Item Banc
Comparing PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) concepts to Item Banc
The concept of Purchasing Power Parity focuses on a first assumption that similar products should have similar prices in each economy. This is commonly known as the “law of one price” going back to 1918 where the theory was that the same goods should be the same price when expressed in the same currency. The formula for this comparison is simply the price in one economy as a ratio of the price in another. If it turns out, for example, that the price of a good is three times more once converted to the same currency, then this is compared to the exchange rate between currencies. Given that the exchange rate between currencies is similar, then the price of the good is representative of the “law of one price” and should then be in equilibrium to markets via the exchange rate. If the good is five times more as compared to the exchange rate then the assumption is, based on the theory of PPP, that the good is more expensive in that economy. One good or a basket of goods can be used to compare products in various economies using PPP for the purpose of cost of living comparisons.
Item Banc exists for the purpose of creating relative values to currencies. Unlike PPP, the goal is not to express the value of goods as in the same currency. Neither is the assumption that there is one or should be one price for the same good. There is an underlying theory in Item Banc that goods carry a commodity or standard value, however, that value is the standard, not the currency. Similar but very different, this theory is a “law of market value”, not price, as value is recognized as relative to the economy environment. Value, in this expression, stays as a component of other goods and services within and external to an economy and not as a component of currency. Currency is speculative (traded as an item for profit in itself) and so absolutely cannot be used as any kind of theoretical valuation standard.
Relative value to currency created by Item Banc algorithms does create ratios representing prices of a basket of needed goods in one economy as a percentage of that same basket in another economy. The ratios are, however, modified and differentiated from PPP because they are based on weighted averages of quantities of needed product available to market. The basket of needed products (BHN – Basic Human Need products) are presented as a weighted proportion and then compared to another economy. These relative values are used only for this focused set of BHN products to create a guide for an economy comparison; a relative value to currency. IN this theory, it is the goods that determine relative value not the currency.
Requirements for Successful Implementation of Information Currency
A model for a new paradigm of currency named “Information Currency” depends on three technology-based market changes. First, we need a technology to create relative value systems as a yardstick for comparing products and services within and between economies. Second, products and services that are available for sale need to be capitalized, meaning simply that their availability and pricing in a specific time frame needs to be recorded in a free public database. Third, we need to implement existing systems of accounting and transaction engines designed for alternative currencies.
Our yardstick for comparing the values of products and services needs to start with a standard of value. A technology named “Item Banc” is designed to determine the valuation of a basket of needed goods within an economy. The relative value of this basket compared to one similar in another economy allows the system to derive a needed yardstick for a percentage comparison of value difference between economies. From these relative values we can derive market standards and values within economies can be derived. The products in the basket must be needed goods, or fit in a category of BHN, Basic Human Needs. They must be hard goods, and by definition, not targets for speculative markets. Item Banc must be free and open source. The technology needs to function with the input of bancs of information about products and value all over the world, but in similar format, and licensed as information bancs. The challenge for the technology is to compare categorization and naming systems of products so that the systems can speak abstractly in the same language all over the world. This technology is not able to function with barcodes, as these identify exact products by exact manufacturers. The technology is built to converse about naming systems for products in a more abstract sense, such as “Coffee”, “Lumber”, “Lentils”, “Toilet Paper”. The market valuation information produced by the engine is not meant to price products but to compare relative values of products in an economy and around the world in general.
Information Currency needs information about what is available where at what value. This capital value information exists in the markets now in a somewhat organized fashion related to land and real estate assets in the first world. This is how we derive comparables. This is how banks secure credit. In this new paradigm of information currency we need capital information about products and services as well, but framed in time. The easiest way to think of it is like a coupon. A product is available in this area this month for this price. A service is available in this economy this week for this price. Coupons can be digitized, as they are now. Then these coupons can be bought and sold, but more than that, the information about what is available where at what value (capital information) is recorded publicly. With capital information comes the ability for the markets to give credit…not just banks.
Finally, we need information systems that keep accounts for individuals and businesses and governments. These transaction and accounting systems exist in the market and are used every day for alternative currencies. In a new paradigm of Information Currency, these systems are required. Cyclos is one of these systems that is used all over the world and is open source. –Virginia Robertson, June 27, 2012
Independent Bancs
The Item Banc Engine is structured by a set of Commodity Bancs, or BHN Bancs, one in each economy, and a collection of independent bancs, owned by the commons, and designed to be a network of information managed by independent people groups or corporations within economies. An independent banc can specialize in a category of product information, or even in a product within an economy. The independent banc’s data sets are structured by Item Banc, and the engine interacts by design as needed. Each independent banc needs to be licensed primarily to maintain data integrity and be sure that data is managed consistently among bancs.
Item Banc Commodity Bancs, (those that report data on BHN basket products), operate in an economy more like a Banc of bancs for each economy, where data is validated for integrity, artificially intelligent naming systems compare data, and relative values to external economies are determined.
Item Banc independent bancs can harvest data using specialized search engines built into the open platform software or the independent banc can design its own to be integrated into the product. Licensing the software would require that additions or enhancements become part of the code and are shared.
Independent bancs can source data by alliances or cooperative agreements with wholesalers or manufacturers to connect in and share data. The data information is not identifying information and just used for calculations and so should not be viewed as competitive. This system to integrate into other platforms for data sharing is a necessary build-out for the Item Banc engine.
Point Banc: la technologie pour une monnaie de l’information
Qu’est-ce que l’article Banc Point Banc est un logiciel écrit pour les communes à fournir des informations sur la valeur de marché des produits et services.Plus précisément, l’article Banc donne des informations sur les valeurs relatives des biens et services entre les économies. La technologie est conçue pour produire de l’information sur la valeur relative des monnaies entre les économies. La technologie est conçue pour produire de l’information sur la valeur relative des monnaies dans le but de permettre le commerce.Point Banc opère principalement sur des données de base nécessaires, ensemble de produits consommables que nous appelons des BHF, ou des besoins humains fondamentaux.Ce «panier» de biens représente le soutien à cette technologie pour une monnaie de l’information.
Item Banc: Technology for an Information Currency
What is Item Banc
Item Banc is a software program written for the commons to provide information about market value of products and services. Specifically, Item Banc produces information about relative values of goods and services between economies. The technology is designed to produce information about relative value of currencies for the purpose of enabling trade. Item Banc operates primarily on a core data set of needed, consumable commodities we refer to as BHN, or Basic Human Needs. This “basket” of goods represents the backing to this technology for an information currency.
How does it make money
The technology for Item Banc will make money because the information produced is of high value. The system does not directly charge for the information, but earns money via advertising on the site.
What is the proof
Many companies are producing strong revenues from bringing this type of information to market. For example, even prior to the internet, Random Lengths in Eugene, OR produced weekly reports on market price for lumber and sheet goods. The majority of building materials distributors in America buy this information every Friday. These distributors of lumber and plywood base their retail pricing on these market values.
Trade services provided similar information to their distributors back in the day when market values were passed along in pencil. Now the need has grown as technologies are necessary to interact with a large number of manufacturers and thousands of SKU’s (item numbers). Trade Services has evolved into the non-profit Idea corporation.
There is a “yellow page” produced for the vegetable oil industry and a highly integrated network for market prices in the automobile parts industry.
The need for instant market price information has moved to the iphone with highly used apps like Razor Technologies (bought out by ebay) and Quickscan.
How does it work
Item Banc sources product data about BHN items from random market samples within an economy until the sample sets are large enough. There are about one hundred core items in the BHN commodity set. This data is averaged related to first, each item and its availability and costing. Then a cross-average costing is created among the entire set of BHN data. This result is used to compare with another BHN data set in another economy. The percentage difference in values represents the percentage of difference in currency “market” value. That percentage can then be applied across the economy to other items to find relative market values. This information at each level has market appeal. The most powerful function, however, is the function that is unique to market, which is the ability of Item Banc to create a “backing” to a currency, or a “relative” value of currency to external markets and economies. This technology has the potential to compare an economy that uses literally “shells” as currency to a dollar based economy, thus enabling trade.
Price data is input from three major sources; live streams from product distributors within each economy, special internet search engines designed by Item Banc architects to validate streaming data and customer input in the field to validate data sets.
How does it look
Item Banc has a data input side that will interactively take in data live and streaming from distributors and also a consumer interface where an iphone user is rewarded when they enter a location and product price. The distributor and manufacturerer interface side works on the back-end, the internet search engines bring in data on the back end, but the front-end for input gives the consumer an impression that their data imput is the most valuable of all and is rewarded by advertisers coupons and free gifts.
The front-end for banc data delivers its information in words, graphics and numbers. A more robotic and interactive consumer interface is desired so that the customer/user feel is that this information is of high value.
Who benefits from Item Banc?
The technology for Item Banc is designed to benefit consumers, business, and government. Consumers use Item Banc to get information about value of products to assist in decisions to purchase by providing a market basis point of value. Business has proven to need market value information to know when to buy and at what price and when to sell. Item Banc offers an ability for business to stretch into new economies and use a basis point of market value to make best decisions. Technology for Item Banc is designed to open up currency-challenged economies to trade based on a new analysis of a country’s currency and product values to market.
How much would it cost to build it
Item Banc is designed to grow in the world of internet commons, where data given to the system is rewarded and data delivery can be edited by a user so that it makes more sense to their world and their economy. The initial design is of highest importance and requires investment in strong project managers and consulting as needed with a core programming staff of five. Development time to first market is estimated at a year and a half. $1.5 million is a first cost estimate, though it is possible to pare down to two programmers and cost less than one million.
Who owns it
Item Banc must be open source and owned by the commons. The investors in the project will be silent partners without company control but will keep a piece of ongoing revenues derived from advertising on the site. The company will be held in majority by a trust.
Why should you invest in it
Item Banc is fundamentally a technology that will bring greater value to all economies. Trade between economies is inhibited by a lack of information of what is available for trade at what value. Currency values can confuse this most important information as currency itself is a target for speculation. Currency in any economy is scarce, but when companies and consumers have external information about what is available for trade at what RELATIVE value then the scarcity of currency has less power.
New Hope for New Capital in Riverdale, GA
Capitalizing a Business
For twenty years I sold information systems (the computers and the software) to large building materials distributors. The programs had a section for inventory control where the different kinds of items were entered, categorized and valued. Often I would go into a business where there were so many items in the system that they were already on that we had to automatically “convert” to our programs as entering even one thousand items, their categories and their values was a huge amount of work. It was a new learning and appreciation moment every time I worked with new inventory information. The learning each time was how valuable that information was to the client that we worked for. The core reason for this in my opinion now is that this information was about capital, and every time we got this information together for a business we capitalized that business.
Capitalizing a Nation
This process of capitalizing information about value is the same process that made the foundation for a mortgage industry in the United States and the same process that provided a start for this country’s wealth building. I can go radical and even propose that this process creates currency in that the process of capitalizing information about value is the first step to creating credit in an economy. Detail on this theory in the new book, “Information Currency; the New Green”.
Capitalizing a Barter Economy
It is beyond belief that the existing barter industry in the United States is still not capitalized. If there was a place to start to demonstrate the value of capitalizing information about value in an economy this would be it. The retail barter industry is organized with separately owned exchanges that operate as third party record keepers related to which party (company) has what trade balance. The companies that are members of the exchanges are listed for other members to recognize as potential objects for their business needs. Some companies, typically restaurants, choose to limit the trade available to the exchange by printing a set of coupons each month called “scrip”. These coupons have an assigned value and are purchased by other members of the exchange (using trade dollars). This scrip, actually, is the only way that barter exchanges are currently capitalized. The scrip tickets or coupons are a noted set of information about value related to the services or products of that exchange member. Related to members of the exchange that are not “scripted”, though there is knowledge of their ability to trade with other exchange members, there is no valuation or capitalization of this ability. If an exchange insisted to its members that they capitalize the value of their business to the trade market then the value of that exchange would be capitalized as a unit and there would be most definitely an increase in trade given that market information about available capital. This is within reach. The exchange would just need to require all of its members to issue digital scrip for its products or services once a month. Now we can move back to the inventory systems that can be categorized and summarized and leveraged to a highest market value. In the same way that the inventory systems in a building supply distributor could then declare the value kept in their category of plywood, the exchange could declare the value kept in the category of available trade in restaurants, hotels, car washes, or candy gift baskets. In fact, the trade exchange could then declare a true asset value for the exchange from which credit could be issued based on and backed by the goods and services available from that exchange. In another section I’ve discussed the South-American economist who recently declared that the separation between the first and third world was actually based on the ability of the first would to capitalize land and buildings for the purpose of creating credit…REAL credit, not faux (or the proper term “fiat”) money. Fiat money, by definition, is not backed by “commodities”, or simply put, not backed by products with known market value. In my opinion the current weakness in the existing barter industry is that it operates like the third world. Our barter industry has yet to be capitalized. Until it is capitalized our barter exchanges issue trade “dollars” that have questionable market value. More important than that, however, is that we cut and limit our market potential by our lack of confidence in what capital we have.
Capitalizing a City
The discussion of the value of capitalizing an economy begs the question about what value we could have if we capitalized the dollar economy that we live in now. Take the city of Riverdale, GA, for instance. The city may be capitalized from a view of the value of land and buildings. Good. We’ve entered the first world. What if we took another step and considered capitalizing or digitally scripting the value of each business in the city. We could answer the question about WHAT value of products or services are available by category in the city of Riverdale each month!! Even the IRS does not do this!! But the value of this information is incredible! Just think of how it would help the community understand its own market power!! Just think about where we can go from here with credit! Just think about what we can do with this bird’s-eye market view!
Why not another step? What about the value of labor to market in the city of Riverdale? We all know that unemployment statistics are not accurate. What labor is being used and what skills are not? What is the scope of skill in this city that is available to market? This is capital. How many carpenters are available to work for how many hours each month?
Combining the Capital
The space between where dollar credit stops and barter credit begins is the space for profit from the NEW GREEN, Information Currency. If the city of Riverdale capitalized just the carpenters, for instance, and found carpenters hours available, it can be possible that there are not enough dollars circulating in the city to employ those carpenters. If the city of Riverdale also capitalized their businesses that had excess unsold inventory where there were not enough dollars circulating to buy those inventories, and if some of these businesses needed carpenters, then it is clear how the city could build a new set of credit to support new, cashless transactions.
A Local Non-Profit is about to Create this Capital-Building Program in Riverdale, GA.
Hearts to Nourish Hope, a seventeen-year old not for profit organization in Riverdale, GA has contracted with the BHN organization to begin this capital building project. Hearts will provide a 20,000 sft space and local workers for the project. The BHN organization has expertise in leveraging commodities for barter and will use this space for a store that sells basic human need items in exchange for work to seed trade in the Riverdale, GA area. The project is backed by the barter industry in the greater Atlanta area comprised of approximately five thousand business clients and fifteen regional trade exchanges.
Hearts to Nourish Hope, a non-affiliated organization designed to bring hope to at-risk and challenged young men and women has stepped up to the plate to also bring hope in the form of a new economy to Riverdale GA where the community can trade work for Basic Human Needs. With the support of the regional trade exchanges, this seed project has exciting potential for the community. The BHN store pilot plans to open in September of this year and will be located within the Hearts Building, located at 640 Hwy 138 SW, Riverdale, GA 30274
–V Robertson, co-founder BHN org.
