$AMPLED community tokens are a new way for our cooperative to recognize the labor of all our or workers, contributors, and community.
Conceptually, you can think of $AMPLED community tokens as "labor points".
A way to recognize labor that builds and grows the Ampled platform
Distributed based on labor and value provided to the Ampled network
Collectively controlled and managed
A shared economic and utilitarian tool for our community
An abstract representation of the trust we put into the Ampled organization
$AMPLED is NOT:
An ownership interest in the cooperative (see our bylaws on how to do that!)
A financial interest in the cooperative. (like revenue share, profit sharing, an equity stake, income share, or debt agreements)
A unit of decision making power (this is not a governance token)
Sold to the public or investors (it is earned instead)
A speculative investment or something to expect a profit from
Something with an implied price or value determined by Ampled
We used to recognize labor hours as static numbers on a spreadsheet. Now, we can instead represent community contribution and engagement as something that is spendable and tradable.
Our Ampled Time Bank was initially used because we didn't have venture capital investors backing Ampled, so we had to largely bootstrap the building of the platform with collective labor. To keep track of the work, we developed what we called our "time bank" -- a ledger of self-reported unpaid hours of contributions given to build Ampled.
You can see a copy of the most recent snapshot of our time bank <here>.
This community token project addresses several issues with our previous time banking system.
Our previous time bank data lived on a Google Sheet. There was always a risk that this data could be corrupted -- either by human error, or by a bad actor.
Our time bank was limited to recording the hours of contributions of workers. This excluded the valuable contributions of artists or the broader community.
In practical terms, we weren't sure what the hours translated to. For the most part, they were just numbers on a spreadsheet.
Old Time Bank | New $AMPLED Token |
Only tracks hours of workers | Rewards contributions of all stakeholders |
Numbers on a static spreadsheet | Spendable, tradable, and portable |
Limited to recognition within Ampled | Uses a standard recognized across the web |
Lives on a corruptible file | Live on an incorruptible, distributed, public computer |
$AMPLED community tokens were created using the Ethereum ERC-20 standard.
The fact that these are built on this particular ERC-20 standard is really important -- and unlocks several opportunities.
Firstly, this means that any labor contributed towards Ampled can now be recognized with standardized "tokens" that have the ability to be traded or recognized outside of Ampled.
By representing community labor and engagement in a form that is tradable, a token can help facilitate trade, exchange, and collaboration among members. Building lateral relationships and a stronger p2p network. What can members of the community do for each other?
For instance, we could develop a directory of people that are willing to accept $AMPLED tokens in exchange for their time or services (similar to a local city currency).
This means that work done towards helping Ampled could be recognized outside of Ampled.
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An experiment in creating a regenerative economy
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Build upon the cooperative legacy
Cooperative equity is traditionally linked to participation, rather than something liquid. Layering on a community token on top of a democratically structured organization could become a very interesting precedent for how cooperatives can be collectively built by recognizing labor in new ways.
Utility
Earning
Access
Redeeming
Diagram showing (1) earning, (2) trading, (3) redeeming
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