I’m not a big reader, can you explain in a few sentences what it is about?
The O coin is a stable coin based on potable water, defined as the average value to buy one liter of potable water individually.
To avoid entering into the volatile system of “supply and demand” where controlled and/or uncontrolled inventory set the value based on demands, the O coin isn’t backed by any physical asset allowing unlimited supply and avoiding inventory/price manipulation.
Instead, we are using a method of calibration where the average price of one liter of water is calculated based on users’s measurements and the stability is monitored through exchange rate observation with official fiat currencies. The process of stabilization is entirely made by users who are picked randomly by the blockchain to measure or validate data such as water price or exchange rate and are offered a reward in O coins for performing those tasks.
To force maintain the coin stable in his referential, we use the very simple human principle that the offender’s sanction can be the reward of the offended. In other words, when a currency become unstable in his referential meaning the observed exchange rate with O is different than the rate calculated by the blockchain based on water price observation, it automatically generates coins equal to the value of the difference in volume and distributes it in small amounts to users which currency(defined as place of birth’s currency) follows O exchange rate; it also bans users attached to unstable currencies to receive money issued from that stabilization mining process.
The benefit of this system is that individuals and governments would both have interest in keeping the exchange rates to how it is defined by the blockchain so they don’t generate money for the good actors that follow the rules and individuals from that currency can receive money from other currencies that are disrespectful of the O value.
A currency that exchanges at a rate different than the rate made of human measurements, provided by the blockchain, would take the risk of enriching other currency’s users, therefore becoming poorer over time and also having his users angry by not receiving their part of the stabilization mining.
What are the benefits of a water based stable coin?
The benefits of a water based currency are huge because its value and stability don’t depend on human trust or confidence but on the value of basic human necessities. Therefore, such a stable coin wouldn’t need creditor to create wealth since the value and stability are independent. The coin can also be unlimited because it is not backed up by physical assets but based on calibration and real-time user observations.
In that sense, we can use such a coin to finance activities that benefit all but can’t be financed by current system of wealth due to lack of financial return. Basic Income, Earth Cleaning can become realities with such a stable coin without costing money to current and next generation as long as it profits all, is opened and transparent.
The O coin is the perfect tool to reverse immigration, provide funds to clean our soil, water and air, solve homelessness, create jobs, improve peace and security, end poverty, end social dumping, produce and consume local products… Learn more about all the benefits such a coin can provide to humans in our white papers.
How do you prevent cross currency fraud?
Considering the different fiat currency values and water prices, an easy money generating scheme would be to use O to generate money from the difference. Let say a Dollar exchange with 50 Pesos and a liter of water averages 25 Pesos in PesoLand while it averages 1 Dollar in DollarLand. By exchanging Pesos into O and then into Dollars, a user would generate 100% profit automatically in seconds.
For this reason, at time of mining and since coins are mined by users attached to their place of birth’s currency, all generated O coins will be marked with their origin currency and will have different exchange rates between them representing the gap between current monetary values. For example, a O coin issued to a user in PesoLand(O-Peso) for performing a measurement will have specific exchange rate with an O Coin issued to a user in DollarLand (O-dollar). This exchange rate will be deducted from user’s measurements and be provided for reference by the blockchain so the multi currency fraud wouldn’t occur and users are aware of the value of their coins with other O Coin based on their origin.
If a fiat currency disappears, the risk of fraud involving 3 currencies disappears, all associated O coin would then become Universal O Coin that would have an exchange rate of 1:1 with any other O coins attached to currency.
While this constraint may not be fully beneficial to end social dumping and to harmonize costs, it will however accelerate reversing immigration as people with basic income in weak currency countries would have less buying power moving to a more expensive country with that same amount. Basic income should be based in O coin attached to the currency of the place of birth.
How do you make sure users are unique and real? And how you distribute basic income?
The need for an official real public key(same as account) for each human is a necessity especially if a basic income is generated for everybody. While a user can have several public keys to sign coins(in crypto, wallets don’t exist but coins are signed with the coin owner’s public key, the public key is the unique identifier of the user, same as the account number), having an “official” public key(account) can be used as official identifier for purpose of mining or basic income (to only allow official accounts to receive stabilization mining funds or basic income).
Identifying humans is not an easy task, especially in public blockchains where we don’t want to store any private information other than the public keys. While biometric data (finger print, eye retina…) can be trusted in validating pre registered data, they can’t be trusted for creating new data as AI allows to generate any new finger prints or retina in seconds. Governments can certainly help identifying their citizens but we can’t discard the possibility of corruption for the creation of fake accounts for fraudulent purposes. So, the solution would be a mixed of all methods, from government’s database when available to human validation by other users. In fact, the same way we use to measure water prices can be used to validate user authenticity where users would be invited to validate each others and would be rewarded for doing it. With the rise of crypto and self custody, lots of solutions have emerged to identify users without having any private information but rather relying on a process of identification using other users and techniques. For basic income purposes and accurate mining, not only the birth of a new user(official public key) should be recorded but also his death, so user validation might be a life time task to control the accuracy of all official users.
Regarding basic income distribution information, lots of interesting research have been done in that regard and we encourage you to visit BIEN – https://basicincome.org/ as they already have advanced discussion in the way a basic income should be distributed, especially to minors, disabled and elderly people.
How do you make sure the average value of a liter of water is accurate? And under which conditions?
While it is expected people will first focus on the accuracy of the water cost measurements as well as the possible manipulation of water price, we have to realize that the most important thing is not really the average cost of a liter of water since we just observe its value to set the value of the coin and it’s not backed up/exchanged by water but more the fact that it can stay stable over time based in a referential of basic human needs and that it is common for all.
Very few people now knows that a kilogram is defined as the weight of one liter of water under specific atmospheric conditions and it may have been challenging in that time to control the accuracy of the weight. For this reason, water was picked because this is the only element we all share on earth and that is accessible everywhere humans live.
In regards to the calculation of the average, there are different mathematical ways to calculate an average and we will decide on which method to use while testing. At first glance, we might need a Gaussian distribution approach to this average excluding extreme values. As for means for data collection, we will use both online with the automated crawling of validated urls and offline using image of the product with prices and possible third party validation. The only condition for now to be considered valid data is that the price should be for one liter of drinkable water, sold individually. For users who use other unit of liquid volume than Liter (U.S. Oz…), we will accept the closest equivalent in their units and will pro-rate to bring back the price to a Liter of water to have everybody on same base. (ie: 33 U.S. Oz. = 0.9759265 Liter so if a bottle of 33 U.S. Oz. costs $1, a bottle of 1L would cost $1.0246).
Water producers/distributors won’t have interest to manipulate the price as whatever they do, the average price of their products will be one O coin as its value is based on water price real time observations from users. Since we do monitor the price of water in different referentials, we can easily control variation of cost and apply sanctions if needed but we have to be careful as those variations may also come from devaluation of the fiat currency or other natural factors.
It’s important to note that O doesn’t force any pricing policy or price of water but rather observe its average price through user’s measurement in order to set his value and make it stable. Price manipulation doesn’t make much sense in that perspective.
Which method of mining will you use? PoW, PoS?
In this project, we will develop an hybrid of proof of stack and proof of business. The main challenges crypto currencies are currently facing are scalability and liquidity, which are main issues for a coin supposed to be transactional. One way to fix this, as suggested by Satoshi in his Bitcoin white papers, is that businesses that process lots of transactions would be mining as well.
While proof of stack is a well known algorithm where users stack coins to be able to mine blocks, we introduce proof of business along with proof of stack, where users that generate enough amount of O transactions (either in volume or number of transactions) would be able to mine other’s transactions and be rewarded. The incoming transactions the businesses receive can serve as provision to guarantee new blocks, similar to stacking and rollover security deposit.
A business would never process his own account transactions but would be able to process other businesses’s transactions, generating extra income from processing.
What is the purpose of this stable coin? I don’t understand the business model
The O coin is not an investment coin, we do not sell or generate coins and the O foundation is not looking for investors but members and donors. We believe a few lines of code defining new wealth based on today’s problems can help fix most of the issues all humans are facing today. As a nonprofit foundation, our goal is to provide the protocol and core architecture of this stable coin, as well as promoting it. The source code will be opened for all to integrate into existing applications or to create new services based on it.
This will give tools to our Presidents and governments to comply with their campaign promises.
What is the name of the coin?
The O coin has no name, the O foundation focuses only on the design of calibration and stabilization of a coin based on potable water. Considering the international nature of that coin and the fact that humans use different alphabets and phonetics, it would be challenging and time consuming to pick a name for an international coin, in addition to the facts that old currency names have historical, cultural and social meanings making people attached to them. So, for example, France could get back to the Franc as a water based coin, Germany to the Deutsche Mark or they can call it an o-euro. In PesoLand, o-Pesos can be used along with Pesos and if the Peso currency disappears, just re-use the name Peso for the reevaluated water based coin. It’s really up to people’s preferences for which we will not be judge.
How/where can I buy those coins? Is there any ICO?
No ICO (Initial Coin Offering), it doesn’t make sense for a real stable coin to be invested in as it won’t gain or lose value in his referential. The O coin is a transactional coin that complements current system of value. In addition, the creation of a new stable currency shouldn’t be a tool to transfer wealth from one system to another nor it is a tool for disruption. The O non-profit foundation doesn’t generate coins except for the purpose of testing or mining. For now, O coins are only generated by “mining”(as a reward for performing a task), same way as Bitcoin.
O coin funds will then be able to be generated thru smart contract using an e-governance based on science and performance which will focus on using those funds on resolving issues that affect all humans and that don’t have financial return. That e-governance model will be the subject of our next white papers.
So for now, to start earning O coins, just create your own account once launched and you might receive requests from the blockchain to collect some information (price of water, exchange rate with other currency, data validation), you’ll receive O coins as compensation for performing those requests. From time to time, you might also receive coins as part of a sanction on another currency disrespectful of his O exchange rate.
Is the O coin open source? Peer to peer? Any central authority?
Yes, the O coin is an open source project for a peer to peer blockchain that doesn’t rely on any central authority and with no ownership other than its believers.
I don’t like common currency like the euro, why would that be different with this universal coin?
Most people who don’t like euro or other common currency feel that the central authority that decides of the use of their tax money is too distant from their everyday lives and doesn’t consider their problems. However, everybody do enjoy the fact that they don’t have to exchange currency when traveling or doing business in the currency zone. In that sense, there is nothing to fear from the O coin as there is no ownership or central authority, no human in the middle or risk of corruption. In the future e-governance of O, funds would be created with smart contracts based on knowledge, science and performance for goals that are beneficial for all and that current systems can’t address.
Is that the end of our currencies?
Absolutely not, it’s the evolution of current fiat currencies into digital world in order to make them stable and solve vital problems.
The O coin has no name and does not define any culture, tradition or habits which means currency names as well as their history can be kept, the O coin just address the value and stability of the coin. At first glance, in 2024, O would be stronger than any fiat currencies as it seems a liter of water cost on average more than 1 coin in all fiat currency referential and considering current inflation rate, the gap might only increase.
So, people can keep their currency history and heritage while relying on a stronger, stable and independent coin.
What is Earth cleaning?
Earth cleaning is the reverse action of polluting, where you remove particules or trash that have been accumulating for decades in our air, waters and soil. While pollution is usually a by-product of most profitable industries and individual consumers, cleaning it is not a financially profitable process but might be vital for human survival. Some have proposed carbon tax concept to try to get some funds to fight and survive climate change but the reality is that having all countries agreeing on a new tax is very improbable and new taxes don’t necessarily translate problems into solutions.
Some mindfull companies and wealthy conscious individuals have been working on trying to find business models behind cleaning our planet but the reality of the emergency may require us to better define new wealth and business model to finance this new industry that should, in all logic, be one of the top industry of the future.
If you’re interested in learning more about what can be done to clean our planet, we invite you to look online for CO2 trapping technology, ocean cleaning… Lots of non profit associations exist out there that you can join and that dedicate themselves to cleaning rivers, ocean, air, soil
What is your inspiration behind the O coin?
A few observations guided the inspiration and design of the O coin:
- Money is a reward and a mean
- Wealth is defined by humans for humans
- Water is the only valuable element we all share
- All mass immigration(other than resulting from conflicts) are going the same way, always to a richer or more generous country
- It’s hard to think that one country can solve it all. Indeed, if a country becomes very successful and rich, it will attract immigration, transfer investment from other countries, devaluate other currencies ,creating the same problems we are currently facing in the world. The model of a leading country is proven inefficient and create lots of imbalance and tensions mainly fueled by currency competitiveness.
- To rebalance wealth, we have a new option with crypto currencies that allows to create new wealth based on transparent goals. In the past, rebalancing wealth usually ended up in dark moments of history as the only method was sharing existing wealth.
- Climate change fight is now more about cleaning as we have difficulties reducing our CO2 emissions. If we can’t reduce them as needed, we need to offset them by accelerating planet cleaning (air, water and soil). However, as an emerging industry, cleaning is very expensive and provides very few return on investment so corporations and governments don’t take the financial risks to embrace them. Current financial system based on currency competitivity is therefore not adapted in resolving challenges that are vital for all humans but that have no financial return.
- While most strong currencies have been considered stable, they are not, they are just stable in the referential they define themselves. Having strong currency is the cause of having weak currency and creating unbalance and vice versa, in a system based on limited supply and competitiveness.
- Most governments and businesses that use weak currency are always borrowing funds in strong currency making their real interest rate the sum of the loan interest plus the devaluation of the weak coin vs strong coin.
- Governments would never use another central bank currency as their currency in order to keep their sovereignty and freedom.
- Fiat currencies competitiveness make it impossible to solve problems that have no financial return on investment but that are vital for our future.
- Currencies backed up with physical assets can’t be stable and unlimited for the simple fact that nothing is infinite on earth and that it’s all subject to inventory and extraction level.
- Most actual fiat currencies have been detached from any physical assets in the last century and only rely on trust and competitiveness to perform. Euros, Dollars are not backed up by anything and the amount of cash money in circulation represents only a very small portion of the amount that should be. In other words, our main currencies have been virtual since the 70’s, well before digital currencies.
- Our current financial system makes it possible to take debts on behalf of our next generations without providing results or solutions to problems for a clean habitat. How can next generations clean the planet or survive if they still have to pay the price and interest of its destruction and our inaction? They inherit a dying habitat without means to fix it, the system is failing and responsibilities are postponed by ignorance and selfishness.
I like the concept, how can I help?
Thank you for your interest in our non profit foundation!
There are lots of ways you can help us.
If you wish to closely follow our activities and participate to our events, we recommend you to sign in for one of our annual membership.
If you’ve been financially blessed, your donations are more than welcomed to help us design, build and promote the O coin. Note that for integrity reasons, we only accept financial donations from individuals and not from governments, corporations or any interest groups.
If you’re an artist and wish to organize special events to spread the word and raise awareness, we’ll be more than happy to help in any way we can!
If you’re a programmer in the cryptocurrency/blockchain space, your experience and skills are needed, join our open source community and take some time to go thru the code, any case scenario or improvement you can bring will just be another big step to build a better world for our children.
Do you offer consulting services for corporations or governments who want to see how this system would be beneficial for them?
Yes, we do plan to offer consulting services for corporations and governments to help them see clearer and take full advantage of this new stable coin. While those services are not in place yet, please contact us and we’ll do our best to provide any information or help
When will this currency be available?
The O Foundation will only work on the core architecture and protocol of the O coin. While we might develop some examples for a d-app, Wallet, decentralized payment api and other tools… we will let up to the open source community to create their own services based on O core architecture. Depending on the skills and means we will be able to gather to build O, we estimate coding shouldn’t be more than a few months and hope to be able to deliver a first version before the end of 2024. We welcome all types of help for this project, from developers, programmers and also financial donations to help us build this human currency.
I have a question that is not listed?