OSE Coin

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HintLightbulb.png Hint: Moneyleft is coined here, no pun intended.

Proposal by Marcin

  • $ backwards for the S you n OSE
  • It is moneyleft, or abundance coins. Core design is based on making resources non-scarce or non-rival by opening up full documentation and access to their production.
  • Algorithm and white paper to be developed. Distributed ledger with consensus mechanism and trivial calculation. Coin is declared, consensus mechanism approves distributed coining based on availability and proof of working open source products
  • How do you prove a working open source products? By examining if complete information is available for production, and by examining that the product works and follows OSE Specifications. Each information item has a specific set of rules or criteria for that information to be accepted as valid. This enforces the complete validation of an open-source product development methodology and therefore piggybacks completely on the OSE methodology.

Proposal by Lex

A digital currency for the OSE Economy.

OSE Developers, Contributors and Supporters receive regular dividends during their participation. Therefore it becomes lucrative to be an active and productive OSE Developer.

Built on Duniter.

Is this like an ICO?

No, there is no initial set of tokens generated by a small group of people. Instead, all active OSE Developers get the same amount of tokens at regular intervals from day one.

Where can I spend the OSE Coin?

You would need OSE Coins in order to be able to sell things in the OSE Market, to label your machines as OSE Certified, to have premium product placement in the marketplace and to access many other perks and features.

Where do I get OSE Coin?

Become an OSE Developer and you'll automagically get regular dividends for your participation.

Buy them from an OSE Developer, the OSE Organization or on a future OSE Coin exchange.

Where does the value of the OSE Coin come from?

As part of your OSE Developer status you will regularly receive OSE Coin dividends. In order to sell the OSE Dev Kit or some other machine through the OSE Market you have to spend OSE Coins to list your stuff. This may seem silly at first that you're getting coins from OSE and then subsequently spending the coins in order to sell stuff but the value of the coins becomes apparent when you want to sell more than you can cover in fees with the coins you have.

OSE Coins have value because they are necessary to participate in the OSE Market. The more social status, prestige and trust exhibited by the OSE brand and certifications the more valuable it is to be certified by and sell products on the OSE Market.

How are the dividends determined?

See Duniter.

What does OSE do with the coins it collects through marketplace fees?

It may use the coins to buy things on the OSE Market or it may sell some coins for fiat currency to invest in growth, buy materials, more land, pay staff, etc.

How much is one OSE Coin in USD?

There is no pre-determined exchange rate. This is determined by the market. Hopefully as the value of using OSE Coins goes up so will their exchange rate to USD.

The first OSE Developer who runs out of OSE Coins to pay the listing fees on OSE Market may want to buy some. This first sale will determine the starting price. It could be $1 million dollars or it could be 10 cents. (Probably it will be closer to a 1:1 exchange rate in the beginning.)

Will there always have to be fees on the marketplace?

No. This is just an initial strategy to build value in the OSE Coin. Eventually as more and more people start using it in commerce it will gain inherent value as a means of exchange.

Can't someone just sell outside the OSE Market?

Yes, but they will have to do their own marketing and they will not be able to say that the product is OSE Certified. Also, it's a short sighted strategy because they are putting effort into OSE machines by building them but are not benefiting from the OSE ecosystem and the OSE Coin crypto currency.

Most people will find it easier to "go with the flow" and concentrate on the engineering, building, servicing, spending time with their friends and family and let someone else handle the marketing and brand development.

By the time OSE tools and machines are so popular that there are a lot of competitors it's likely that the OSE Coin will also be significantly more valuable keeping OSE ahead of the competition.

Competition is good.

Do buyers on the market use OSE Coins?

No. Initially the OSE Coins are an internal concept only between sellers and the OSE Market. Eventually, as the currency spreads and people start using it outside of paying for listing fees on the marketplace, it is very possible that someone will start selling OSE machines and tools entirely priced in OSE Coins.

Is this kind of like a Universal Basic Income?

That's one of the goals but not possible to absolutely guarantee in practice.

Everyone is different and contributes differently, your task as an OSE Developer is to convince your peers that whatever you are doing is worthwhile to them and the OSE mission. You get to share in the value generated by your community by being a productive member of the community. At least that part kind of sounds like UBI.

But there is no guarantee that the dividend, when converted to your local currency, will be enough to cover your living expenses. The primary intent of the dividends is to give OSE Developers priority and "free" basic access to the OSE Market, if some OSE Developers are able to use or convert their OSE Coins into local currency and live off of this then it's their prerogative. People with greater ambitions will likely want to build, sell and service the OSE tools and machines generating income beyond just the dividends.

Why do we even need money?

Even if you automate all of your needs and can live completely independent with the resources beneath your feet, there will likely be hobbies, special interests and other social needs where you'll have to interact with other human beings and pay for unique art, peoples time, services or something else we can't even imagine yet. Some exchange of value will always be useful even if it's no longer necessary to meet your basic needs.

What is the connection between the OSE Coin and the OSE Market?

Theoretically they are completely independent things. The OSE Market does not require the existence of the OSE Coin. The OSE Coin on the other hand uses the OSE Market to bootstrap its own value.

A currency only has value if someone else is willing to exchange something for it. Therefore there needs to be a demand for OSE Coin. By having the OSE Market require listing fees to be paid in OSE Coins it creates demand and a whole new separate market where people buy and sell OSE Coins. Once the OSE Coin market capitalizes sufficiently it will have a life of it's own and it will no longer be necessary for the official OSE Market to require listing fees to be paid in OSE Coin.

In summary, the OSE Coin uses the OSE Market to create demand and bootstraps its value until the OSE Coin gains enough popularity to have value on its own without the OSE Market.

Alternative Ideas to UBI

Paul's DAO Proposal

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations are trustless coordination games that let multiple people, and potentially bots and software algorithms, cooperate for a common goal, often managing money. They use distributed ledger technology, of which cryptocurrencies are the most well known case, and are a method for achieving a transparently and self-managing company, one where the rules and activities are public for everyone to observe and to decide if they wish to participate or not.


Here's one proposal for how DAOs can be applied to OSE to raise funds and grant ownership stake to contributors. Although this is on the OSE Coin page, it is not officially endorsed by OSE not does it make any claims to OSE designs, facilities, or resources. It is currently a thought experiment, and if it were to be implemented, would take on a public name that made it clear it was an independent but friendly and complementary effort to OSE, meant to incentivize, reward, and cultivate quality, marketable, world-benefitting open hardware everywhere.

  • The DAO has a legal structure in the physical world as an LLC. See [[2]]
  • The DAO holds a treasury of tokens, which include stablecoins equivalent to U.S. Dollars and other fiat currency, and also its own governance token, which has dual use representing spendable capital in the DAO.
  • The DAO can hold the title to real property, such as campus land, housing, workshop facilities, cars, etc.
  • The DAO issues a governance token, which can be used to cast a vote on proposals, at regular intervals (say each week) automatically distributed to contributors of the wiki, Discord chat, Discourse forum, or email lists.
  • Contributors can make proposals to the DAO to perform the following actions
 * Signal some legal action for the underlying LLC
 * Disburse the treasury to an individual for a purpose
  • Contributors advertise their skill or availability on the DAO to make certain OSE designs as products
  • Customers pay directly into the DAO when they order an OSE design with contributors advertised as available.
 * The money is held in escrow until the product is complete.

New campuses that intend to build OSE designs and inspired by OSE are encouraged to discuss how to collaborate with OSE.

I personally recommend titling all real property, built structures, facilities, and resources to a DAO directly after setting it up, and to hold regular, transparent, and recorded meetings.

Separate DAOs could be set up for putative campuses in

  • Botswana
  • Detroit
  • Arizona