cofi:collaborative_finance

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cofi:collaborative_finance [2026/05/19 12:02] – [What are the benefits of collaborative finance?] Matthew Slatercofi:collaborative_finance [2026/05/20 11:25] (current) – [Collaborative Finance (CoFi)] Simon Grant
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 Being organised at such a large scale ensures that only remote rich people design these systems and derive all the secondary benefits. But what if there was a more appropriate scale, in which trust actually played a role, in which profit was not the prime directive and was ploughed back into the system? In which the people taking risks helped to manage those risks? What if the so-called free market had space for small-scale financial services? House and car insurance in every street. What if pensions were managed by the local government which, after all is the provider of elderly care. What if we could invest in the very businesses that produce and sell our necessities, as a way of ensuring our own security? What if those businesses turned around and invested in us, making our security mutual? And what if this myriad of local human financial organisations could de-risk through voluntary federation? Being organised at such a large scale ensures that only remote rich people design these systems and derive all the secondary benefits. But what if there was a more appropriate scale, in which trust actually played a role, in which profit was not the prime directive and was ploughed back into the system? In which the people taking risks helped to manage those risks? What if the so-called free market had space for small-scale financial services? House and car insurance in every street. What if pensions were managed by the local government which, after all is the provider of elderly care. What if we could invest in the very businesses that produce and sell our necessities, as a way of ensuring our own security? What if those businesses turned around and invested in us, making our security mutual? And what if this myriad of local human financial organisations could de-risk through voluntary federation?
  
 +One of the first assumptions we unpack is about the role of [[cofi:money]], the thing that integrates all our activities with the omnicidal capitalist machine, and makes *each of us* part of the problem. Money is really good for standardising accounting, taxation and fines but it is quite hard to obtain and hold on to! Maybe if we could enter into different financial relationships we could find other ways to settle debt, to account for exchange and to ensure the future?
 ===== What are the benefits of collaborative finance? ===== ===== What are the benefits of collaborative finance? =====
  
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-Building large scale, trustworthy institutions from scratch takes years or even decades of patience, yet commoners have achieved it many times before. Building societies took hold and thrived amongst the urban poor of the Industrial Revolution; savings pools can be found in nearly all the monetised societies of the world; the Mondragon Coop still dominates a whole region of Spain. But there is a lot of churn in this field. Many projects fail to get off the ground, fail because of governance or personality problems, and if successful, there is always the danger of being coopted and the temptation to sell out.+Finance is always a shared activity - you can't do it on your own! But you can start by deprogramming yourself from  deep cultural indoctination. Reflect on the meanings of words:
  
-The most important thing is to re-frame many of the words and ideas we take for-granted.  +* **Money** is a means, not an end in itself.  
-* Money is be a means, not an end in itself.  +* **Value** is what YOU value, not the market. 
-* Value is what YOU value, not the market. +* **Work** is the creation of wealth for yourself or for your community. 
-* Work is the creation of wealth for yourself or for your community. +* **Wealth** is not the balance of your bank account but the quality of your life, your health and your relationships. 
-* Wealth is not the balance of your bank account but the quality of your life, your health and your relationships. +* **Security** is emotional and relational, not just physical. 
-* Security is emotional and relational, not just physical. + 
-With this grounding you can work with others to create wealth and security together. +With this grounding you can work with others to create wealth and security together. Building large scale, trustworthy institutions from scratch takes years or even decades of patience, yet commoners have achieved it many times before. Building societies took hold and thrived amongst the urban poor of the Industrial Revolution; savings pools can be found in nearly all the monetised societies of the world; the Mondragon Coop still dominates a whole region of Spain. But there is a lot of churn in this field. Many projects fail to get off the ground, often for governance or personality problems, and if successful, there is always the danger of being co-opted and the temptation to sell out. 
-So building a more collaborative financial system can only happen gradually, cautiously. There's a chance the global economy will crumble first, but if it does, the financial trust relations we have built will become even more important.+ 
 +So building a more collaborative financial system can only happen gradually, cautiously, even if you feel the need for it painfully urgently. Even if you never achieve it, the process itself should be immensely valuable for building trust and community around you.
  
 ==== Come to the gathering ==== ==== Come to the gathering ====
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 ===== Further resources ===== ===== Further resources =====
 +Here we point to some examples of new and established projects.
 +
 +The Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) is where it started for many of us: local groups serving each other and keeping account using abstract accounting units. The heyday was the 1990s, but many groups remain.
 +
 +Any [ecovillage](https://ecovillage.org) involves collective managing of resources, whether it be around housing, energy, work, food or money.
 +
 +A newer project, [Kin coop](https://kin.coop) offers fiscal hosting (a virtual bank account) to activist groups, saving them admin work, and ensuring their accounts are transparent.
 +
 +In Stroud, UK the team that built this wiki [Stroud Commons](https://stroudcommons.org) is working on a whole cluster of projects related to resource management and finance .
 +
 +[Local Loop Liverpool](https://localloop-merseyside.co.uk) is bringing small businesses together to cancel out paymets within the network, reducing cashflow risk for all of them. 
 +
 +The [Economic Space Agency](https://ecsa.io) is rethinking economics, accounting and money from the bottom up.
  
-@todo+In Kenya, [Grassroots Economics](https://grassrootseconomics.org) has developed its own tools and language to revive and update pre-colonial traditions of cooperation.
  
 ===== Related topics ===== ===== Related topics =====
  • cofi/collaborative_finance.1779192179.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 2026/05/19 12:02
  • by Matthew Slater