One Small Town
From their website.
IMAGINE a perfect world full of harmony, opportunity and abundance. The kind of world most of us have dreamed of all our lives. This world is possible and we are creating it for ourselves – not somewhere in the distant future, but now, in our own lifetime.
The first impression is AWESOME, and that tampers off pretty quickly. Our towns do not have mayors, it is more of a USA thing. Imagine going to your council and trying this. Not gonna happen anytime quickly. In their defence the project is “Living Philosophy” and the information I got is from August 2021, which I got from the One Small Town website.
The approach is great and I can see what they trying to achieve, reality is a bit different. I based this on my own views and experience, the area I live is pretty entrepreneurial when it comes to solving problems, it is buzzing with solutions for issues.
When I read the information from the One Small Town website, I think it is similar to the Trade Shack, the difference is that the Trade Shack is a bit more realistic, in my humble view. The Trade Shack uses existing resources, independent from each other, leaving the control in the hands of the Backyard Growers. (Where it should be)
Lets do a quick One Small Town comparison
One Small Town
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Electricity is the Foundation
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Investor needed
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EVERYBODY needs to be "onboard"
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Mayor/Council "driven"
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Co-owner of New Co-Op company
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Minimum 3hrs commitment
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Co-Operative members vote and appoint People's Council
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Non Co-Operative members are excluded.
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Co-Operative is in control of revenue and labour force.
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Blockchain technology
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Crypto tokens used to raise funds
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Claims $3,330 per month for 3 hrs a week.
Trade Shack
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Electricity dependency is in your control
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You are the investor, time and money
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Not applicable
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No Mayor/Council drivers
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You own what you build/grow
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More than 3 hrs a day.
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You decide what you grow and sell supply and demand driven
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Nobody is excluded, you can sell to anybody in your community
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It is your backyard, nobody will tell what to do.
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No blockchain, no tracking.
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Your choice, barter, sell or swap.
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No claims made on income. It is up to you. You can eat what you not sell
What is the real difference.
Electricity becomes the foundation of all the businesses, projects and activities we initiate. Yeah, let me stop you right there for a minute. Electricity? How is it generated, I assume it will be all green. The problem with that is the reliance on SUN and WIND, but more so the storage of excess.
Batteries can be used, but they are first up very environment unfriendly. Despite what the green movement says. But that is a discussion for another day, let’s focus on the distribution of electricity. I doubt that Energex (the owner of the wires here in SEQ) will allow you to use their network. A smarter way of doing this is microgrids, I can only assume they (One Small Town) are referring to that.
Several green energy initiatives have been set up in Germany and other parts of Europe. We all know what is happening in the EU atm with energy. So that answers the question of Green Energy and its ability, or should I say lack thereof. Diesel Generators are needed, and for that reason making electricity the foundation could be your Achilles heel.
The Trade Shack approach does not create that dependency, uses the existing infrastructure and creates a shorter supply chain.
Some say it is a parallel system of trade, selectively using existing systems.
One Small Town: Use Blockchain technology in the most effective way to stream line all our projects, labour and delivery.
Blockchain, seems to be the answer to everything. Looking at a like-for-like stream it is nothing more than a new form of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), YOUR information is still stored somewhere. Many believe it is safe and secure, generally advertised due to the decentralisation of data. I am all for decentralisation, not so much for traceability. We see cryptocurrency exchanges being hacked or held at ransom, opening the discussion on how safe things actually are.
For a blockchain to work, and particular crypto, you need a ledger. This ledger (for lack of better terms and simplicity) gets updated every time something happens with or to that token. So if a Government Actor wants to know all your movements and transactions, then yes they can find out.
Also, just one minor detail, you need electricity. Block Chain does not work without electricity. And does not work without a network like an internet for example.
The Trade Shack, promotes creating online connections for offline interactions. Do as much as possible offline, using cash, barter, trade and exchange.
We (One Small Town) have created TWO Crypto Tokens.
Why? Is the first question coming to mind, the answer is CONTROL. I applaud independence but why is a new crypto token required? Are the existing ones like BITCOIN not good enough?
By using your own crypto token, you pretty much are locked in to ONLY use that, unless they are tradable on a crypto exchange. Again it needs electricity, assuming that is available. In any major natural disaster, the thing that breaks first is electricity. Grid is down now what?
Conclusion
First-Up I thought GREAT, but then the enthusiasm tampered off when I go to the electricity bit, Blockchain and Crypto. I guess it comes from my background and my belief that we face a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection). I think everybody has their own “disaster scenario” to thinker with.
One Small Town can work, there is no doubt, but I am not sure if Australia is ready for it. Personally, and I am biased, believe food scaping and backyard growers networking will work. I believe if we can fix the food supply chain, we then can work on the other issues. I think small towns like the one I live in, can supply enough food to support everybody here.
I also believe in free commerce, the way I read the One Small Town approach makes me think of a communist approach. A subset of members (Council) is in charge, which in essence is how we got into trouble in the first place.
Leave it up to the individual, what they want to grow, barter, sell or exchange. I think it does not need oversight, it will sort itself out. For sure we do not need another cryptocurrency.