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Joseph Potvin, 09/03/2022 05:35 PM

The Certified Subset Currency Framework

Summary

Participants along a supply chain establish rules-based subsets of one or more currencies in order to anchor contract worth (expressed with money through price) to their choice of index rooted in the economic substrate.

Purpose

Contracting parties have a mutual interest in protecting their intended terms of agreement from superficial monetary drift and volatility.[1] The Certified Subset Currency Framework is designed to provide an auxiliary arrangement for participating businesses, their suppliers and their customers along a supply chain to reduce risk from monetary degradation of contractual intent and market integrity.

The Certified Subset Currency Framework:

  • is operational with or without digital devices and Internet connectivity
  • is feasible with any paper or polymer currencies or quasi-currencies;
  • aligns with existing laws and business norms;
  • employs well-established instruments of commerce;
  • strengthens market freedom, competition and integrity;
  • features uncomplicated accession, verification, operation, expansion and termination.

A Certified Subset Currency Framework Agreement

A Certified Subset Currency Framework Agreement (CSCFA) comes into being as each of two or more participants signs an “Accession Letter of Agreement” to a stated version of the Certified Subset Currency Framework. This establishes a decentralized, distributed, peer-to-peer commitment among all the Signatories who have reference the same version of the Framework. The resulting relationship among Signatories involves no central or primary entity or individual.

  • The CSCFA Steering Committee determines and oversees implementations of the CSCFA legal model, risk model, security model, operations model, maintenance fee structure, and audit model. (For example, it would determine the maximum amount of risk tolerance for the storing cash in Certified Subset Currency Warehouses.)
  • The CSCFA Steering Committee is accountable to ensure a fair and competitive market for independent operators of Certified Subset Currency Warehouses, through licensing, franchising or other arrangements, as approved through its formal decisions.
  • Each Signatory is entitled to vote in elections for CSCFA Steering Committee members. There shall be a minimum of three and a maximum of 9 active CSCFA Steering Committee members.
  • The CSCFA Steering Committee has functional authority ONLY within the operational scope of the version of the Certified Subset Currency Framework that is referenced in the active Accession Letters.
  • CSCFA Steering Committee decisions are determined by "working consensus" (vote results may include "accepted" or "abstained", but none are "opposed"). In cases where working consensus cannot be reached, the Signatories convene a discussion (typically online, but in-person if necessary) to resolve the matter through “rough consensus” (see: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7282).
  • The CSCFA Steering Committee may request that one or more individuals serve as ‘Coordinator(s)’. This role carries no enforceable management authority over the Signatories, or their assets.

The Certified Subset Currency Framework describes a non-restrictive, non-exclusive arrangement:

  • An Accession Letter to the Certified Subset Currency Framework does not restrict the Signatory, their companies or partners or clients or relatives from offering or engaging similar services, or derivative service types, or supplementary services under other titles outside the scope of this agreement. However the name "Certified Subset Currency” is reserved for reference to successive versions of this Framework and its implementations.
  • Participation in a Certified Subset Currency Framework Agreement does not impinge on the prerogatives or responsibilities of any Signatory in relation to any other formal or informal agreement or process.
  • No Accession Letter to the Certified Subset Currency Framework restricts extension of the agreement to additional participants, however with a written explanation the CSCFA Steering Committee may decline or terminate any Accession Letter and therefore return the stored currency to that Signatory.
  • Other than within the terms of the Accession Letter of Agreement, no Signatory acquires any liability or authority in relation to any other Signatory of another Accession Letter to the Certified Subset Currency Framework.

In exchange for the benefits of participation in a Certified Subset Currency Framework Agreement, the Signatory agrees to the maintenance fees established by the CSCFA Steering Committee.

Currency Warehousing

A network of independently-owned Certified Subset Currency Warehouses maintains a notaphily collection of conventional paper or polymer currency bills, where each bill is owned by a Signatory to the Certified Subset Currency Framework, as documented in the Certified Subset Currency Registry.

  • Signatories may store paper or polymer currency in denominations specified by the CSCFA Steering Committee (e.g. $10 bills; $20 bills; $50 bills; $100 bills). If a jurisdiction terminates the use of cash, other types of controlled paper or polymer instruments with verifiable unique serial numbers will suffice (e.g. a selection of coupons or gift certificates approved by the CSCFA Steering Committee).[2]
  • For the Signatory the bill is deemed to be “restricted cash” and a “non-current asset”. This cash stock MUST NOT mingle and MUST NOT be leveraged by or for operational requirements of the Certified Subset Currency Warehouse(s).
  • Certified Subset Currency Warehouse service fees are administered in relation to operational costs that are reported to all Signatories, without linkage to the worth or ownership profile of the stored currency bills.
  • Each warehouse operates a currency sorting method with serial number recognition, counterfeit detection, and multi-currency capability (example: https://financialequipmentcompany.com/product/gd-bps-c4-15a-currency-sorter-with-air-assist/).
  • Certified Subset Currency Warehouses accept ONLY paper or polymer bills that meet at least the quality standard PMG 65 EPG (Paper Money Guaranty / Exceptional Paper Quality; https://www.pmgnotes.com/about/about-pmg), to ensure efficient automated collection management.
  • The Operator of a Certified Subset Currency Warehouse stores physical paper and polymer currency bills in the alphanumeric order of their serial numbers, and provides support for prompt and easy on-site inspection by authorized personnel.
  • Any Signatory to the Certified Subset Currency Framework, and any jurisdictional regulator, may send a notary, accountant or lawyer (“authorized personnel”) to verify the physical existence of specific bills identified by their serial number(s) which they attest are owned by their client(s) in the Certified Subset Currency Warehouse, without appointment but with the requirement for recognized credentials, at any time during regular business hours customary within the municipality where the warehouse is situated.

Currency Certification

When a Signatory to the Certified Subset Currency Framework places a paper or polymer currency bill for storage into a Certified Subset Currency Warehouse, the Operator of the warehouse immediately:

  • Issues to the owner an electronic Certified Subset Currency Warehouse Receipt with the serial number of the deposited paper or polymer currency bill, along with the identity and contact details of the current owner of the stored bill; and,
  • Updates the Certified Subset Currency Registry which relates the serial number of the deposited paper or polymer currency bill to the identity and contact details of the current owner of the stored bill. Ownership is private and confidential information, however within the legal model and security model established by the CSCFA Steering Committee, any Signatory and any jurisdictional regulator, may have a notary, accountant or lawyer verify ownership in this decentralized distributed registry.

Except as specified in a “Variance to the Certified Subset Currency Framework” documented and signed by the CSCFA Steering Committee, and promptly posted online (e.g. via the CSCFA Steering Committee’s official Web site and messaging networks):

Anchoring of Worth

The network of Certified Subset Currency Warehouses maintains a notaphily collection of conventional currency bills that are distinguished from uncertified bills by an ownership registry and the anchoring of its face value a specified index of worth.[3]

When contract prices and payments are specified for ‘Certified Subset Currency’, this signifies that the Parties intend to hold the tangible worth of their agreements stable relative to a specified index. This stability is meaningful ONLY for the currency bills anchored to the same index of worth. Pricing and payment in the Certified Subset Currency is of limited effect during start-up with few users, however it is subject to a strong ‘network effect’, which means that it is expected to be become more useful as adoption incrementally expands among buyers and sellers along a supply chain.

It is the prerogative of each Signatory to determine which index aligns most closely with their own approach to anchoring the worth of their contract. Following is an optional shortlist of indices:

  • Inflation-adjusted global stock market capitalization;
  • Global weighted producer prices;
  • Global primary commodity inventories index;
  • Economic productive capacity index;
  • Ecological productive capacity index.

Inflation-adjusted global stock market capitalization

Two indices in this category track total investment in publicly-traded companies on the world’s regulated stock exchanges. To remove inflationary drift from each index, the totals are adjusted with a global weighted producer price index (see below).

World Federation of Exchanges: Total Equity Market - Capital raised by already listed companies (Total) https://www.world-exchanges.org/home/index.php/statistics, adjusted for the USD$ Produce Price Index using methodologically-consistent 1980-based data from John Williams’ “ShadowStats” http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

S&P Global 1200 – This index captures approximately 70% of global stock market capitalization, with data developed from the S&P 500® (US), S&P Europe 350, S&P TOPIX 150 (Japan), S&P/TSX 60 (Canada), S&P/ASX All Australian 50, S&P Asia 50 and S&P Latin America 40.” https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/indices/equity/sp-global-1200/#overview

Global weighted producer prices

This index provides a global average ‘Producer Price Index’ (PPI). The national PPI reported by each country using their distinct methodologies, is then weighted by each country’s ‘Depletion-Adjusted Net National Income’. The latter statistic is calculated by subtracting from Gross National Income (a) the consumption of fixed capital (‘net’) and (b) the depletion of natural resources (‘depletion-adjusted’).
https://www.economy.com/indicators/producer-price-index-ppi
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.ADJ.NNTY.CD
https://databank.worldbank.org/metadataglossary/world-development-indicators/series/NY.ADJ.NNTY.PC.KD
https://www.wavespartnership.org/sites/waves/files/images/Constructing%20Adjusted%20National%20Income.pdf

Global primary commodity inventories

  • S&P GSCI Equal Weight Select Index This index is chosen to approximate, with decentralized commodity warehouses, the general mechanism for commodity reserve currencies for centralized warehouses that has been described at various times by Ben Graham, Jan Goudriaan, Nicholas Kaldor, Jan Tinbergen, Frederick Hayek, John Maynard Keynes and Jean de Largentaye. https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/indices/commodities/sp-gsci-equal-weight-select/

Economic productive capacity

  • UNCTAD Productive Capacity Index. This composite index tracks a set of “productive resources, entrepreneurial capabilities and production linkages, which together determine the capacity of a country to produce goods and services” https://unctadstat.unctad.org/EN/Pci.html

Ecological productive capacity

This composite index tracks standard deviations of a limited selection of pivotal ecological variables based upon current satellite data relative to historical trends and cycles.

Data Sources:
https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/

https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/home

Background: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/SPIE-Reviews/volume-2/issue-1/028001/Review-and-evaluation-of-remote-sensing-methods-for-soil-moisture/10.1117/1.3534910.full?SSO=1

Payment

At any time the transfer of ownership of Certified Subset Currency is accomplished with the re-assignment of a warehouse receipt, and a registry update, but with no movement of the securely-stored paper or polymer bills.

A Signatory of an Accession Letter to the Certified Subset Currency Framework who owns a paper or polymer currency bill stored in a Certified Subset Currency Warehouse may transfer ownership to any other Signatory, by completing both of the following two actions:

  • Assign and give full possession of the Certified Subset Currency Warehouse Receipt with the particular serial number to the other Signatory of the same or a more recent version of the framework. The Warehouse Receipt itself must be updated with the identity and contact details of the new owner of the paper or polymer currency bill.

  • Validate that the Certified Subset Currency Registry is also updated with the identity and contact details of the new owner of the corresponding currency bill.

While respecting the privacy and confidentiality of the parties, every apparent ownership discrepancy that arises between a Certified Subset Currency Warehouse Receipt and the Certified Subset Currency Registry shall be:

  • Immediately documented for all Signatories via the CSCFA Steering Committee’s official Web site and messaging networks; and,
  • Promptly resolved under the accountability and oversight of the CSCFA Steering Committee.
  • Reviewed as part of regular quarterly audits, ‘arms length’ from the Steering Committee.

Certified Currency Working Group

Participants are invited to share models, empirical analyses and viewpoints through the Certified Currency Working Group:

Notes:
[1] The Principles of International Commercial Contracts are published by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law / L'Institut international pour l'unification du droit privé (UNIDROIT). Article 4.1 (Intention of the parties) states that "(1) A contract shall be interpreted according to the common intention of the parties. (2) If such an intention cannot be established, the contract shall be interpreted according to the meaning that reasonable persons of the same kind as the parties would give to it in the same circumstances." An example of extraneous drift and volatility is the dramatic increase in farm machinery prices since 2020, which undermines agricultural supply contracts and market integrity:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCU333111333111
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCU333111333111C

[2] Gift certificates are considered by governments to be a form of money. For example in Canada: "Legislative reference: Section 181.2 of the Excise Tax Act (''ETA'') 181.2 Gift certificates — For the purposes of this Part, the issuance or sale of a gift certificate for consideration shall be deemed not to be a supply and, when given as consideration for a supply of property or a service, the gift certificate shall be deemed to be money." https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/p-202/gift-certificates.html

[3] Article 5.1.7 (Comment 4) of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts states: "In some situations the price is to be fixed by reference to external factors, typically a published index, or quotations on a commodity exchange”.

Template for Accession Letters of Agreement to the Certified Subset Currency Framework

[ This template text constitutes an integral part of the Certified Subset Currency Framework. Please do not include this note in an Accession Letter of Agreement. ]

Accession Letter of Agreement
Between
XXXXXXXXX
and
All Other Signatories of Accession Letters of Agreement to the Certified Subset Currency Framework

This Agreement applies to +Certified Subset Currency Framework, Version No. 0.1.5+

Mutual Agreement

  1. The undersigned:
  2. Attests to holding the prerogative to enter into agreements or contracts;

  3. Has reviewed and understood the above-noted version of the "Certified Subset Currency Framework

  4. The undersigned acknowledges mutual dependencies among all Signatories of Accession Letters to the Certified Subset Currency Framework, and commits to the following terms regarding participation and termination:

(a) The undersigned's participation in the Certified Subset Currency Framework can be accepted as well as terminated by a working consensus vote amongst all other current Signatories. For an acceptance and termination vote to apply, it must be "agreed to" or "abstained from" by all other current members, and not "opposed" by any. Direct termination by the Steering Committee of an existing Accession Letter of Agreement requires at least 3 months advance written notice from (or on behalf) of the Steering Committee, but this can be overturned by a working consensus vote amongst all other current Signatories besides the Signatory at issue an the Steering Committee members.

(b) The undersigned will provide at least 30 days written notice to the Certified Subset Currency Steering Committee before terminating their Accession Letter.

(c) Upon termination, any contractual obligations that the Signatories have autonomously undertaken in relation to the present Framework will be concluded as early as deemed practicable, in communication with the Steering Committee.

(d) The Certified Subset Currency Framework is in effect with a minimum of two active Accession Letters of Agreement (including post-notification periods).

asdf

This Accession Letter of Agreement expresses the intentions of the Undersigned on the date of the most recent update..

Signatory's Name: XXXXXX
Organization Name (if relevant): XXXXXX
Municipal Address:
XXXXXX
XXXXXX
XXXXXX
Mobile Phone: XXXXXX
Email: XXXXXX

+The following fields are to be completed ONLY by a person authorized by the Certified Subset Currency Steering Committee.+

The Undersigned attests that the Certified Subset Currency Steering Committee has, through a "working consensus" vote as defined in the Framework, recognizes this Accession Letter of Agreement.

Authorized Representative's Name:
Date: XXXXXX
Mobile Phone: XXXXXX
Email: XXXXXX

Updated by Joseph Potvin over 1 year ago · 21 revisions