It’s time to make a Crypto Co-op.

“Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death.”
— James F. Byrnes

Banding together, building together, growing together, and profiting together represent primary foundational inspirations undergirding the various co-operative movements in the history of the world. With practical guidance from Dr. William King, influence from Robert Owen, cooperative principles from the Rochdale Pioneers, and modern technical tools from the blockchain, cryptocurrency, self sovereign identity, and digital voting spaces provided by yours truly we stand now to transform and invigorate the cooperative movement to heights of connection, competence, achievement, and magnificence existing before today only as imagination and dreams.

We can solve the co-operative problem in a new, transformative, effective way as we draw upon King’s¹ pragmatic approach and advice to co-operatives in his “The Co-operator” periodical and blending that with inspiration from Robert Owen², considered the father of the cooperative movement, while formalizing principles as expressed through the Rochdale Principles³ of Co-operatives including the current articulation by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), and further enabling massive cooperation by building upon advanced modern computing and trust systems including cryptocurrency, blockchain, digital currency, and digital voting all powered by the next trust layer of the internet, self sovereign identity.

The opportunity here is to build and grow effective communities founded on a strong digital foundation of cryptographic trust, privacy, and verifiability enabling massive cooperation and coordination of interests in tune with the original spirit of the cooperative movement. Large groups of people coming together, pooling resources, taking risk, and gaining benefits is just a few smart contracts, a technological identity layer, and a significant social movement away from becoming our present day reality.

“Let him that would move the world first move himself.” 
– Socrates

The author stands to provide significant cultural value and technical perspective to the movement through direct experience as a member of the Davis County Cooperative Society for the first 29 years of his life and on the technology side with experience and research in the digital currency, cryptocurrency, and digital voting spaces. We walk this journey together as proof of concept and early release systems roll out and become fully operational.

We begin through a common intention set in our hearts and minds and well expressed by the seven principles from the ICA, inspired by the Rochdale Principles, as can be found on the ICA website website³:

1. Voluntary and Open Membership

2. Democratic Member Control

3. Member Economic Participation

4. Autonomy and Independence

5. Education, Training, and Information

6. Cooperation among Cooperatives

7. Concern for Community

Keep a watch for future posts! Together we are building something beautiful.

References:

1: Dr. William King
2: Robert Owen
3: Rochdale Principles
4: Cooperative Identity
5: History of the Cooperative Movement

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Kent Bull