The Whuffie Manifesto

The Whuffie is the first social currency. A new kind of money for the information age based on reputation. And a revolution of values.

Because money as a contract for value shall be based on real values.

The digitalization of daily life following the rise of social networks and mobile technologies, provide humanity for the first time in history with the tools to detect and measure the social impact of a person. The influence, popularity and the combination of all the elements that create reputation, now are visible on a large scale. These are non-quantitative values essential in the direct interpretation of the qualities that arise from merit, talent and knowledge. Obtaining reputation and, not least important: its context, can weave a social fabric where from each according to his ability, to each according to his need, is possible.

Because the word millionaire describes quantity and not quality.

The current paradigm of materialistic money inspires nothing but substantial accumulation, being the weapon of choice for methods where the end justifies the means. On the other hand, reputation is an attribute that does not depend exclusively on the individual: With the Whuffie, personal self-interest is transformed into an arrow always aimed at the needs of others. This manifesto doesn't want to change the ludic pragmatism of money as a system of points for rewarding the working man (a ludic specie by nature), but the rules that define the criteria for scoring points. Transforming a infinite accumulation to a relative accummulation scheme that rewards merit and punishes abuse.

Because materialism is based on the empire of stuff, not people.

It's the brands and their products who bite the neck of the consumer triggering the rise of fads, the deification of youth and the cult for disposable things as dominant values of the modern world. When we believe to be capable of appropriating matter, we don't notice that in reality is the actual things what excersise thier control over us.

Because the abundant oceans of information revitalize the role of talent.

With computing capacity doubling every 18 months, it has been pouring over mankind during four decades an ocean of data that systematically devaulues all kinds of information. The traumatic crisis suffered by cultural industries in the last decade, as seen in the free use of MP3 files and P2P networks, is just the first symptom of a world beginning to understand that the real value lies not in the content, but in the talent behind that content.

Because the impact of the Internet in the economic sphere is inevitable.

Several of the traumas arising as a consequence of the network are similar to events that occured with the rise of another information technology: the printing press. When this technology appeared five centuries ago, playwrights where among the first to react against it the moment they saw their works replicated without their consent across all Europe. A similar reaction to the pirate hunt from the film and music industries. But the intrinsic strength of the scalable use of ink and paper reduced such episodes to simple stories as events of profound ideological change such as the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightment and eventually Capitalism, changed the world thanks to that idea spreading machine that is the printing press. And the Internet is repeating the luminous prose of printed text without the friction of paper: the transformations that took centuries before, will now be conquered in decades.

Because all monetary systems evolved in parallel with the technology of its time.

The bill, in essence a replicable document with value, was made possible thanks to the sophistication of the printing press. The change brought by that monetary representation was fundamental for the consolidation of modern states. Simply observe the portrayal of patriotic heroes in them as if bills were a pamphlet serving the interest of each government. The open, horizontal and decentralized idiosyncrasy of the Internet opens the door to a new kind of currency that's independent from state control and it's managed exclusively by people connected with each other using the power of software as the sole mediator.

Because a world without frontiers requires a superior social and economic order.

Globalization penetrated the cultural habits of great part of the planet. The benefit of being able to intimately connect with anyone in the world and the free flow of information are shaking the foundations that support the construction of a national identity. We'll see a systematic increase in the tension between states and corporations (used to the shelter of legal code) against the virtuality of the internet (governed in practical terms only by software code). Cultural and political events like the persecution of organizations such as Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks are the first signs of a potentially explosive situation. In this context, the disruption of the Whuffie as an economic model that overcomes those burdens by merging social aspects with the pragmatism of currency, guarantees the proper functioning of a global, free and distributed society choosing to emancipate from the dominance and control of states.

Because the privileges of media aristocracies will reach everyone.

Reputation economies are not new. Twentieth century media (radio, television and print) were efficiently used by people of massive appeal such as artists and athletes that enjoyed financial benefits of all sorts from corporation willing to exploit the use of their image. In the case of politics, mainstream media represented the center of the reputational battle to access state power through popular vote. The main problem with traditional media is the enormous disparity between the high cost of emiting a signal and the low price of receiving it: the space for exposure is very exclusive. The Internet is the first kind of media that reduced such asymmetry to almost zero: emitting a signal to the whole globe is now accessible for anyone. This permits each discipline to find massive audiences within their niche, giving more power and fame to increasingly specialized talents.

Because the price of materialistic consumption is a world at the mercy of its resources.

We are the heirs of the industrial age where the primacy of individual desire and the role of the invisible hand was the recipe for progress, without being fully aware of environmental risks. It was the rise of reason under the maxim "I think, therefore I am" that abstracted man from his reality and even his self. The industrial superman proved to be farce: there's no real meaning in the solitude of a large mansion with money accumulated at the expense of the rest. The real vital encounter in this life occurs when we empathize with the needs and desires of those who share their life with us. It is no coincidence that billionaires feel more strongly than ever the moral duty to give back what society rewarded them. Selfishness is yielding its grip on the libido of wealth to make place for empathy, rescuing the forgotten cry of the french revolutionary proclaim: Fraternité!

Because when reputation is wealth,
only those who do good and well unto others are the richest.

January 20th, 2011