money - the dif

What it does, what it is, where it comes from.

Normal money, the stuff we use every day, is created in limited supply by central authorities so it maintains value and is accepted anywhere in the world.  It is both a commodity and a means of exchange, which means some people, communities, organizations, have way too much and most don't have nearly enough to stay afloat.

It flows intermittently and haphazardly through our economies like rain in a leaky barrel - for most of us, the barrel is almost empty, we're not sure we can keep filling it, and new leaks tend to appear more frequently.

Since money is just information, we can create our own community currencies (cc) that are simply a means of exchange - money that circulates within our various communities rather than flowing through, like normal money does.

Normal money, being scarce and intermittent, leads to competition and addiction.  Community money, being sufficient and instantly available, leads to cooperation and collaboration.

But this is not an either/or proposition - community money is not AN alternative to normal money - it is a complement, an addition to the means-of-exchange function of normal money.

More money means more money - generally, when cc is spent, normal money isn't.