FairCoop Summer Camp 2015
This summer FairCoop is holding its first Summer Camp on the island of Crete (Greece) from July 15 to August 15.
This camp aims to be a team workspace where we:
- Focus on developing and improving the various aspects of FairCoop
- The exchange of experiences, needs, and alternatives among stakeholders in promoting and facilitating the Integral Revolution.
- Also to forge synergies and mutual aid relationships with local activist groups on the island.
- And of course to strength the FairCoop community: a unique opportunity to socialise, learn, and create this project together – every day it’s getting bigger and stronger.
The Summer Camp will be possible thanks to the motivation, commitment and work of some local groups who, since last April, organized the Commons Fest on Crete; an initiative for the promotion of free knowledge and peer collaboration for the creation and management of common property. On that occasion, members of the Catalan Integral Cooperative (CIC) were invited to participate in Heraklion for a two-day event entitled “Developing Collaborative Structures for the Commons“, where groups from Heraklion, Rethymnon and Chania had the opportunity to meet, share experiences, and discuss proposals with regard to self-organisation, collaboration, solidarity and the common good.
Fill this form and participate!!! >> /participe-faircoop-summer-camp-2015/
FairCoop launches the first round of investment through its Coopshares project
Coinciding with the closing ceremony of the Ouishare Fest, where FairCoop was nominated in the category of Collaborative Finance, we launched our campaign of collaborative investment with Coopshares!
Coopshares is a decentralized cooperative focused on providing the FairCoop ecosystem with liquidity and resources to finance the transition to an alternative economy.
It will initiate the creation of:
– A liquidity fund for building a trusted and resilient economic ecosystem around the world, that provides support for the activity of all the services and users involved.
– A cooperative investment fund for Coopshares projects and for the development of a P2P equity crowdfunding platform to invest in social capital of cooperatives as a key resource for the Fairstarts incubator project.
– And a development fund to promote FairCoop over the next 12 months, supporting projects including FairCoin 2.0, Coopshares, FairMarket, Fairstarts and Faircredit.
To accomplish all this, it aims to create a P2P equity crowdfunding platform (known as crypto-equity) focused on cooperatives, social enterprises and productive projects. It will be supported by FairCoop and it will be based on Faircoin.
“Coopshares will be the first P2P cooperative platform available to help other cooperatives”
The Coopshares platform will be characterized by investment in cooperative projects and by eliminating the speculative element that currently exists in the cryptocurrency marketplace, through a system by which the cash inflows and outflows for each token of social capital would be linked to the growth and degrowth of the number of shares instead of their value, in accordance with cooperative values.
Taking advantage of the power of Faircoin both as a store of value and as the currency at the service of the cooperative ecosystem, Coopshares aims to solve one of the key problems that cooperatives and non-profit enterprises face when they try to find investments for these type of projects.
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Coopshares is up and running. Right now is the best moment to become a member!
Coopshares is a decentralised cooperative destined to provide FairCoop and the global open cooperative ecosystem with sources for funding and liquidity to make it easier and less risky for everyone to be involved in the transition to the new social economy that is going to be born after the era of capitalism.
To promote Coopshares, all investments made during the month of June (FEHIB – Mixed Fund and Faircoin/Euro) will receive a bonus of 10% extra Faircoins.
Now you can become a member of Coopshares and start investing cooperatively as much as you like. Participation in Coopshares is one of the best ways to support FairCoop.
Your investment in the project will allow Coopshares to provide the liquidity necessary for the security and stability of all the businesses involved in the implementation of FairMarket.
Coopshares will be a P2P equity crowdfunding platform focused on cooperatives, social enterprises, and P2P production projects – an alternative to bank credit allowing us to finance an economy at the service of the people.
Become a member and make your cooperative investment here: https://getfaircoin.net/downloads/coopshares-mixed/
We suggest that you also check out this presentation: https://coopshares.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/coopsharesV1last.compressed.pdf
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The donation campaign continues!
Is there a better way to get started in the world of cryptocurrencies than receiving a donation?
As part of the fundraising campaign promoted by FairCoop, more than thirty non-profit organizations have already received a donation of 1000 Faircoins to be in line with the principles and values of FairCoop and integrate our cryptocurrency as a tool for donations.
The objectives and origins of these organizations are varied. Some of them are dedicated to the defense and promotion of free knowledge as the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI), the Networked Labour University and the P2P Foundation having in common to pursuing the free exchange of knowledge in all areas of society, promoting its freedom of use , modification, copying and distribution. Similar is the case of Imaxinaria, a Galician cooperative that promotes free culture and open knowledge.
Other organizations are dedicated to supporting and spreading the good use of technologies looking for responsible and reflexive appropriation in the various sectors of society (such as Fundación Karisma) as well as the use and development of free software like Sugar Labs Perú that has been involved in the development of free software for primary education. At the educational level, Valleybound (Germany), a garden and farm school for adults and children and “l’Albada Association” (Catalonia) try to leave their fingerprint in the educational field.
We also find organizations linked to art and culture such as collaborative creative platform Platohedro (Colombia) dedicated to artistic experimentation, ongoing research of free culture and the pursuit of the common good through training and creative process open to all .
So far, we have mentioned a few of the organizations involved (you can view the complete list: https://fair.to/o7zBE. All have something in common from their particular field, they are working to build a fairer world. And this is just why FairCoop seeks through its donation campaign to support and promote these initiatives.! There are still nearly 70 donations of 1000 Faircoins available so you are still in time to participate!
Fairsaving: Collaborative Saving with FairCoop
Storing your Faircoins without a wallet is possible thanks to Fairsaving, the saving service of FairCoop. Those who want Farcoins but do not have their own computer or even those that do have one but don’t want to bother with managing a wallet, can use Fairsaving instead.
This service is an alternative way of saving, beyond the control of states and banks.
It aims to provide a system of ethical savings which in turn contributes to the stability of Faircoin, the reserve of value of the FairCoop ecosystem and Fairfunds. Therefore, the only condition is to save the Faircoins for a minimum period of six months.
The advantages are clear: first, you can have your savings in a safe place and receive new Faircoins as a result of the Faircoin ‘minting‘ process, and on the other your investment helps to develop and strengthen the various initiatives that will be generated through Fairstarts and Coopshares.Since it was launched in September 2014, there are a total of 55 individuals and collectives who have put their savings in FairCoop’s Fairsaving service. At present, Fairsaving has a total of over 400,000 FAIR saved; a substantial amount bearing in mind that we are still in the early stages of building the system.
But the news about Fairsaving does not end here. Currently we are promoting a network of ‘Fairsavers‘ with two clear objectives: first, to help improve the stability of Faircoin buying; prioritising long-term savings over short-term purchases, and on the other hand to encourage users to participate through making regular savings in Faircoin – as we usually do in our daily lives, earmarking a specific amount per month. Thus, Fairsaving has been designed as an ethical alternative for savings – keeping our reserves away from the grasping hands of banks and the system – avoiding, for example, that they can be frozen or devalued at their whim.
As more Faircoins come into the hands of the Fairsaving movement, the more likely we are to successfully contribute to the goals of FairCoop.
Think Fair and join the Fairsavers movement!
***Just click to be part of Fairsaving! (example:Get your FAIR by Bank Transfer) ***
1. Go to https://getfaircoin.net
2. Select the option ‘Get Faircoin with WIRE TRANSFER‘.
3. Select the quantity of FAIR to buy.
4. Click on the GET FAIRCOIN NOW button.
5. Fill in the form (email, name, surname and check the option: ‘FAIRSAVING SERVICE‘), then confirm the purchase.
6. It will take you to a page with the information necessary to make the transfer and thus proceed with the purchase of your FAIR.
7. At the same time, you will also receive a message to the email account provided with the data for the transfer.
8. Once the transfer is successfully processed, you will receive an email giving you the new Faircoin address associated with your Fairsaving account and the amount of your saved FAIR.
F5 Fairforest
We want to share this graphic to show how the ecosystem of FairCoop currently works, and the stages of development of its different projects.
As far as the basic ‘operating system’ is concerned, we see that the FairNetwork – the social network through which the FairCoop community communicates and organises – is fully operational, new members are joining the forum, and overall activity is increasing. In parallel to this, local nodes are being created and activated. The Ecosystem Council is also conducting periodic meetings to address key issues and make collective decisions.
As for the technological council, the global south council and the commons council, although they have some counselors they are still not really up and running and need us to add some momentum. This means the FairFunds (our funds for grants destined for change-making projects) are not yet active. They exist- and have a total value currently approaching as much as €400,000 – but we still need to build a fully participatory system enabling us to put those mechanisms into operation which will allow us to start on this redistribution in earnest.
As we can see in this ‘FairForest’, some projects are fully operational such as FairCoin, FairSaving – a Faircoin savings system, which allows the GetFaircoin platform to buy FairCoins – and the current donations campaign that aims to promote Faircoin as a way to receive donations, offering 1000 Faircoins to the first 100 non-profit organizations aligned with the principles of FairCoop who join in the campaign.
We are also developing various alliances and integrations that are taking place around Faircoin, such as the very important collaboration with BetaBank, also Bitbill, which allows bills to be paid using Faircoins- or the great work done on FairToEarth – an app that lets you convert your Faircons into cash. Without doubt, all these tools mean that day by day, Faircoin acquires more utility in the real world, value, and relevance within the cryptocurrency market.
A goal that is still on the horizon is FairCredit (the most eagerly-awaited monetary tool of the FairCoop ecosystem) which will begin development as soon as we have the necessary resources.
While some projects are still in ‘alpha’ phase, like the recently launched FairMarket, FairCoop’s own virtual market, others could be said to be in the “launch phase” – the clearest examples of this would be FairStarts (a network of incubators and accelerators for projects focused on open cooperativism and commons / P2P production), and Coopshares, which as well as making a platform available for investment in projects within the Fairstarts network and outside it, will provide liquidity and stability to Faircoin and the FairCoop ecosystem as a whole.
FairCoop is well underway and gaining strength. It is also gaining in numbers of participating users and in projects, and looks forward to implementing more new developments in the course of the coming months. More initiatives, ideas, alternatives and above all, cooperation in the project are very welcome and can all take their place within the transition to this new post-capitalist social economy we are building.
################ Help us spread FairCoop in your language! ################
Because it is important for us at FairCoop to reach everyone, we are adding more and more languages to our website!
The site is already available in 8 languages: English, German, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, French, Portuguese, … and will soon be also available in Romanian, Chinese and, hopefully, in Greek!
If you want to join the volunteer team of translators and help us translate the existing content on our website, plus new posts and materials that will spread the FairCoop message in your language, you are welcome to join us!
2) Join the translation team: /groups/faircoop-community/communication/translation-comission
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” (Nelson Mandela)
This post is also available in: Spanish French Catalan Chinese (Simplified) German Greek Italian Portuguese