LETTERS FROM THE FIELD:
COMMITMENT POOLING – AN ECONOMIC PROTOCOL
INSPIRED BY ANCESTRAL WISDOM
William O. Ruddick
Founder of Grassroots Economics Foundation
E-mail: will@grassecon.org
ABSTRACT
This prospective report introduces the pooling of commitments, as a mechanism for curating and fairly exchanging resources within communities. This approach hinges on the idea that commitments can be effectively pooled to create a more equitable and collaborative economic system, building on the efficacy of traditional mutual service practices. To operationalize this concept, the paper presents a protocol being piloted by Grassroots Economics called Commitment Pooling. The Commitment Pooling Protocol is designed to aggregate commitments (via digital systems) while facilitating the management and fair exchange of resources. The study describes the background, development, and potential impact of this approach, demonstrating how it can support autonomous, decentralized, non-monetary, and polycentric systems of Commitment Pooling. The emphasis is on fostering community well-being, aligning individual economic transactions with the ethos of mutual service and collective agency. Through practical use cases and analysis, the paper shows the versatility of this protocol in various socio-economic contexts, highlighting its potential in building more inclusive and resilient economic systems.
KEYWORDS
Commitment, Pool, Voucher, Mutual Service, Economics, Resource Coordination, Well-Being,
Polycentric Systems.
To cite this article:
Ruddick (2023) ‘Commitment Pooling – An Economic Protocol Inspired by Ancestral Wisdom’
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY CURRENCY RESEARCH – VOLUME 27 (2023); http://www.ijccr.net; ISSN 1325-9547; DOI – http://dx.doi.org/10.15133/j.ijccr.2023-004
IJCCR 