Translating Commons-Based Peer Production Values into Metrics: Towards Commons-Based Crypto-Currencies

Abstract

Commons-based peer-production (CBPP) constitutes today an important driver for innovation, social and cultural development, both online and offline, through the establishment of an alternative, commons-based ecosystem, relying on peer-production and collaboration amongst peers contributing towards a common good. Yet, to the extent that it operates outside of the market economy, the value of CBPP cannot be understood by relying exclusively on traditional market mechanisms (such as pricing). Based on empirical research on emerging value forms in the context of CBPP, we seek to achieve a better understanding of the value produced by CBPP communities, so as to come up with an alternative, universal, denominator of value that could act as an interface between the commons-based ecosystem and the market economy.

Keywords: commons-based peer-production; cryptocurrency, value metrics; collaborative economy; digital communities; non-market production; reputation; open source; creative commons