Service promise No. 0570

Short on cash? Promise what you can do.

is a shared pool of service promises among people who look out for each other, designed as a mutual. You receive a service and owe the pool what you can give. Someone else the members trust can collect it. It is designed to be governed by the people who use it.

The promise Example
Issued by
a guesthouse owner
Received
a website, accepted
Promises
20 nights with meals
Owed to
the pool
Value
full to month 6, zero at month 12

“Someone I don't choose directly, but whom I or my provider vouch for, can collect this.”

I owe you one
Issuer's signature
Delivered
Provider's signature

“I can't pay” doesn't have to end the conversation.

It can turn the job into a favor. But favors are hard to ask for twice. You can say “I owe you one.” That has no unit, no deadline and no record. Nobody else can collect it, and each of you remembers it differently.

Here that “I owe you one” gets written down, with a unit and a deadline, and the whole pool looks after it.

I owe you one
  • Unit
  • By when
  • Record

Everyone has something to promise.

Most of what people can give isn't cash. A cake for a birthday, an hour of massage, a bike that runs again. In the pool, every one of those promises counts.

Examples. Everyone puts their own on their sheet.

How a promise moves

Example: a website in exchange for nights with meals. The figures are examples too; each sheet carries its own.

  1. 1

    You receive

    You run a guesthouse and need a website. You have spare nights and no budget. Another member builds the site. You review it and accept it.

    You owe the poolnothing yet
  2. 2

    You promise

    You sign one page: “I owe the pool 20 nights with meals.” The debt goes to the pool instead of the person who built the site. That lets someone else collect it.

    You owe the pool20 nights
  3. 3

    You vouch

    You or the builder name who can hold part of the promise: “Her, up to 3 nights.” The builder holds the promise and passes her 2 nights, for her to use or to trade.

    You owe the pool20 nights
  4. 4

    Someone else collects

    She books 2 nights. It takes two signatures, so you can't mark anything on your own.

    • shePresents the credit and signs. Those 2 nights are held.
    • youHost her and sign, within 14 days.
    • doneAfter 7 days the debt is discharged, unless she disputes it.
    You owe the pool18 nights
  5. 5

    You both review it

    Each of you answers two questions. Did it happen as promised? Would you do it again? The answers go to the voice book and change no balance.

    You owe the pool18 nights

What if you can't deliver?

It happens. Seasons close and people get sick. When someone can't deliver, the pool's first move is to help. The sheet you sign says what comes next, in this order, before you promise anything.

  1. 1

    A new date

    The promise keeps its value while it waits.

  2. 2

    A lower limit

    You can promise less next time.

  3. 3

    Someone else delivers

    Another member delivers in your place.

  4. 4

    It's declared lost

    The local pool absorbs it, and it stays on the record.

A loss doesn't land on one person. The local pool absorbs it: the people who chose to trust. That's why vouching matters. When you say “I trust they can deliver,” you put a little of your own standing behind them.

A named person, the guardian, decides each step, or an arbiter if the guardian is involved. Removing someone from the pool is possible. It's the last resort, not the plan.

Capital buys service. Conduct earns trust.

There are no customers here. Everyone is a member, with a balance above or below zero. The mutual keeps two books. Money can buy service, never trust. Trust is earned only by keeping your word, and it decides how much you can promise.

The credit book

Tracks
The service the pool owes you, or you owe the pool.
Earned by
Delivering a service, or buying credit from another member once someone has vouched for you.
Used for
Paying for services from other members.
Moves
Inside the pool, and into other pools that accept it, within each pool's limits.
Over time
Loses value.

The trust book

Tracks
Your reputation in the pool: how much people can count on you.
Used for
Setting how much you can promise: keeping your word raises your limit. Later it will also weigh in the pool's decisions; today the guardian decides.
Earned by
Playing a role in an interaction that closes and gets validated.
Moves
Never.
Over time
Fades, and rises or falls with how things turned out.

You can leave once you've settled what you owe, in service or in money. The promises you hold you can use, pass on or give up.

Promises lose value over time, on purpose.

A night at a guesthouse can't wait ten years. So a promise holds its full value for a while, then falls in a straight line to zero. That gives whoever holds it a reason to use it, and nobody carries an old debt forever. While it waits for a new date, the clock stops.

We don't know yet how real people respond to this curve.

Value of the promise: full until month 6, half at month 9, zero at month 12. 100% 50% 0 0 6 9 12 months since issue full value half
Sample curve, drawn to scale. Each sheet states its own months.

What it is today

  • A prototype under construction

    The rules for issuing, collecting, losing value and repair are programmed and tested.

  • Simulations with invented people

    We ran the rules thousands of times. The behavior of those people is made up, so the runs compare rules and predict nothing. They did show one thing. Without people who want what's on offer, no rule saves a promise.

    Nerd out on the simulations → (in Spanish)

  • Nobody has used it yet

    No promise has been issued yet. The stub at the top is an example.

Read what you'd sign.

One page: the promise, how it's collected and what happens if it isn't kept. You can fill it in and print it.

Read the credit sheet

Contact coming soon