The token economy is a fast growing alternative to the traditional and old-fashioned ways of working with money — with many advantages.
It goes hand in hand with the growth of social networks and the network economy as a whole. But rather than being just a different way to think about cash — or spend it — the token economy embodies the 21st century approach to communities; how they share, exchange value, and obtain the products and services they want. Basically, it’s the future….
More important still, it even gives communities influence over the value of the currency they adopt.
Every time you spend tokens within the network economy you’re not just swapping cash for services as you might have done traditionally. It’s not a dead end transaction. Your usage is helping strengthen the very tokens you’re dealing in. You’re giving them stability, you’re reinforcing their worth and you’re helping them grow in value.
Think of it as a financial muscle. Every time you exercise it, you strengthen it. Every time you use it, you make it that little bit fitter — for yourself and for everyone else in your community.
Getting the token economy on the side of kids
The network economy is a fundamental sign of how the Information Revolution has transformed the world we live in. Pigzbe makes full use of it to help parents introduce their children to how money works in this new environment.
“Wollo is the token that we use within Pigzbe”, explains Founder and Chief Operating Office Adam Amos.
“At the very simplest level, think of it like a slot machine. You put a token in, and something happens. But with the token economy that ‘something’ can be far more interesting and engaging and useful. That’s why Pigzbe can be such a powerful tool for education.”
“Wollo enables families to teach their children the fundamental principles of finance in the 21st century. It’s the special ingredient that allows money to be transferred from any family member — anywhere in the world — to a child’s piggy wallet, almost instantly, at almost zero cost.”
“Compare that to a traditional transfer system, which is not only slower but could cost you 50p to send 50p. Or more. That means it’s only really worth sending larger sums of money. That’s not much use for typical pocket money sums. No other service in existence facilitates those micro transfers across borders so easily, quickly, cheaply and seamlessly.”
A real currency for the real world
However, Wollos don’t have to stay locked within a child’s piggy-wallet. What differentiates them from many other digital currencies — Bitcoin for example — is that the process of giving them real value in the real world is simple and speedy. Wollos enjoy all the security advantages that Blockchain bestows, but are easily transferable into genuine pounds and pence… or Dollars, or Euros.
“If your kids want to spend the Wollos they’ve collected, they can use our payment card, take it down the local sweet shop, and when the shopkeeper scans it, the sweets will be paid for just like any other payment card,” says Adam Amos. “We’ll be partnering with a number of leading card issuers, and will be using the same infrastructure, enabling the same transactions that sit behind millions of cards across the world. It will work out the correct currency, the correct exchange value and complete the transaction.”
A simple app lets parents manage the transfer of Wollos to the card and helps them set spending limits too. For the child, it’s an engaging and educational game. For the shopkeeper, it’s a payment like any other.
“Bitcoin is the ‘poster boy’ for digital currencies,” says Adam Amos, “but it’s not the best example of how token currencies and the token economy actually work and what they’re good at. Bitcoin is a trading commodity, it operates in another dimension, it doesn’t have such strong presence in the ‘real’ world.
“In comparison Wollos is a utility currency — it’s built to be used, to be spent, and to easily interact with the cash economy when it needs to. It has a real world value and it’s a token that fits perfectly into the educational environment of Pigzbe. A foot in both camps.”
Creating a token that will grow itself
The Pigzbe launch has also been specifically designed to give families an easy route into the token economy and help them empower that economy from the word go — a self-propelling network growth pool.
Each buyer of the first one million units will receive 200 Wollo tokens. Some of that will be deposited in their Pigzbe account so their kids can immediately start exploring the game. The rest will be available to encourage more family members to get involved. There’ll be Wollos to spread around to grandparents and relatives so they can make contributions to a youngster’s piggy-wallet straight away. But there’ll also be vouchers that will reward parents with even more Wollos when they introduce friends and other parents to Pigzbe.
We believe that getting Wollo off to this accelerated start will see it become a key player in the token economy, important for the opportunities and convenience it brings, strengthening the community that uses it, and helping a huge number of children take their first steps towards the finance of the future.
Follow Pigzbe and the Pigzbe ICO & Wollo token sale, by heading over to pigzbe.com and sign-up to our newsletter. Join the conversation on Telegram t.me/PigzbeICO. And watch this space.