Could you do away with currency and go to a gamify system.

It's difficult. I don't think it would be wise to do that, at least right now. Just like games, we should go step by step, with a learning curve for gamification. Maybe now we should connect the currency and gamification, and then, with the results, try something new.

Actually, the solution is very easy. The Ingenesist Project introduces a new class of business methods called The Value Game see video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0yi_6J4EEM

The Value Game is committed to the public domain so all gamers are invited to build value games around any shared asset. The game starts and ends with money but all value created within the game is denominated in "Social Currency". The game is simple, 3 or more communities interact with each other in their own best interest around any shared asset - their interaction preserves the asset rather than consumes it. Eventually, money will no longer be needed.

The Ingenesist Project Estimates that 200,000-300,000 value games will need to be created in order to hedge the dollar as it weakens against crushing debt. so really, we need your help.

You can start implementing this today, as long as you don't mind living without certain luxuries like food, clothing, and shelter.

A barter reward system used in our office where people have empty jars on their desk and get given coloured tokens as appreciation of thanks from other team members. The owner of the jar with the most tokens at the end of the month gets a Team Player award including a certificate and items like movie tickets.

The game rules appear a little loose as, of course, it would be very easy to game the system by going out and getting more tokens - no one is doing that however some people bring in chocolates and exchange them for tokens :) So having a real-time leaderboard with a set amount of tokens per participant and clearly shown progress and updates - perhaps with free text for more lasting and meaningful positive feedback would be the next step. It's just a bit of fun really but I think HR should encourage this more and make the game mechanics and rules transparent to the whole company.

Expanding the barter/xp system as a replacement for cash might work in communities especially something like 'Karma' points from charities or volunteer movements involving games with a social conscience - recycling and donation of items/time to help your community. Maybe payment could be traded using :

Bitcoin the P2P currency system http://www.bitcoin.org/

The idea of peer to peer currency creatively disrupting the finance industry in the same way Napster and its ilk affected the music industry is one to keep an eye on I would think.

Could you...? It's been done!

Airlines around the world are trading points for tickets - across airlines through the alliances, the Nectar reward card allows you to redeem points for everything from your weekly shopping, petrol/gas (depending on where you are reading this), even airline tickets.

The term "currency" refers to "objects generally accepted as a medium of exchange". Therefore there are many examples of gamification objects (eg Loyalty points) being used as currency.

The trick is to become ubiquitous... Many have tried and few have succeeded.

Banks and countries may control currency, but the people determine its value.

Thanks for the comment but there are a few more things to consider. A currency is a medium for the storage and exchange of value. If there is an expiration date on a coupon or a blackout on a frequent flyer mile, it fails to meet the definition of a currency because of the failure to store the value.

Second, a currency must represent productivity - otherwise people would not work for it - think about that for a moment. Twitter/Klout is a horrible proxy for productivity so are loyalty charms. Twitter is good for the exchange of value but poor for the storage of value, as such klout and peer index also fall short.

Finally, ubiquity is not the problem. The currency must be able to capitalization and securitization. One must be able to predict the probability that a productivity event will occur in the future. Securitization is the ability to pool the value of future productivity into risk diversified pools of value, the segmentation of that value, and the subsequent use of that future value in present time (such as a bond). If you can do all these things with frequent flier miles, or nectar reward cards, then yes, they will become ubiquitous as currency.

There is quite a bit more to it than meets the eye.