Tallysticks were a purely virtual money with no relation to any commodity supply with a legal and certification framework backing them up in case of dispute which helps promotes trust which in turn enhances their success. There were also very hard to forge which helped a lot (due to the uniqueness of wood grain when split in 2, the sides could be matched up again later).

In fact tally sticks are pretty much the same as the modern commercial credit circuit mechanism used by small businesses in countries such as Uruguay where the currency had become limited in supply under economic collapse situations. In simple terms someone certifies invoices that the transaction and work was real and these then turn into effective money and can be exchanged as such. This requires support of some trusted agent to do the certification so it relates to real work (otherwise you could just print invoices and screw the system up). Government support massively helps in that they can enforce that large businesses also accept these as valid payment. However, without government support an NGO could also do this but the circulation would be smaller.
http://www.worldacademy.org/forum/commercial-credit-circuit-c3

Bitcoins seem more based on a finite commodity system to me, although it does have one improvement over metal based ones as it solves the supply manipulation problem better as no humans are involved (merchants can't rig the supply for their own manipulations as happened with gold and silver etc at various times in history). However, physical has one advantage in that mining real stuff does represent some actual human work at its initial point (that unfortunately later gets distorted though by 'market forces'). I am not sure how well CPU mining work really relates to this part of the equation of relating to some tangible human activity.

History has swung back and forth between these two popular forms because there are pros and cons to both methods but neither have solved the entire problem of fair exchange and representing production. People lose trust in one and the grass then seems greener on the other side of the fence, but later same problems occur as it hits its natural limitation and so history repeats. This is why you are seeing a massive rise in 'gold bugs' etc as the trust wanes in the national virtual currencies. To me it looks like Venezuela is about to revert to metal backed currency soon as they have nationalised their precious metal industries (i.e. the only way of stopping private merchants cartels rigging the supply) and now recalling all their gold from US and UK etc.

I can think of a few ways to destroy and/or control either type of economy if you are so inclined (often even both due to short sighted selfish nature of greed!). I am not letting on yet the exact mechanisms as I will cover those later in a series I am writing. One of the weakness of purely virtual money such a tally sticks (or current digital money) also happens to apply to commodity based currencies, even if those avoid the other weaknesses. Bitcoin seems to avoid one more common weakness to me but not all.

Me please. I am an ex software architect turned film maker a few years ago.

I am making some film related to economy and monetary systems. I understand technology and am currently look at making a piece on bitcoin, so being able to ask and take part in discussions here would be very useful.

Thanks,
John

http://monkeybrainsmedia.com

Is that ironic humor? Use a US site, raising money in US dollars, requiring a US bank account, to make a film about a currency that wishes to avoid all those things in the long run. I am not even US based and bitcoin is supposed to be international in principle.

Surely, if bitcoin enthusiasts are willing to eat their own dog food, then it should be possible to do this largely via the bitcoin economy.

That is the whole point of the film, to show whether bitcoin is a viable alternative as a currency. With my initial investigations, I see a lot of speculation and treating bitcoin as a commodity and investment vehicle, but less use as a currency. As far as I can understand so far, if a currency is also useable as a commodity and so has a fluctuating exchange based on supply and demand, the tendency is for humans to hoard it, just in case the price goes up, rather than spend it.

I wish and hope to show this doesn't have to be the case and the opposite aspect is also happening, that it is a potentially real economy, not just a virtual wealth storage scheme.

I am not sure I want to make a film evaluating bitcoin if I have to raise the money via the currency and banking system that people are criticizing openly and implied by bitcoin's very emergence and existence. That seems like a contradiction in terms and will also make bitcoin look bad. I see people moaning about the quality of films on bitcoin, but it is up to the community and those with a vested interest to prove it is viable to the public, surely? I can help with production quality side of things, but I am not going to pay for it using a system people supposedly hate.

If its real, then lets show it is real.

I am a freelance film maker, camera and sound man. I am involved in a couple of film projects related to monetary issues and reform.

As a side line to other monetary related film projects underway and in the pipeline, I would like to do a high quality piece on bitcoin. I find bitcoin an extremely fascinating experiment as I also have a prior background in technology as a software architect, so I do not find the technical details too difficult understand or explain. I have also been fascinated by the question of 'what is money' and 'what is economy' since 2008 when the shit became very apparent.

A little bit on some money related film projects, am already involved in and planning for future:
http://monkeybrainsmedia.com/monetary-reform

General about me and camera/edit work:
http://monkeybrainsmedia.com/

General about me and film sound work:
http://limbicsounds.com/

One series of short documentaries I want to make is about alternative currencies, people who simply choose to bypass the current system and try to create something new. I want to make the first episode on bitcoin as this experiment seems to have taken off quite well and with a good amount of success.

I wish to gauge what the interest and support levels there would be from the bitcoin community in having a professionally shot (plus motion graphics/animation etc) film on bitcoin doing the rounds?

As an experiment, the episode on bitcoin I would also like to fully finance via bitcoin as this seems very appropriate. I am set up with bitcoin so could accept donations towards this project.

Also, if this piece gets funded to completion with enough speed, relevant parts of it may make it into the mainstream film due out at the end of the year.

As you may be aware, film making to a decent quality is a very labor intensive and quite expensive process involving many practical costs in production such as travel and extra equipment. I already have a great deal invested in professional broadcast quality equipment.

What do people here think? How would you like it to turn out? Would you be willing to chip in to make it happen.

Thanks,
John

PS As a newbie to this forum I was only allowed to post here, rather than in the sections I thought would be more relevant to this message and get seen more.