Latest revision as of 19:28, 15 August 2026

💡 In simple words: Neighbours can swap help, rides, food, or a spare room using Karma tokens: a friendly way to share instead of always paying cash. It is not money, more like a thank-you discount people give each other.

🎯 In 20 seconds (scientific summary): The Time and Resource Bank and the Karma tokens are the same thing: "Karma token" is a temporary working name, expected to change. Karma tokens are not a currency: they are facilities, comparable to discounts, targeting unexploited resources (housing, transport, food, services). WikiDeal intends to bring the documentation that makes such exchanges safe and simple: compensatory measures, tutorials, alerts, advice, documented limits against abuse, and legal studies so that rings of trust work without disguised-salary risks.

On this page:

One concept, one working name
Not a currency
What WikiDeal intends to bring
Legal studies and rings of trust
How it works on WikiDeal
State of the art

Time and Resource Bank (Karma tokens)

Innovation, WikiDeal R&D

Origin	🟣 Cooperative Movement / SEL
Status	Under study (July 2026, proposal)

One concept, one working name

The Time and Resource Bank and the Karma tokens are the same thing. "Karma token" is a temporary working name, previously "WIL token" and, before that, "Miles Rewards". By sharing unused resources and/or contributing as a volunteer, you can earn Karma tokens, usable within your Rings of Trust to get access to services and goods such as housing, transportation or food: a barter-style unit for otherwise unused resources in the functional economy, creating a citizen participation with an exchange network (initial hypothesis; not a currency in the legal sense). The name is a working name and may change. Finding a durable name is the subject of a draft open call. The concept is also described, from the Rewards angle, on the Karma tokens page of the Economy portal.

Not a currency

Karma tokens are not a currency: they are facilities, comparable to discounts. The working hypothesis, under legal study, is that like discounts they would not be taxed. They target unexploited resources: unoccupied housing, food still perfectly edible but no longer sellable, under-used vehicles, and similar.

Examples:

a late check-in at 4 pm instead of noon;
transport at fuel cost on a trip already planned;
the loan of a holiday house in low season against a paint job.

The approach draws on the tradition of time banks (SEL, LETS) and cooperative resource-sharing movements.

What WikiDeal intends to bring

People are generally open to this kind of exchange, but the risk today is that it is complicated, insufficiently documented and insufficiently regulated. WikiDeal intends to bring everything needed, in a very simple form: compensatory measures, tutorials, alerts, advice.

When someone accepts an advantage, its limits are well documented, which prevents abuse and creates more motivation to give and accept such advantages.

Legal studies and rings of trust

Legal studies aim at creating rings of trust without disguised-salary problems or other legal risks, so that people dare to be generous, humanist and solidary again, without fear of being punished for it.

How it works on WikiDeal

Members offer and request resources and settle them in Karma tokens, which circulate within Rings of Trust. This intends to build local resilience and mutual support around non-monetary value. The matching and exchange mechanics are documented progressively as the platform evolves.

State of the art

Time banking and complementary currencies have been practised and studied for decades. The works below, from the founder of time banking to empirical studies of complementary credit networks, provide the research background for this exploration.

Edgar S. Cahn (2000), No More Throw-Away People: The Co-Production Imperative, Essential Books: author page on Wikipedia.
Edgar S. Cahn and Jonathan Rowe (1992), Time Dollars: The New Currency That Enables Americans to Turn Their Hidden Resource, Time, into Personal Security and Community Renewal, Rodale Press: time banking on Wikipedia.
Gill Seyfang (2003), Growing cohesive communities one favour at a time: social exclusion, active citizenship and time banks, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27(3): doi:10.1111/1468-2427.00475.
James Stodder (2009), Complementary credit networks and macroeconomic stability: Switzerland's Wirtschaftsring, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 72(1): doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2009.06.002 · WIR Bank on Wikipedia.
On Japanese care-time credits, a documented precedent: Fureai kippu on Wikipedia · time-based currency on Wikipedia.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{KidsIntro|Neighbours can swap help, rides, food, or a spare room using Karma tokens: a friendly way to share instead of always paying cash. It is not money, more like a thank-you discount people give each other.}}
 {{ExpertIntro|The Time and Resource Bank and the Karma tokens are the same thing: "Karma token" is a temporary working name, expected to change. Karma tokens are not a currency: they are facilities, comparable to discounts, targeting unexploited resources (housing, transport, food, services). WikiDeal intends to bring the documentation that makes such exchanges safe and simple: compensatory measures, tutorials, alerts, advice, documented limits against abuse, and legal studies so that rings of trust work without disguised-salary risks.}}
-__TOC__
+'''On this page:'''
+* [[#same-thing|One concept, one working name]]
+* [[#not-a-currency|Not a currency]]
+* [[#what-wikideal-brings|What WikiDeal intends to bring]]
+* [[#legal-studies|Legal studies and rings of trust]]
+* [[#how-it-works|How it works on WikiDeal]]
+* [[#state-of-the-art|State of the art]]
+__NOTOC__
 = Time and Resource Bank (Karma tokens) =
@@ Line 49: / Line 56: @@
 ----
+<span id="state-of-the-art"></span>
+== State of the art ==
+Time banking and complementary currencies have been practised and studied for decades. The works below, from the founder of time banking to empirical studies of complementary credit networks, provide the research background for this exploration.
+* Edgar S. Cahn (2000), ''No More Throw-Away People: The Co-Production Imperative'', Essential Books: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_S._Cahn author page on Wikipedia].
+* Edgar S. Cahn and Jonathan Rowe (1992), ''Time Dollars: The New Currency That Enables Americans to Turn Their Hidden Resource, Time, into Personal Security and Community Renewal'', Rodale Press: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_banking time banking on Wikipedia].
+* Gill Seyfang (2003), ''Growing cohesive communities one favour at a time: social exclusion, active citizenship and time banks'', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27(3): [https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.00475 doi:10.1111/1468-2427.00475].
+* James Stodder (2009), ''Complementary credit networks and macroeconomic stability: Switzerland's Wirtschaftsring'', Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 72(1): [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2009.06.002 doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2009.06.002] · [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIR_Bank WIR Bank on Wikipedia].
+* On Japanese care-time credits, a documented precedent: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fureai_kippu Fureai kippu on Wikipedia] · [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_currency time-based currency on Wikipedia].
 '''See also:''' [[Gov/en/Portal:Economy/Karma-Tokens|Karma tokens (Economy)]] · [[Gov/en/Portal:Economy/Rewards|Rewards explained]] · [[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Rings Of Trust|Rings of Trust]] · [[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Main|All innovations]] · [[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Main|R&D Portal]]