This post is an abstract that describes the principles, vision, and function of a proposed new cryptocurrency and the network and community that maintains this new cryptocurrency.
This cryptocurrency is an idea that came through Bekah Hill (aka The Jack of Hearts). As an idea that came through Bekah, Bekah considers this idea to be an autonomous entity, belonging to no one and to everyone. Perhaps there are enough humans who resonate with this idea and would love to join a team to develop, implement, and refine this idea. Bekah loves this idea and sees how it has the potential to transform the way we meet our needs for goods and services on a global scale that creates abundance, equity, autonomy, authenticity, gratitude, personal power, hope, freedom, and more!
Principles of the Jack of Hearts Cryptocurrency
The Jack of Heart, or shortened to “Heart,” is a cryptocurrency – a currency, i.e. money. (This blog post will use the terms currency and money interchangeably, even though currency typically refers to money in a specific country or region.) Money is an entity that has no intrinsic value. The things that have intrinsic value are the goods and services that we exchange. Money is a generic symbol or placeholder for the actual good or service that was exchanged. So too, the “Heart” is a symbol or placeholder. The “Heart” is money, but it is more than a placeholder for goods and services.
As a concept, the Heart represents our needs being met. This is the critical foundational principle the makes the Heart so potentially transformative to the world. The Heart is a way of acknowledging and expressing gratitude when a need of ours is met. With this intention, when exchanging Hearts, we see the endless opportunities around us to meet the needs of others. In a transaction in which the parties agree to exchange Hearts, Hearts are either created or exchanged when the needs are met. There are abundant opportunities to meet needs, therefore, we have an abundant potential pool of Heart-generating resources, so long as we choose to meet our needs and acknowledge, with gratitude, when they are met.
Typically, money is exchanged in a transaction in a unidirectional way. I like to give the example of a doctor helping patient. (Please imagine that health insurance does not exist, just to keep this hypothetical scenario as simple as possible.) In the exchange, the patient receives some focused attention from the doctor, the doctor collects some data and gives their advice to the patient. At the end of the transaction, the patient (assuming there is no insurance) pays the doctor some money. There is a unidirectional flow of money from the patient to the doctor.
However, if we look at this transaction from the perspective of what needs were met, if the transaction was voluntary, there were likely many needs met for both parties in the transaction. The patient’s needs for being heard, for obtaining clarity and understanding about their health, needs for treatment options to care for their body, and likely more were met. But the doctor’s needs were met too. The doctor met their needs for connection, for being of service, for contributing their knowledge, for challenging their ability to apply the scientific method, for learning about the human body and human experience. The doctor and the patient both had their needs met by this exchange! The doctor needed the patient and the patient needed the doctor.
Vision
The vision for the Hearts cryptocurrency is that it will be utilized as a symbol that represents when our needs are met in any type of voluntary transaction that the participants choose to acknowledge with Hearts. As a cryptocurrency, the Hearts are maintained by a decentralized, impartial peer-to-peer network. The people in the transactions are the ones who choose to acknowledge, record, and even create Hearts! In this way, the people who use the Hearts are the ones who collectively regulate it. There is no central bank or government manipulating the value of the Heart; there is no restriction on who can exchange Hearts – as long as two people agree, they can be anywhere in the world and agree to a transaction, without oppressive rules from governments.
The longer we practice being mindful that we give and receive Hearts when needs are met, we will be more aware of when needs are not met. We will notice when we agree to meet the needs of others but there is not a balance of our needs being met. We may decide that the work we are doing is not meeting enough of our needs.
When we choose to meet the needs of others when it also meets our needs, we see how our giving is the same as our receiving! We just enjoy meeting needs so much that the Heart exchange doesn’t even feel necessary! At that point, we are just giving and receiving love! And, it is given and received freely, without any future expectation. This is true love, not transactional love, emerging from a system of money based on the principle that money is a symbol for a need being met.
In the long run, the outcome of using Hearts is that we would feel free to follow our hearts (our passions) in life and not be restricted by the scarcity of money. We would look at the world and ask: “What are my friends and neighbors needing?,” “What am I needing in order to thrive in life?,” “What are the Earth and the creatures around me needing?,” and “What would I enjoy doing voluntarily to meet my needs and the needs of others?” We would enjoy helping each other to connect with the resources that would make each of our lives better in some way.
Our ability to meet our needs is ABUNDANT; therefore, Hearts are ABUNDANT. Shifting our view of our ability to meet our needs from one of scarcity (like in the current way we view money) to one of abundance has the power to completely transform our planet!
Function
So, how does The Jack of Hearts work?
The Jack of Hearts is a decentralized autonomous organization implemented with blockchain technology. Transactions are encrypted and maintained by nodes on a peer-to-peer network. Like other cryptocurrencies, one needs to have an electronic wallet for your Hearts.
To exchange Hearts, both participants in the transaction must agree to the amount and must both have an electronic wallet. The participants agree to the terms of the transaction. Hearts can be exchanged unilaterally or bilaterally in a transaction. Hearts can also be created in a transaction with the agreement of those in the exchange.
How does a Heart get created?
A Jack of Heart symbolizes a need being met. In transactions that are perhaps most often local, individual people will agree when it makes sense to create a Heart (or Hearts) in a transaction, rather than asking for a person to spend a Heart from their wallet.
Please note that the specific process and validation required for creating Hearts will be defined clearly by the team of people that emerges to implement the proposed Jack of Hearts idea.
Here are some example scenarios that the people in the transaction could choose to create a Heart:
- Person X shares their knowledge about plant identification and leads a plant walk for several people in a park. Person Y listened to Person X, went on the walk, and found that the experience met Person Y’s needs for learning. Person Y is feeling grateful and therefore initiates a Heart transaction. Person X and Y negotiate, and together they decide that because the lesson was birthed there in the park and met peron Y’s needs, that they want to birth a Heart, out of thin air so to speak, and award it to Person X to acknowledge Person Y’s need for learning having been met.
- Person A and Person B meet. Person A gives Person B a back massage. Person B then helps Person A with their school work. Both of their needs for relaxation and support are met. They both agree that they both want to create a Heart and award it to the other person.
- Person E loves to plant trees. Person E propagates and plants trees to restore habitat near the town where Person R lives. Person R’s need for environmental stewardship is met, and so Person R creates Hearts and awards them to Person E.
How are Hearts from the Wallet used?
In a more impersonal transaction, like at a distance, at a retailer, or a scenario where an existing item is being exchanged rather than produced, if either party wishes to bypass the protocol that would allow the buyer to create Hearts, then a unilateral flow of Hearts from the wallet of the entity receiving the goods or services to the entity that provided the goods and services is what would occur. For example: A farmer sells a pound of apples at market. The buyer awards a Heart from the buyers wallet to the farmers wallet to acknowledge that the farmer met the buyer’s basic need for healthy food!
How would credit work?
This is an interesting one. Dollars and money are scarce and controlled. So, extending credit is risky for some lenders, expensive for borrowers, and profitable to banks. The use of credit also creates boom and bust economic cycles. Hearts are abundant. So, it’s different. Say someone has a strong desire – a need – but they don’t have the Hearts to get or do what they want. What follows are a couple of options for how someone could get Hearts when they don’t have enough. As the idea of the Heart is developed, more ideas for more strategies would come.
- They can negotiate with the other party and demonstrate how their needs would be met by having their desire. And, they could substantiate that it makes sense to create Hearts in this case. For example, if a person really desires to study engineering, it would meet their needs for learning, growth, play. The school may agree to let the person create the Hearts in order to attend the school. After all, by having an excited and dedicated student, the faculty will likely really enjoy their interactions with this student and will have their needs met to contribute to the development of the next generation.
- They can look around their community to see what people are needing. They could meet these needs in order to accumulate Hearts.
The Jack of Hearts Transformation Network
The Jack of Hearts cryptocurrency is one facet of the Jack of Hearts Transformation Network, an online, collaborative community that supports connecting people to the resources they need to thrive. It includes:
- Cupid Central: An online marketplace of “Requests for Desires” and “Offers of Opportunities and Resources.” This marketplace utilizes the Heart cryptocurrency or operates as a gift economy.
- Community Calendar: A shared calendar of Events, Opportunities, and Recurring Opportunities posted by community members.
- Forum: A open community forum.
- Insight Hearth: A feed of personal or shared insights posted by community members.
- ManifestNEXT: An online framework for community members to share desires that would likely be described as visions, aspirations, or projects that have a collaborative spirit. The framework provides tools for people to connect and build teams to realize their dreams.
- The Matchmaker: Video conferencing for community members.
- Playground and the Playground Developer API: An online library of software applications designed by and for community members. The Playground Developer API supports the integration of the Jack of Hearts cryptocurrency and other components of the Transformation Network with third-party software applications.
Conclusion
I hope this post helped you to understand the principles, vision and function of the Hearts cryptocurrency and the Jack of Hearts Transformation Network. I also hope that it piqued your curiosity. I’m excited to read comments!
Send Bekah an Email
I am looking for opportunities to connect with kindred spirits who are interested in creating a team to implement this proposed idea. If you feel inspired to connect with me, I’d love to connect with you!