Prefinancing the economy (debt money) (PF) - Prefinancing ecological restoration (PE) - Financing government action, non-debt money (FE)
Demonetization, Method of monetary destruction and/or reconversion into sovereign currency: - Monetary destruction through a reciprocal mechanism . Debt repayment (debit, zero-sum currency, mutual credit) . Withdrawal from monetary circulation by destruction of the physical medium - Withdrawal from monetary circulation by decision of the authority (e.g. monetary authority, hoarding) . Reciptrocity: Counter-giving (theory of Marcel Mauss), counter-provision . Reconversion: Disappearance of one currency in favor of another. Reconversion at the exchange rate (counter-trade) . Reconversion with redemption (fees): monetary conversion with loss of part of the capital (fees) - Non-convertible currency (time currency, complementary currency not convertible into euros) - Withdrawal of the currency by the public authority that issued it through taxation.
Confidence criteria linked to monetary rules: - Clarity, simplicity, transparency, permanence of the rules
Hierarchy - 1: Ultimate reserve currency (US Dollar, Rouble, Yuan, BitCoin) - 2: Sovereign currency (Euro, Yen) - 3: Complementary and supplementary currency (convertible into sovereign currency) - 4: Derivative financial products (SICAV, Stable Coin, etc.)
The rules of use define what users can do with the currency: where and with whom it can be spent, whether it is convertible, hoardable, or demurrage-based, and what incentives govern its use. This theme examines the scope of acceptance (local, sectoral, or universal) and the mechanisms — such as demurrage or a conversion premium — that steer behavior toward circulation rather than accumulation. It reveals the vision of society embedded in the currency.
Conditions and restrictions on use (other than accepting the means of payment) : - General-purpose currency: can be used to purchase all types of goods and services (with the exception, normally, of legally prohibited products and services) ... - Special-purpose currency: social assistance, usable in certain stores, reserved for certain products (ecocheques) or services (service vouchers, airline miles, luncheon vouchers).
Conditions and restrictions on conversion (convertibility) : Is it convertible? - Convertibility into another sovereign currency - Convertibility into its underlying currency - Conversion mechanisms and conditions (exchange rate, currency snake, conditions set a priori by charter, regulations) - inconvertibility
Extrinsic valuation of the currency: What gives value to the currency apart from its intrinsic value/ Exchange rate conditions - Market value (supply/demand), variable exchange rate - Fixed exchange rate - Regulated exchange rate (monetary snake) - Decreasing exchange rate (monetary melt)
Temporal conditions and restrictions: Is money, from the moment it is created, destined to disappear or to live forever - One-off money or money with a life limited by an expiration date (luncheon vouchers, drink vouchers) - Money whose life is programmed: money created by credit (circulating credit) or melting money (destructible) - Permanent money whose life is theoretically unlimited: gold, Bitcoin, money created by donation or currency exchange (currencies that do not have an endogenous destruction mechanism).
Social conditions and restrictions: - used by all - universal - money exchanged between social groups (between tribes, between pensioners and students) - money used within a single social group (students, pensioners, etc.)
Restrictions on anonymous ownership (currency holders): Does the monetary regime offer the possibility of holding money anonymously? and anonymously vis-à-vis whom? Anonymity of ownership: - No anonymous ownership - Anonymous ownership with respect to third parties, except the account holder and the public authority - Anonymous ownership with respect to all third parties, except the account holder - Anonymous ownership with respect to all third parties (fiduciary money, bills, coins). - Anonymous with regard to all third parties, except by court order.
Restrictions on anonymity in transactions (currency users): Does the monetary regime offer the possibility of making a transaction anonymously? and anonymously vis-à-vis whom? Transaction anonymity : - The system does not allow anonymous transactions - The system allows anonymity with respect to all third parties except account holders, public authorities and parties to the transaction - The system allows anonymity with respect to all third parties except account holders and public authorities - The system allows anonymity with respect to all third parties except account holders.
Restrictions on anonymity in transactions (currency users): Does the monetary regime offer the possibility of making a transaction anonymously? and anonymously vis-à-vis whom? Transaction anonymity : - The system does not allow anonymous transactions - The system allows anonymity with respect to all third parties except account holders, public authorities and parties to the transaction - The system allows anonymity with respect to all third parties except account holders and public authorities - The system allows anonymity with respect to all third parties except account holders.
Conditions and restrictions on ownership Interest income / Demurrage: - Is money conceived as a store of value? Does saving / lending money generate interest? - Is it conceived as a neutral means of payment - with no costs or returns? - Is it conceived as a gas pedal of the economy, where the deposit or loan generates charges or negative interest (demurrage), prompting people to dispose of money?
Conditions and restrictions on amounts exchanged : Are there any conditions and/or restrictions linked to the amounts exchanged?
Conditions and restrictions on amounts held: Are there any conditions and/or restrictions on the amounts held by users?
Coinage is the material and technical form of the currency: banknote, coin, token, accounting entry, digital or cryptographic unit. This theme describes the chosen medium, the security features against counterfeiting, and the infrastructure required to issue and verify the units. The choice of medium determines the currency's accessibility, cost, traceability, and ecological footprint.
Material support for money : Intrinsic value of money. - commodity money: salt, flour, - metallic money: ingots, coins - fiduciary (bank) money: bills of exchange, banknotes - scriptural money (dematerialized): checks, transfers, accounts - electronic money: credit cards, USB keys, Apps, hApps
Type of currency certification : - Issuer-certified - internal process - Certified by the issuer - internal process with validation by an external certifier (audit & control) - Certified by a third-party auditor - external process - Certified by a certifying algorithm - Certified by a rule intrinsic to the system
Legal form of currency certifier : - International organization under public law - Public body (central bank, state, royal mint, local authority) - Private for-profit entity (commercial banks, companies) - Private non-profit organization (associations, foundations, mutual societies, etc.) - Private algorithm (Bitcoin, Diem) - Public algorithm (CBDC)
Intrinsic attributes of currency conferring methodical confidence : - Characteristics of the monetary medium: guarantee of size and denomination, protection against counterfeiting and falsification, guarantee of medium durability, etc. - Characteristics of the computerized means of storing the value: tamper-proof, fraud-proof, misappropriation-proof, etc. - Physical confidence: the intrinsic value of money (metallic gold) inspires confidence.
Intrinsic currency valuation : - Symbolic value (Euro, bictoin) - Physical quantity: weight (gold, salt, etc.), physical unit, - time (time money), - Physically exploitable natural resource
Storing and holding money: - Centralized at a financial services provider Private and central banks: bank account, broker ... Association, foundation: time account, - Decentralized at the holder's premises: individual wallet at a service provider or community: (DeFi), or distributed Ledger (crypto-currency ledger) - Mixed: with a service provider and the holder of the capital
Payment system transaction media: Physical - hand to hand - ballpoint pen - cash dispenser - Electronic Payment Terminal (TPE) / Dematerialized - Servers (web, apps, etc.) - BlockChain, P2P - Site Exchange / Normative - standards (CFONB, SEPA, EBICS) - EDI / Technological - POW: Proof of Work - POS: Proof os Stake - GHOST: Greedy Heaviest Observed SubTree
Methods for guaranteeing transaction anonymity: - guaranteed by the anonymous monetary medium - guaranteed by the technical anonymization of data (total or partial) - guaranteed by legislation (example: RGPD) - not guaranteed
(Details how transactions are validated)
Inflation / deflation: - Inflation - Deflation - Neutral - Relative currency (Relative Theory of Money)
(détaille comment les transactions sont validée et triées)
This theme describes the concrete mechanisms by which the currency circulates from one actor to another: means of payment, clearing systems, account-keeping, and transaction security. It focuses on operational reliability, resilience to failures and fraud, and ease of everyday use. It is the "machinery" that makes a payment complete securely and without friction.
Payment system operating costs : Raw data Total cost of payment system over a period of time Value of transactions over the period Number of transactions over the period Methodology for calculating total cost Payment system operator cost approach = initial investment cost + issuing cost + operating cost + governance cost + energy cost + demonetization cost Payment system user expenditure approach: subscription fees + transaction fees Ratios Cost per transaction (Total cost / Number of transactions) Cost / sum of values exchanged calculation of costs / monetary volume issued
Energy impact of the payment system (price elements / pollution due to each monetary system) : Life cycle analysis Eco-design of currency (C2C) Proportional to the size (widespread or not) of the system
Speed of money circulation (number of hand changes between money leaving the bank and returning to the bank) : Average Transaction Value: Total value spent by economic agents / number of transactions per unit of time (year) Velocity: Quantity of money spent over a given period (year) / money supply V(velocity) = P(average price) * T(Nb transactions over a period) / M(Quantity of money available: money supply) or in other words: V = GDP (excluding financial assets and real estate) / M if money circulates 2 times faster, we need 2 times less money supply to produce the same result. Note: for a more accurate representation, we don't include financial assets (otherwise high-frequency trading would artificially increase speed) and real estate.
Nature of monetary volume in circulation : - Fixed volume: The volume does not vary - raw material (gold) or exchange whose value is preserved (purchases/sales, currency imports/exports). - Variable volume: The volume evolves over time according to a rule internal to the system (credit repayment). - Downward variable volume : -- Demurrage - Credit Mutuel: volume tends towards zero over time - Upwardly variable volume: -- Volume limited in time: volume increases up to a predefined ceiling (bitcoin) -- Constantly increasing volume (TRM, June)
Methods of valuing the volume of money in circulation : - Accounting methods - M0 (central bank), M1 (sight account balance + commercial bank deposits), M2 (), M3 () (banking system) X 2 (local currency) - Nil (time money, mutual credit) - Consolidated ledger balance (BTC) - Physical methods: Available resources (machine time, storage, etc.: holochain)
Evaluation of the volume of money in circulation : Evaluation by ratios: volume/GDP, volume/inhabitant Volume: Quantity or value of transactions
Trust criteria : - Methodical trust (Aglietta): repeated, successful use of the payment instrument is the basis of trust.
Valuation : - Methods used to value traded goods and services.
(Specifies how transactions are validated and ordered in the system).
