The instability of the world’s financial markets has led to the development of countless alternative currencies that often consciously develop away from state supervision. An exceptional example of this is the peer-to-peer currency Bitcoin, a form of virtual money of which the origins lie in the cryptography/cypherpunk scene. The currency was developed out of the ideal to create a stable currency whose exchange rate and transactions of which cannot be manipulated or monitored by government bodies or financial authorities. The downside being that this anonymous money transaction system is often portrayed as a money laundering method.

How do DIY currencies contribute to a sustainable economy and which dilemmas does this entail? Various presentations by artists, currency designers and economists will illustrate the bright and darker sides of DIY currencies.

Presentations by, among others:

Jaromil (Dyne.org)
Jaromil is a software developer, artist, activist and researcher. He is closely involved in the ongoing development of Bitcoin, is a regular speaker at Bitcoin conferences and contributes to Freecoin.ch. He is also the co-founder of Dyndy, a technology, economy and philosophy research platform that studies alternative and complementary currency systems.

Ryanne Turenhout
Ryanne Turenhout is a data visualisation analyst at Buzzcapture. Her data visualisations have been published by, among others, NRC Handelsblad [Dutch national newspaper] and museum De Paviljoens. Recently, during a residency at Artistic Bokeh in Vienna she visualised the data of Bitcoin transactions.

Rob van Hilten (Qoin)
Rob van Hilten has been working as a community currency expert since 1993. He is the co-founder of Qoin, a non-profit agency that designs and implements complementary currency systems. Qoin is responsible for De Makkie, an alternative currency for rewarding the inhabitants of Amsterdam-Oost for doing community work. The Bristol Pound is also one of their designs.