Three-Gear Currency Systems: The tl;dr
Want the formal proofs? See: Full Academic Paper
The Problem in One Sentence
How do you let someone earning $300/month in Nigeria buy the same thing as someone earning $10,000/month in Switzerland, without either subsidizing the Nigerian or penalizing the Swiss?
The Solution
Three currencies that all spend the same, but get acquired differently.
Meet the Gears
| Currency | Who Gets It | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Credits | Everyone | The main money. Spends everywhere. |
| Marks | People from weaker economies | Tops up your Credits so you have full purchasing power. Clears through participation. |
| Joules | People from stronger economies | Stores your extra value. Redeemable later at the rate you locked in. |
How It Actually Works
Say the baseline is $1 = 1 Credit.
Bob (Nigeria): His currency is worth $0.80 on global markets. He pays $100 equivalent in Naira. Platform receives $80 of “real” value. Bob gets 100 Credits + 20 Marks. He can spend like he paid $100 because he did pay $100 of his money. The Marks are just the system saying “we got you.”
Mary (Switzerland): Her franc is worth $1.40 equivalent. She pays $100 CHF equivalent. Platform receives $140 of value. Mary gets 100 Credits + 40 Joules. The Joules store her surplus — she can cash them out later, and she locked in today’s rate.
Both Bob and Mary can buy 100 Credits worth of stuff. Neither got charity. Neither got screwed.
Why It Doesn’t Collapse
- Marks clear through normal activity (complete work, buy stuff, vote, get reviews)
- If you never clear your Marks, they convert to platform equity — you literally own part of the company
- Joules are just stored value — when redeemed, the platform releases money it already has
- Strong economies fund weak economies automatically, without anyone feeling like they’re donating
The Wry Part
Every global platform either prices out poor countries or sets up complicated regional tiers that create arbitrage nightmares. We solved it with differential calculus and the honor system.
The math is in the paper. The honor system is called “it literally doesn’t work if you try to game it because we designed it that way.”
Next: Ghost Credits and Demand Validation — how to find out if anyone wants your product before you build it