What is the Klupek Economy ?
On the nature of Money
So, if you didn't notice already, money is an institution, a social construct that some humans use in order to facilitate exchanges between each other.
Claire has some fish, she wants some mushrooms. Peter has some mushrooms but doesn't necessarily wants Claire's fishes in exchange. Oh no. What are we going to do ?? Don't worry, good thing Claire has money she earned selling fish to whoever wanted fish to buy some mushrooms to Peter. Oh Hi Mark.
The thing is, if Claire & Peter both are Norwegian, they can happily use their hardly earned Norwegian Kroners for this exchange, and go on with their lives.
However, if Claire came back from Indonesia and tries to give Peter Indonesian Rupiahs for his mushrooms, it will go slightly differently. Except if Peter also happens to go to Indonesia soon, in which case he might totally accept her currency.
Well, that's the thing. Peter might accept whatever makes sense for him for this exchange at the moment when it's made. He might accept whatever funny metal extracted from the ground, he might accept whatever funny paper with nice drawings onto it, as long as he believes he can use them later in the future.
There's a big word for that in economic jargon, but the idea is only that : it's based on trust. Trust in its value, trust other people will accept it. Otherwise, Euros, Pesos and other Kinas are just cheap paper with funny details printed onto them.
So, what are those "Klupeks", exactly ?
"Klupeks" are precisely that. Cheap paper with funny details printed onto them - and a funny name.
They are intended as a micro-currency.
Think about them as a local currency. But instead of "local" understood as a fixed place, the people accepting Klupeks would be all over.
Just as one can use Faroese Kroners in the Faroe Islands but not in Kazakstan, since the Kazakhs probably won't accept them but Faroese people would, one could use Klupeks with whoever accepts Klupeks as a currency.
And who accepts Klupek as a currency ? Well, whoever accepts Klupek as a currency. Whoever trusts that someone else will accept their Klupeks, somewhere, someday. Very meta, right ?
Let's call this collective entity Klupekia. The Klupek Community.
At it's core, that's basically it. There is ultimately no way of enforcing in what way people would use this means of exchange, in the end.
That said, one has to enter the Community, right ? One has to get their first Klupeks before one exchanges them.
And this is where the Spirit of the Klupeks reveals itself.
The Spirit of Klupekia
The Klupek Community is based around a few principles.
The fundamental intent of the Klupek economy is to encourage people to meet each other & create things together. The rest follows logically.
Of voluntarism.
Nobody is forced to use Klupeks. There is no obligation to do anything to even get Klupeks, actually. Only understand those principles and fill out a (very formal) form.
Of creativity & auto-production.
It is a fundamental principle of Klupekia. Because, kind of everybody creates or produces something. Production has to be understood in a wide sense : do you paint ? That's production. Do you brew your own beer ? That's production. Do you like to sail around ? Are you a good guide of your city ? Do you know some nice recipes ? Take photographs ? Fish ? Tattoo ? Write music ? Embroider ? Grow weed in your backyard ? All those things are example of production. There's probably more.
Of decentralization.
Once you're part of the community, and once you've received your Klupeks, you're on your own to speak to other members. You don't have to go through some institution or someone else, you create your connections by yourself.
Of connecting people.
Apart from looking at the (frankly incredible) design of the Klupeks, there is nothing to do with them but exchange them with people. Create new connections, discover someone else's universe!
Of equality.
When you enter the community, you will receive a set amount of Klupeks. No more, no less than all the other members. Then, that's it ! No loans, new Klupeks can only enter the economy if new people enter the community.