In Good we Trust: Transforming the way we understand ‘money’

Zehra Yakut & Uygar Özesmi

Good4Trust.org, 3 November 2023, v.1.0

“Money is a tool: it is time we use to our advantage.” – (CCIA, 2015)

“It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly used false standards of measurement — that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, and that they underestimate what is of true value in life.” – Sigmund Freud

Introduction

Trust is defined at many levels from the individual to the institutional, from psychology to economics…. At the psychological level Trust has been defined as “confidence that [one] will find what is desired [from another] rather than what is feared” (Deutsch, 1973). An individual experiences and develops trust at a psychological level that is the result of the interplay among one’s values, attitudes, and emotions, whereas an institution relates trust to “a property of collective units” (Lewis and Weigert, Jun. 1985). In other words, trust is constructed based on individuals believing in the groups and institutions that govern social and economic exchanges. It can be expressed as ‘some form of exchange between human and non-human institutions’ (C.B. Califf, et al, 2020), as well as ‘an exchange of material and non-material goods.’ 

System trust is indispensable for the effective functioning of the ‘symbolic media of exchange’ such as money. People tend to trust money most when it circulates reasonably freely and “naturally” without any taint of deliberate manipulation for special interests. Nowadays, however, the social system is under severe strain and possibly on the verge of fundamental structural change due to a generalized loss of trust in the monetary system (Lewis and Weigert, Jun. 1985). In terms of the human sphere, things are also in disarray. Repeated economic turmoil such as the subprime crisis, the fiscal crisis in Turkey in 2018, or any other crisis at the national, regional, or global level, are symptoms of economic unsustainability. These crises indicate the need for a new economic system (Özesmi, 2019).

Money as a social technology 

“Money holds many mysteries. Where does it come from? How did it evolve? Who creates it and controls it? Why do we never seem to have enough?” –  (CCIA, 2015)

Money, like any technology, is designed and implemented with particular objectives in mind. In the case of mainstream money, such as national or transnational currencies, these objectives are often obscured by their familiarity. In practice, money is revealed to be a social technology shaped by design, production, and control, far from being neutral or preordained. This understanding underscores the influence of these factors on money’s societal impact (CCIA, 2015). The evolution of the social institution of money is intimately intertwined with technological advancements, prompting a re-evaluation of its fundamental essence. Digitization has highlighted the intangible aspects of money, emphasizing its role as a standard of value and social technology of account, often overshadowing its traditional function as a medium of exchange (Peneder, 2022). For example, blockchain-based digital currencies in the sharing economy hinge on the legitimacy and honesty of parties involved in financial transactions through a multifaceted trust-building process – peers, platform, and product or service offered – making both relationship-based and institution-based trust pivotal for its successful adoption (Kirimhan, 2023). 

Efforts to enhance currency utilization through technological innovations acknowledge money as a socially constructed institution, offering the potential for more sustainable incentives and structures compared to conventional currency (Seyfang & Longhurst, 2013). In contrast to conventional monetary systems, which primarily benefit international financial markets, currency experiments, such as complementary and community currencies, offer a welcome disruption to the prevailing status quo. While these forms of currency may be unfamiliar to many, they are no longer marginal, and viewing money as a tool designed to achieve specific objectives empowers people to reconsider its potential to better suit society’s needs (CCIA, 2015). 

Grassroots innovations

The 1980s witnessed a surge in grassroots innovations introducing various forms of social and private currencies, aimed at revitalizing local communities and economies amidst the backdrop of neoliberalism and globalization. These endeavors marked a transformative shift in the very concept of money, with community currencies (CCs) emerging as bottom-up solutions to pressing issues like environmental degradation and economic decline as well as serving a range of social and cultural functions – including the evaluation of non-market services for personal welfare and the cultivation of trust among individuals and transforming the monolithic cash nexus into a diverse and rich network of communication. CCs are also conceived as ‘integrative communication media’ possessing dual functions as economic instruments akin to money and social/cultural means resembling language – as depicted in Table 1 (Nishibe, n.a.). 

Similarly, social currencies –that are viewed as green, community, regional, transition, alternative or even complementary currencies– have been proven to serve as a systemic solution in the fight against ecological and financial crises, supporting the improvement of social capital in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These alternative systems aimed to facilitate exchange and establish novel “circuits of value” guided by principles that prioritize the common good over private profit. 

Community currencies

Many recent community currencies are geared toward sustainable development, through a range of social, economic, and environmental objectives (Seyfang & Longhurst, 2013; Seyfang & Longhurst, 2015). Let us give a few examples.

WIR

Wirtschaftsring or ’business circle’ Bank was founded in 1934 in Switzerland as business was decimated during the interwar financial crisis. Following the free economy theory of the free thinker Silvio Gesell, the founders wanted to counter the scarce money supply and the hoarding of money by making the money used bear no interest. This “free money” was later called “neutral money”, and a retention fee was to be paid for the money that was left lying around (WIR, n.d.). The scarcity of the country’s official currency does not necessarily impede real economic operations, as the WIR Bank demonstrates a counter-cyclical impact. In other words, it grows during economic downturns and shrinks during periods of prosperity. This dynamic enables small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to not only endure but also thrive in times of instability within the conventional cash-based economy.

The WIR system functions as a cash-free payment medium with its own currency that is pegged 1:1 to the Swiss Franc (CHF) – a complementary currency with its own name “WIR Franc (CHW)”. The system supports the Swiss domestic economy and is unique in the world in terms of its size and sustainability: what began in 1934 as a network of 300 companies and private individuals now comprises over 20.000 SMEs, which generate among themselves an additional turnover of several hundred million CHW annually (WIRinfo, 2023). 

With its mission statement “As a down-to-earth cooperative bank, make SMEs more successful, inspire private clients and entrepreneurs, and consistently strengthen Swiss SMEs. Local, regional, national.” (WIR, n.d.), it has been standing at the intersection of economic and social purposes. It is well designed to counter the dominance of large corporations by supporting more diverse SME economics, strengthening networks between independent businesses, and thus increasing synergy and cooperation between local administrations and enterprises. In addition, WIR aims to infuse a good feeling and security of knowing its users are promoting prosperity in Switzerland with their money.

In its last financial report, WIR Bank stated that “As a cooperative, we are not committed to maximizing profits, we offer fair conditions on our banking products, we are committed to equal opportunities and we ensure that our consumption of resources and our impact on the environment are as low as possible. We see our commitment not only as an entrepreneurial challenge but also as a contribution to the sustainable development of society (WIR, 2022)”.

The enduring operation spanning over eight decades (89 years), coupled with its ability to adapt, serves as a source of inspiration and motivation for contemporary currency designers. WIR provides valuable insights that can be drawn from the successful systems of the past and present, facilitating the acceptance of innovative technologies and ideas within this lineage (CCIA, 2015).

Regiogeld 

Regiogeld or ‘regional money’ is multiple community currencies across Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands serving a larger geographical community than most locally bound community currencies. They are designed to counterbalance the negative effects of globalization through stimulating local SME economies – encouraging citizens interested in empowering local producers not to hoard money, but rather to put money back into circulation repeatedly to get the economy moving, because ultimately everyone benefits. Regional money thereby enhances the possibilities for ecologically responsible production and supply chains by extending their reach to encompass a broader geographic area within the region (CCIA, 2015).

The most well-known Regiogeld currency is the Bavarian Chiemgauer which has been operational since 2003. According to the latest statistics, more than 350 companies and 250 associations use it – around 3900 users. In the Chiemgauer cycle, participating persons exchange euros for Chiemgauers. With each exchange into Chiemgauer, they generate up to 3% funding for the benefit of a selected project of their choice and this funding amount depends on how many individuals exchange which amount of euros into Chiemgauers. Since the Chiemgauer loses value after a while, the participating individuals have to spend it quickly and cannot save it.  The shops that receive Chiemgauer are in turn tied to a purchase in regional shops so that the money stays in the region, jobs are maintained and one is less dependent on external influences. All this incentivizes spending and discourages hoarding, meaning that the Chiemgauer circulates more rapidly and frequently than the euro (Chiemgauer Regiogeld, 2023)

The Chiemgauer is based on three principles: free spiritual life is anchored in the freedom of the individual, the legal life based on the principle of equality is national, and economic life based on the principle of fraternity encompasses the whole earth. If these three areas can develop independently, according to their nature, they can complement each other and together form a whole (Chiemgauer e. V, 2023).

Regional money like the Chiemgauer strengthens values such as regionality, cooperation, community, and the common good. As a valuable cultural promotion tool, they serve associations and businesses as a valuable instrument for customer loyalty and for gaining new customers.

Banco Palmas 

Banco Palmas is the first Brazilian community development bank (CDB) established in January 1998 by the Association of Residents of Conjunto Palmeiras (ASMOCONP), a poor neighborhood with 30,000 inhabitants, located in Palmeiras district, in the outskirts of Fortaleza, Ceará state of Northeastern Brazil. Its mission is to implement work and income generation projects through solidarity economy systems, where everyone is a producer, consumer, and social actor (a ‘prosumer’) by focusing primarily on overcoming poverty (Banco Palmas, 2023).

What sets Banco Palmas apart is its issuance of a unique community currency (also named as ‘social currency’) called the “Palma” and its provision of microcredit denominated in Palmas to bolster small businesses and stimulate the local economy. This innovative initiative amalgamates the potential of community currencies and microcredit within the framework of Banco Palmas, effectively positioning it as the local central bank (Nishibe, n.a.). To this end, it funds and guides the construction of socio-productive and local service initiatives, as well as local consumption. 

The social currencies generated through CDB seek to gain acceptance and trust among local community members, including consumers, producers, and shopkeepers. They aim to foster a novel relationship with money, with the overarching objective of mending fractured social connections and cultivating an innovative approach to organizing local economic activities. This entails the daring endeavor of constructing a fresh form of social interaction that stands apart from market-driven transactions and individual material interests (de França Filho, G.C., Júnior, J.T.S., Rigo, A.S., 2012). 

With these objectives in mind, Banco Palma’s operations are concentrated around;

• Social projects: supporting and collaborating in the development of projects and initiatives for social and political development
• Education: offering courses for the community’s professional and economic growth 
• Technological development: participating in technological activities to enhance regional development 
• Local economy: stimulating the solidarity economy, local credit support, cooperative and self-management
• Community initiatives: participating in local initiatives to provide well-being, maintenance of public places and community unity
• Credit support: offering loans to local merchants with low-interest rates, supporting the maintenance and growth of the local economy

Projects

• Renda Básica Comunitária (Community Basic Income): Through this project, among many, Banco Palmas aims to mitigate the effects of hunger on families living in extreme poverty in Conjunto Palmeira, strengthen the entrepreneurial capacity of the neighborhood and its residents, and increase the circulation of social currency in the community. Currently, 105 families (400 people) are benefiting from the project with the support of 5 donors.  
• Palmafashion: 100% local and participatory production, designed and created by women from the neighborhood (Conjunto Palmeira) who were able to express all their ideas and energies in beautiful clothes that can be worn by all bodies. It is organized by Consórcio Palmeiras, a consortium formed by several local initiatives.
• BuChein: Organised by Consórcio Palmeiras and headed by the Nutrition Center and the women of the Prato Colorido Cooperative, BuChein project started to help people affected by the coronavirus pandemic. It focuses on distributing basic food baskets and soup every afternoon, in addition to planting urban vegetable gardens to guarantee food security for vulnerable people. The project is centered around three main elements: providing quality food, supporting social activities, and promoting female empowerment. Donations can be made by local businesses, supermarkets, and individuals. The Cooperative aims to awaken a feeling of care rather than the volume of the donation, which is why gestures from individual donors who can donate small things, such as a tomato, for example, is encouraged. Currently, 103 families are registered and 80 people are served daily. 
• Jornal Desperta Palmeiras (Newspaper): a physical newspaper delivered to residents of Conjunto Palmeira.

Banco Palmas shows us that essential yet often overlooked components of a functional market economy, including skill sharing, voluntary contributions, and household labor are effectively valued, recognised, exchanged, and rewarded using a community currency, Palma. 

Zumbara 

Zumbara, born from the combination of the Turkish words ‘Zaman Kumbarası’, is a time bank currency founded in 2010 by Ayşegül Güzel and Meltem Şendağ who were influenced by a Spanish sharing economy initiative. An innovative sharing and social networking platform, Zumbara pioneered an alternative economy movement in Turkey that uses time instead of money. The concept of time banking started in the early 1980s by Dr. Edgar Cahn with an experiment linking untapped social capacity to unmet social needs (Cahn and Gray, 2015). The system works with the logic of helping someone for 1 hour, earning 1 hour in return, and putting it in your piggy bank. With this 1 hour, you can get the 1-hour service you want from anyone you want in the community. It aims to reflect our perception of the monetary system on time while removing money and replacing it with time (Cumhuriyet, 2014).

The most exchanged service categories in Zumbara’s online platform were education, language, music, technology & internet, and sport. However, Zumbara not only served as an online tool but held many offline gatherings such as gift circles, barter days, open markets, weekly yoga classes, open stages, etc., and all these gatherings were organized by Zumbara facilitators who are Zumbara volunteers. Zumbara communities were established in many big cities of Turkey (Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, Eskişehir, Denizli, Adana, and Antalya) to spread its area of influence. 

As a social enterprise, Zumbara contributed to this world by creating spaces where people fulfill their needs by sharing their gifts (knowledge, skills, experience, and time), and building trusting relationships and solid communities before closing in 2019 (4carma, n.d).

“Trust” as a “transformation tool”

The trust in money—i.e., in who does the defining—therefore implies trust in the maintenance of the monetary order. This is not a question merely of how particular individual rights, debts, or obligations are dealt with. What is at issue here is a much more basic question: How can a trustworthy society, with stability of character be maintained and continue to be relied upon? (Lewis and Weigert, Jun. 1985)

Trust is a transformation tool unique to Good4Trust and it is used in the prosumer economy – that is a macro-scale circular economy with minimum negative or positive ecological and social impact, an ecosystem of producers and prosumers, who have synergistic and circular relationships with deepened circular supply chains/networks, where leakage of wealth out of the system is minimized. In the prosumer economy, producers produce their products in an ecologically and socially fair way and receive support from each other for their production needs. For example, a lye producer can meet its ash needs by purchasing the waste ash from a bakery’s furnace in the system. However, for the prosumer economy to emerge, we cannot talk about a complete circularity if we are limited to product circularity only; what is important is to create a system on a macro scale, that is, between businesses. Good4Trust.org is building a system that is circular in all possible means, that is, based on reusing and exchanging with each other without producing waste in order to prevent nature destruction and human exploitation (Özesmi, 2019). 

With that, Trust is produced as it is exchanged in the system, and it can be used again and again as it passes from prosumer to producer and from producer to prosumer. As the Trust is used, the economy turns circular, supports nature and human-friendly production, and contributes to the welfare of the Good4Trust community. 

Source: Good4Trust, 2022

Community action is a promising but neglected site of systems-changing innovation for sustainability Seyfang & Longhurst, 2015) and many grassroots eco-localization movements often emphasize the importance of local and community currencies as essential instruments for this innovation. They argue that these currencies help establish local economic networks, preventing the outflow of wealth and consequently boosting the local economic multiplier while encouraging localization (Seyfang & Longhurst, 2013) – providing an important supplement to conventional money by meeting the needs of local areas and economies in ways that widely used world currencies cannot (nef, 2015).  Community currencies also offer individuals the opportunity to meet their  psychological needs (such as for recognition, belonging, self-esteem, and sense of purpose) through social engagement instead of material consumption, consequently lessening their environmental impact. Certain forms of these currencies even specifically promote environmentally friendly actions, such as providing incentives to individuals who engage in recycling initiatives, choose more sustainable products, or use public transportation (Seyfang & Longhurst, 2013)

Prosumer economy is mostly in alignment with all major environmental and social justice grassroots movements in all their existing diversity and multiplicity, and hence hope to create synergies and integration wherever possible. Trust that is used in this economy is influenced by these grassroots movements/innovations as explained above – local, community, complementary, and social currencies worldwide. In the very local context, it stretches back to the 18th-19th century: metal coins used by olive-growers in Turkey. Author of many books, Mahmut Boynudelik writes about olives, ecology, and the village he lives in Mount Ida. He says: “In early days, olive growers used to have metal coins that served as money in olive-growing areas. They were given to the laborers at the end of the day, and the laborers used these coins to meet their daily needs, and they were used locally in their exchanges with others.”

Foto: Mahmut Boynudelik

Trust has three important objectives that aim to address today’s challenges (basically addressing four pillars – ecological, cultural, social, economic – of sustainability):  

1. Ecological: In contrast to the current destructive economic system, the Prosumer Economy – a form of restorative economy – is organized around local development and solidarity as information, production, and prosumption come from the local. Localized economies (e.g., Good4Trust) lead to shorter supply chains that can reduce pollution. At Good4Trust, producers support the synergy within the ecosystem by buying wholesale from each other on an offer-by-offer basis and by using the Trust, which also helps with the environmental costs of transportation compared to buying retail at many different times. Deepening circular supply networks among producers can reduce ecological damage as all producers try to minimize their ecological impact.
2. Cultural: The networks and relationships of trust within a community nurture the ground from which the formal economy of money and markets grows. The small interactions that accompany more economically motivated transactions and support neighborly actions add up to growth in community spirit and friendship networks. With our transformation tool Trust, we promote that culture of mutual support among prosumers and with that create a collective action to make them active leaders in the community. Communication Network Heterogeneity (CNH), the concept of the interaction of heterogeneous individuals on social media platforms that produce meaningful social consequences, suggests that when users have high CNH they are more willing to share with others in the community which will deepen their understanding of the community, reduce uncertainty or doubts about others, and form a high sense of identity and belonging to the collective (Front. Psychol., 2021). Such a form of a supportive network beyond their immediate surroundings creates interconnectedness.
3. Social: We assume that people joining the Good4Trust platform want to lead a lifestyle based on values of goodness. Goodness is defined by the golden rule also written at the entrance of the United Nations, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Good4Trust encourages pro­social behavior (Özesmi, 2019) through the act of sharing prosumers’ experiences in their interactions with the Trust. Prosumers can share their purchases done with Trust – for example, in the future 10 people who share content on the Good4Trust goodness stream (‘iyilik akışı’) may be rewarded/incentivized/gifted for the next ones. Doing so, would not only facilitate the flow of information both into and out of social networks but also promote the ongoing appreciation of a social technology that leads to a pro-social value creation. Here, social exchange theory (SET) provides a useful lens to comprehend the social interaction among people and the relationship established through interaction from the perspective of interest exchange. According to SET, this dynamic interaction enhances comprehension of information, fosters a culture of sharing and replication of its core elements, cultivates empathic connections with the narratives of individuals and organizations, and nurtures a profound sense of belonging and emotional connection. As these positive elements accumulate, they manifest behaviors that bring benefits to individuals, teams, and society at large (Front. Psychol., 2021).
4. Economic: The Trust – a social technology tool – is an instrument of financial inclusion that can strengthen local businesses by preventing money from flowing out of the Good4Trust ecosystem. As it continues to be used in the system again for commerce, leakages are prevented, and loyalty is created. Trust also acts as a supportive tool to meet needs as locally as possible, especially in an era of rising costs at the global and local levels. With its 5% acquisition through purchases and 50% redeemable features in every shopping, it incentivizes the purchase of more sustainable products among prosumers.

How does Trust work?

To comprehensively address the above-mentioned pillars of sustainability, it is essential to recognize how such a tool functions as a pivotal instrument that intertwines these aspects, influencing resource allocation, cultural norms, social cohesion, and ecological stewardship. With that, let’s have a closer look at how Trust works in our Good4Trust community.  

• Trust is generated and transferred as purchases are made through Good4Trust by prosumers and producers.
• Trust is generated for the prosumer through purchases (5% of the purchase amount) and social interactions within the community.
• Generated Trusts can be used up to 50% in all purchases.
• Trusts can be gifted to other prosumers within the community by both producers and prosumers.
• Trust cannot be accumulated. If Trusts are not used or gifted, they expire (after 90 days).
• The most closely expiring Trusts will be used first by the system at the time of purchase.
• All past transactions and current information about Trusts are available on the Trust Details page.

How does Trust benefit prosumers and producers?

As mentioned earlier, Good4Trust is an ecosystem where the prosumer economy is applied, i.e. prosumers and producers build synergistic relationships by creating positive social and ecological impacts. The Trust used in this ecosystem makes it easier for prosumers to meet their needs from fair producers and it also encourages producers to meet each step in the supply chain (i.e. in the production phase, from each other as much as possible), thus a circular system is established.

To better understand how this transformation tool works in the prosumer economy, let’s think about (or take) a case of a tofu producer with two different scenarios – a leaky system vs a conserving system. Tofu that is produced is a soft, pale food with little flavor, but high in protein, that is made from soybeans – also known as bean curd. It’s food that is preferred by many Good4Trust prosumers.

Leaky system

A producer, let’s call it Ambar from Istanbul, sells tofu in a jar in water. She sources the soybeans from a wholesaler importing soybeans from South America, who is not a producer in Good4Trust. Since the soybeans are produced on an industrial scale, they cost less and the low price of the imported soy enables her to offer tofu at a cheaper price. This mass production has an environmental cost as much as the economic cost itself due to e.g., land degradation, soil pollution, and emissions resulting from fertilizers. Due to the scale of the production and the complexity of the supply chain, Ambar has no access to the information relating to the working conditions of the soybean farmers, nor the origin and the methods of the production. Has no access to the shareholders of the company and does not know where the extracted profit goes and is spent. We also don’t know what happens to the jar after the consumer has bought, and eaten the tofu.

Conserving system

Ambar is a producer in Good4Trust bazaar who sells organic tofu in a jar of water. To meet her soy needs, she buys the soybeans from a farmer in Adana who is a certified organic producer in the Good4Trust community. The soybeans are grown using agricultural production methods, which ensure soil fertility, reduce, and eliminate the dependence on external inputs such as inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, as well as GHG emissions caused by production and transport. The price Ambar pays the farmer enables her to make a good living and minimizes the ecological and social externalities. Thanks to the transparency within the supply chain, Ambar, as well as her prosumers who buy tofu from her, have access to labor conditions, and production methods and know the farmer personally. The money the farmer earns is respent in the same community through Trusts, some even is spent again at Ambar for tofu or other needs. Just like the farmer, as a member of the Good4Trust community, Ambar can also buy soybeans by using her Trusts earned from her prosumers, and she receives additional Trusts for sourcing from another community member. She can use these Trusts for her next purchases or gift them to her employee, who in turn uses them to buy bread from a bakery on the Good4Trust bazaar, and they again obtain Trusts for each purchase. All this decreases leakage and instills trust in the Good4Trust ecosystem. Let us not forget the tofu jars. They are collected by prosumers and circled back to the prosumer through drop-off points.

In conclusion, the producer in a leaky system focused solely on the profit margin, and turned a blind eye to the origins of these beans. She sourced the beans from farming methods, heavily reliant on pesticides and chemicals, depleting the soil’s nutrients and damaging the local ecosystem. She never pondered the ecological and social cost they might carry (e.g., air pollution from transportation), rather dismissed these concerns and focused on price optimization, thus economic gains that come at the expense of the environment and the people involved in its creation. In addition, not being part of the Good4Trust community she could not obtain Trusts and the entire system created a leakage without an alternative. On the contrary, the producer in a conserving system considers her sourcing practices and prioritizes sustainable (ethical, ecological, and social) means by building partnerships based on mutual respect. In this system, price is determined based on long-term trust and community relations. Using Trusts, she keeps the commerce within the ecosystem, thus economic wealth. With that, the circularity and leakage with an alternative are ensured. 

Let’s join hands for our survival 

Grassroots innovations have a role to play in the transition to sustainability but these bottom-up solutions require sustained efforts, the support of many stakeholders, rigorous planning, and continuous innovation (nef, 2015). Currently, many initiatives are resisting or trying to cope with the existing economic and monetary system, which shows the acute need for what we are trying to establish in Good4Trust. As a disruptive public digital utility, we use the power of people and of social media to strengthen the identity of the prosumers and support socially and ecologically just producers in their endeavor to drive an economy that is like a forest, which provides better chances for us to survive on our planet (Özesmi, 2019). With our transformation tool, Trust, we aim to bring identity and awareness back into everyday transactions and show to a wider audience that money does not have to be faceless. If designed well, on the contrary, it rebuilds people’s confidence in their capabilities and weaves the crucial connections of social fabrics.

We won’t survive on this planet or reach homeostasis with planetary life-support systems and symbiosis with biodiversity by conventional growth models that are common in the commercial world. Our survival hinges on ecologically and socially just systems that are easy to implement and are adapted by rigorous testing to each local context (nef, 2015). With Good4Trust and the prosumer economy today we have taken a step towards that direction and we hope to convince more people to take steps with us, or at least create variants based on the same principles of golden rule, ecological and social justice in a producer level macro­scale, mostly local, circular economy with no leakage (Özesmi, 2019).

As the platform and prosumer economy system proves itself stronger in different locales, replication will follow. If you want to join Good4Trust as a producer please click or join us as a prosumer. If you would like to build a prosumer economy system yourself you can contact us.