In South Australia, you can hand in used bottles and get back the 10c deposit paid at purchase time.
What if that 10c was in the form of a crypto-currency?
What if little kids could use the very same crypto-currency? Or homeless people?
What if kids and homeless people got to crowd-source the name?
I predict an unpredictable economic system not witnessed before.
- Bottles and cans have a Q-Code on the label.
- When bottles are redeemed, the code is scanned. Every bottle has a unique ID, so redemption rates and per-product data can be known
- At redemption, a smart device with NFC (or card) receives the credits
Not redeemable for cash!
This is the key. It only has value to those that earn it – their specific needs.
It could work in conjunction with a non-profit that sells affordable/subsidised healthy snacks and drinks. Exactly what kids and homeless folk need. Maybe anyone who has ever earned $10 worth of credit gets access to an elite community centre, with WiFi and showers and newspapers and comics and pay TV.
It would also help provide a form of currency for those with little of no actual cash. It can be traded for goods/favours between users. But nobody else would want it, as it has no value to those who are not poor. So theft or skullduggery is a not a risk.
Possible redemption:
- Charity stores / op shops
- Libraries / community centres
- Bike share
- Swimming pools
- Attending sporting events
- Cinemas
- Off-peak public transport
- Entry to Shows (as in the Royal Melbourne Show)
Places to be where you can feel that you have earned the right to be there.
And if you were wondering if there are enough cans/bottles laying around to support this… I suspect that local residents will make connections with people in need and give them their cans/bottles in exchange for them being taken away. Just like the scouts used to do when I was young.
People with more credits than they can use, can gift them to others.
Ultimately it means the young and marginalised get access to food, clothing and society.