Overview
The Liana Banyan platform operates on nine interconnected economic laws — mathematical principles that govern how value is created, preserved, and distributed across the cooperative ecosystem. Each law has been formally documented, with seven already filed as provisional patents and two more ready for filing.
These aren’t arbitrary rules. They’re emergent properties of a system designed over 37 years to solve the fundamental tension between individual incentive and collective benefit.
Origin: From Freedom to Interdependence
The seed for these laws was planted in 1989, when a high school essay contest sponsored by the local VFW asked students to write on “Democracy — the Vanguard of Freedom.”
Using Mortimer J. Adler’s Six Great Ideas as source material, combined with historical examples, that essay crystallized a fundamental insight:
The expression of individual freedom necessarily infringes upon the collective freedom of others. And vice versa.
This symmetry isn’t a flaw in democracy — it’s the central tension that any economic system must resolve. The “vice versa” is crucial: collective action also constrains individual freedom. The question isn’t which to prioritize, but how to design systems where both reinforce each other.
The essay sparked a 37-year journey through three stages:
| Stage | Focus | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Dependency | Relying on others | Loss of agency |
| Independence | Self-reliance | Isolation, inefficiency |
| Interdependence | Mutual benefit | Maximum freedom possible |
The Nine Economic Laws are the mathematical expression of interdependence — a system where helping others is the optimal strategy for helping yourself. Not because of altruism, but because of structure.
“Help each other help ourselves” isn’t a slogan. It’s the Nash equilibrium of a well-designed system.
The Nine Laws
Law #1: Forex-Differential Absorption
The Problem: International transactions lose value to currency conversion fees, exchange rate fluctuations, and banking intermediaries.
The Solution: The platform absorbs forex differentials into a collective buffer, smoothing out individual losses while the aggregate benefits from statistical averaging.
Status: ✅ Filed (Bag 11)
Law #2: Ratchet Value Accumulation (HIVI)
The Problem: Platform currencies typically lose value over time or are subject to speculation.
The Solution: HIVI (High-Integrity Value Index) creates a one-way ratchet — the internal exchange rate can only increase, never decrease. Value accumulates deterministically.
Key Insight: This isn’t a promise of returns; it’s a mathematical property of the system architecture.
Status: ✅ Filed (Bag 11)
Law #3: Quality-Volume Alignment (Cost+20%)
The Problem: Traditional retail markups (50-300%) create adversarial relationships between buyers and sellers. Sellers want to maximize price; buyers want to minimize it.
The Solution: A fixed 20% margin aligns incentives — it’s enough for sellers to thrive, low enough that buyers feel they’re getting a fair deal. The Definition of a Bargain is when both sides think it’s a good deal.
Key Insight: 20% is the Goldilocks zone. Below 15%, businesses struggle. Above 25%, trust erodes.
Status: ✅ Filed (Bag 11)
Law #4: One-Way Valve Decoupling
The Problem: When platform credits can be freely converted to cash, speculation and arbitrage undermine the system’s stability.
The Solution: Credits flow in (cash → credits) easily, but flowing out (credits → cash) requires friction — either time delays, usage requirements, or community verification.
Key Insight: This isn’t a restriction; it’s a feature that protects the ecosystem from extraction.
Status: ✅ Filed (Bag 11)
Law #5: Structural Gleaning (3.3% Gleaner’s Corner)
The Problem: Traditional charity creates dependency. Traditional business ignores those who can’t participate.
The Solution: 3.3% of every transaction flows to the Gleaner’s Corner — a structural allocation (not voluntary charity) that ensures the system always has resources for those in need.
Biblical Reference: Ruth gleaning in Boaz’s fields — the right to gather what remains, built into the harvest itself.
Status: ✅ Filed (Bag 13)
Law #6: Generosity for Potential (Boaz Principle)
The Problem: Traditional systems reward past performance. This creates barriers for newcomers and those rebuilding.
The Solution: The Boaz Principle extends credit based on potential, not just history. Verified community vouching unlocks opportunities that credit scores alone would deny.
Key Insight: Boaz didn’t just let Ruth glean — he told his workers to deliberately leave extra grain for her.
Status: ✅ Filed (Bag 13)
Law #7: Inception Principle
The Problem: Ideas are easy; execution is hard. Most innovation systems reward the wrong phase.
The Solution: The Inception Principle tracks the moment of conception — when an idea first becomes actionable. This creates a provenance chain that fairly attributes value across the entire development lifecycle.
Key Insight: The person who plants the seed, the person who waters it, and the person who harvests it all deserve recognition.
Status: ✅ Bag 30 Ready
Law #8: Simultaneous Pricing Paradox
The Problem: In traditional markets, the same item has different prices for different buyers (negotiation, discrimination, information asymmetry).
The Solution: Simultaneous pricing ensures that everyone sees the same price at the same time. No hidden deals, no preferential treatment, no information advantage.
Crown Jewel Candidate: This may be the most commercially valuable innovation in the portfolio.
Status: ✅ Bag 31 Ready (10 claims)
Law #9: Jeep of Theseus (Cold Start)
The Problem: New networks face the chicken-and-egg problem — no users means no value, no value means no users.
The Solution: The Jeep of Theseus model uses Ghost Credits to simulate demand before real transactions exist. As real activity replaces simulated activity, the system “shifts into gear” — like replacing every part of a Jeep while it’s still driving.
Named After: The Ship of Theseus paradox, combined with the founder’s actual experience rebuilding a Jeep piece by piece.
Status: ✅ Bag 32 Ready (18 claims)
How the Laws Interact
The nine laws aren’t independent — they form an interlocking system where each law reinforces the others:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ VALUE CREATION │
│ Law #7 (Inception) → Law #8 (Simultaneous) → Law #3 (20%) │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ VALUE PRESERVATION │
│ Law #2 (HIVI) ←→ Law #4 (One-Way) ←→ Law #1 (Forex) │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ VALUE DISTRIBUTION │
│ Law #5 (Gleaning) ←→ Law #6 (Boaz) ←→ Law #9 (Cold Start) │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Example Flow:
- A new member joins with Ghost Credits (Law #9)
- They make a purchase at Cost+20% (Law #3)
- 3.3% goes to Gleaner’s Corner (Law #5)
- Their credits accumulate via HIVI (Law #2)
- They can’t immediately cash out (Law #4)
- But they can vouch for others (Law #6)
- Creating a provenance chain (Law #7)
- With transparent pricing (Law #8)
- Even across borders (Law #1)
Patent Status
| Law | Name | Claims | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Forex-Differential Absorption | ~15 | ✅ Filed |
| #2 | Ratchet Value Accumulation | ~20 | ✅ Filed |
| #3 | Quality-Volume Alignment | ~12 | ✅ Filed |
| #4 | One-Way Valve Decoupling | ~10 | ✅ Filed |
| #5 | Structural Gleaning | ~8 | ✅ Filed |
| #6 | Generosity for Potential | ~15 | ✅ Filed |
| #7 | Inception Principle | ~18 | Ready |
| #8 | Simultaneous Pricing | 10 | Ready |
| #9 | Jeep of Theseus | 18 | Ready |
Total Claims: ~126 across the Nine Laws (of 258 total in portfolio)
Academic Foundation
Each law is grounded in established economic theory while extending it in novel directions:
- Laws #1-2: Build on monetary theory and currency stability research
- Law #3: Extends fair pricing literature (Kahneman, Thaler)
- Laws #4-5: Draws from commons governance (Ostrom)
- Law #6: Applies behavioral economics to credit systems
- Laws #7-8: Novel contributions to mechanism design
- Law #9: Addresses network effects and cold start problems
For Researchers
We welcome academic examination of these laws. Key questions for investigation:
- Stability Analysis: Under what conditions do the nine laws maintain equilibrium?
- Edge Cases: Where might the laws conflict, and how are conflicts resolved?
- Scalability: Do the laws hold at 1,000 members? 1 million? 1 billion?
- Cultural Adaptation: How do the laws interact with different economic cultures?
Contact: research@lianabanyan.org
Related Documentation
- Patent Portfolio — Full list of 258 claims
- Crown Jewels — The 8 most valuable innovations
- Cost+20% Deep Dive — Law #3 in detail
- Boaz Principle — Law #6 in detail
- HIVI Economics — Law #2 in detail
“Nine laws. One system. Help each other help ourselves.”