Learning Path

1. What is Cambiatus?

Cambiatus is an open source platform that helps in the creation of new organizations, through social currencies based on Blockchain technology.

Blockchain-based complementary currencies are collectively created through the Cambiatus platform and used by organized groups of people to further their social and environmental actions and goals.

Cambiatus is also becoming a tool to make creating DAOs (acronym for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and new organizations easy and fun.

Here we talk about the work we do and how we impact the lives of people and communities around the world.

2. Blockchain

We want to present a technology with transformative potential. The main difference between social currencies created using Cambiatus and the others is that we use blockchain technology to create a platform that allows communities with common goals to organize themselves, achieve goals through specific actions and create incentive systems based on the social currency created on blockchain.

And you must be wondering:

What is blockchain and what is it for?

In a simple way, we can say that Blockchain is a public database in which digital events are recorded and distributed among many people. This base can be updated when there is consensus among the participants, and from there the new information will be safely saved and cannot be deleted later.

In short: blockchain serves to transfer value between people without the need for intermediaries. This means that the currencies that use Cambiatus do not need financial or governmental institutions to exchange value with each other.

This article explains what blockchain is, and a little bit of its history.

In this video, Bettina Warburg explains what technology is for different age groups.

So we think you might be asking yourself another question: but what about bitcoin? Where does he fit into all this?

Bitcoin was the first application of blockchain technology, and after it came several other networks, mainly focused on smart contracts, with different characteristics and functionalities, such as Ethereum, CELO, Harmony, Algorand or EOS, used in Cambiatus.

In this video, Luiz Hadad makes a brief introduction to what blockchain is and its possible applications (the speech starts at minute 55)‍

But then, why use this technology in the implementation of social currencies?

Blockchain offers decentralization, transparency and security in data transmission. These features can be exploited for many applications in currency exchanges, product traceability, smart contracts and even voting systems.

Already here addresses the change that blockchain is bringing about in the financial and business world.

This video talks about some applications of the technology

In this article, Karla Córdoba highlights the selection of technology as one of the Cultural Trends

But, beyond the financial universe, there are many applications for blockchain technology.

3. DAOs, Collaborative Business and Organizations of the Future

As we talked about in the previous topic, one of these applications built using blockchain technology are DAOs (acronym for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations).

DAOs are communities that operate and make decisions based on rules encoded in computer programs called smart contracts.

Here are some content that will help you understand what DAOs are:

This video talks about "What are Decentralized Autonomous Organizations?"
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At Binance Academy, we have a interesting guide on DAOs

in this article Kevin Owocki talks about the concept of impact DAOs, and shows examples that are helping this movement.

The transparency and decentralization of blockchain helps to eliminate corruption and third-party intermediation in transactions, which allows organizations and communities to operate without the need for a central authority. DAOs allow a network of people or entities to define their own rules of collaboration to achieve their common goals.

Cambiatus is a Collaborative Business, as an evolution of cooperatives and DAOs using the best of blockchain technology to share decision making and financial benefits.

In this video Karla Córdoba talks about the way we shape our organizations and possibilities for the organizations of the future.‍

As an organization, we at Cambiatus are also part of the Exit to Community (content in English), a global movement that seeks to create an alternative to the traditional "exit" world of startups.

In this video Lauren Ruffin explains the thinking surrounding the maturation of organizations and community-oriented entrepreneurship.
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All this work is the result of the emergence of new types of organization. These organizations are tools that we can use to build desirable futures.
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ESG, an acronym for environmental, social and governance, corresponds to a spectrum that guides the actions of organizations committed to the sustainability of the planet. This does not mean that we should stick to sustainability. We must go further and seek regeneration.

In this video Luiz Hadad, leader of community building at Cambiatus, talks about how blockchain and ESG can be tools in this direction

In this video, Karla Córdoba, Cambiatus initiator, talks about Social Currencies and Blockchain.

4. Desirable futures and regenerative finance (ReFi)

Lala Deheinzelin, in this TED, teaches us to build creative and collaborative communities to build desirable futures.
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ESG practices, and also with the Sustainable Development Goals, are commitments that we establish based on the understanding that the world is already changing.
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When we talk about governance for sustainability we also need to talk about regenerative finance.

Regenerative finance, commonly simplified as ReFi, is a set of actions that aim to contribute to the regeneration of natural resources and the resolution of systemic social problems through a more conscious use of economic and financial tools.

Letty Prados addresses the concept of regenerative economy and positions regenerative finance within the web3 ecosystem.

Marcelo Silva presents some success stories of ReFi protocols and also addresses the importance of the topic for the Brazilian context

In this map, organized by Climate Collective represents the well-known entities building ReFi applications in the web3 ecosystem. It helps us to understand the complexity and plurality of actions that can be performed in this field, so we can turn to projects that seek to solve real problems in favor of more regenerative societies.

In this video, Ray Dalio tells us about some cycles that history shows us, about glocal changes.
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And will the future tend to repeat itself? Or can we reinvent the way we organize ourselves, and change our financial, social and economic paradigm?

5. Economy, money and social currencies

For these changes - which we talked about in the previous topic - to be possible, it is necessary to rethink a good part of the money culture in our society.
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The current financial system maintains the monopoly of money creation in the hands of a few institutions, and the design of the money created, through debt, has the effect of maintaining the status quo: concentration of wealth, extractive pressure on resources land and cyclical economic crises.

What if we can have a new definition of money and the way it's created?
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"Money is an agreement, made by a community, to use a standardized item that serves as a medium of exchange." Source: New Money for Sustainability, inspired by the work of Bernard Lietaer.

in this video Bernard Lietaer, talks about the urgency of changing money as we know it, advocating for a financial ecosystem that seeks and privileges economic resilience, in the face of efficiency - this is the real root of our problems .

Charles Eisenstein reflects on the history of money from the earliest economies.

If you've ever asked yourself “what is money? How is it created?”, “How is it controlled?”, you have probably also asked “what if we had the power to create our own money?”. Here, we present you some books like:

Nuevo dinero para la sostenibilidad

How to create our money and build sustainability

This is the Mutual Credit Clearing System

And it is for questions like these that we are dealing with the concept of social currencies.

In this article, Ranulfo Paiva explains the relationship between money and sustainability.

You can read about some of the most interesting social currencies in the world.

We have an interesting documentary about social currencies

There are examples of community banks that use social currencies that are not necessarily digital, such as Rede Alegrias, or Palmas, in Ceará, and Mumbuca, in Rio de Janeiro.

6. Our communities

The complementary currencies that use Cambiatus converge on this mindset shift and are used by organized groups of people to promote their common actions and goals. Another convergence involves social and environmental concerns.‍

Read about the process of co-creation of our coins.

Discover the communities that are part of the Cambiatus Ecosystem

We also recommend that you read these contents:

Verdes: the social currency that combines sustainability and economic resilience

Play4Change joins the Cambiatus ecosystem

Agelgil: women and financial resilience in Africa

We are very happy with this trail!
Now, we also recommend this supplementary content:
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Complementary Currencies in Blockchain as an Incentive Mechanism: Why Support Them?

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