Offer TimeBanking as well as LETS

[Hayden McGrail]

I understand and appreciate the differences between LETS and TimeBanking, I also understand a TimeBank group can use CES to manage their operation. Having provided a LETS exchange for about 19 years our group is keen to establish a TimeBank service to compliment our operation.
As CES can be setup to manage a TimeBank or LETS could it be setup to manage both. We don't wish to have any interchange between TB "hours" and LETS "units" but it would be great for members to belong to either or belong to both and depending on which system(s) they belong to they only see the relevant data.
Is this possible or at least worth debating.

[Tim Jenkin]

As both TimeBanks and LETS utilise mutual credit accounting principles, CES can be used for both. However, you can't have both operating in the same exchange, with some users basing their pricing on time and others on the national currency. They are just not compatible in the same exchange.

However, the same geographical area could have two exchanges operating and overlapping, with one based on time and the other on the national currency. As CES allows inter-exchange trading it then becomes possible for those on the time-based exchange to trade with those on the national currency-based exchange. All that has to be established is a conversion rate between the national currency unit and the time unit. The time unit could be a minute, an hour or any other time period that the users want to use. As these conversion rates have already been established there is nothing much to do. The only problem arises when users try to price goods in terms of time, but usually this is not too much of a problem as TimeBanks are generally about services and not goods. Those on the TimeBank exchange would be able to purchase goods from the national currency-based exchange simply by converting the offered price into time units. This seems to be working well with the already existing TimeBanks on CES.

[Hayden McGrail]

I was hoping that a dual system could be possible. I also understand that some of these fundamentals need to be built into the original design of a database.
I believe about half our members would adopt a timebanking feature if it were available on their current CES membership but if it meant joining another group they would then have to decide if they could be bothered maintaining all their details on two systems. I suspect many would choose one or the other rather than both.
My guess is that the fields(fieldnames) used for the units in the LETS version of CES are the same as those used to the time units in the TimeBank version of CES so that would prevent a dual version. It would only work if new fields were created for the time units.
My motivation for exploring this concept is the sheer efficiency of maintaining one database and the flexibility another payment option. If for instance I were a member of a Timebank then 99% of my details; contact, services offered & wanted would be the same.

I will continue to discuss, with hope.
Cheers, Hayden