Circles is an
alternative currency,
where communities
can give each other a basic income -
without waiting for the state.
The value of the basic income that you can have with Circles depends on the community it serves and how it is used. In the beginning, Circles may be implemented as an act of solidarity, care and support. As its usage grows and the community becomes stronger, Circles can evolve into a living democratic economy, which creates more stability for your community - and for you, a basic income to earn and to award the basics of daily living.
We are here to help you to set it up.
The value of the basic income that you can have with Circles depends on the community it serves and how it is used. In the beginning, Circles may be implemented as an act of solidarity, care and support. As its usage grows and the community becomes stronger, Circles can evolve into a living democratic economy, which creates more stability for your community - and for you, a basic income to earn and to award the basics of daily living.
We are here to help you to set it up.
Circles is an alternative currency, where communities can give each other a basic income - without waiting for the state.
WHAT IS UBI FOR CIRCLES?
It is paid to all, without means testing.
Universal
It is paid without a requirement to work or to demonstrate willingness to work.
Unconditional
Periodic
It is paid at regular intervals (for example every month), not as a one-off grant.
Cash payment
It is paid in an appropriate medium of exchange, allowing those who receive it to decide what they spend it on.
It is not, therefore, paid either in kind (such as food or services) or in vouchers dedicated to a specific use.
Individual
It is paid on an individual basis—and not, for instance, to households.
According to the
Basic Income Earth Network
(BIEN), basic income is a
periodic money payment unconditionally delivered
to all on an individual basis, without means test
or work requirement.
UBI has thus
5 characteristics:
SELF-SUSTAINABILITY #01
We prefer to think of economies in the original sense of households, not defined by four walls but by the relations that reproduce them. In this sense, self-sustainability is achieved through localised interdependence between actors, who complement each other by providing the labor and resources that they need to live.
#02
DECENTRALIZATION
The decentralization of the production of money, claimed by people directly as a universal income through infrastructures like Circles, forms the basis of a democratic economy. Circles aims at the decentralization of economic and political power via democratic and autonomous practices.
DEMOCRATIC CONFEDERALISM
Democratic Confederalism starts from the notion that every entity has the right to organise itself from the local to the universal. It is an ethical, political, and administrative expression of society in which different identities, factions and groups coexist in harmony with one another in confederated democratic assemblies. #03
#04
LOCALISM
The ethos of localism is to think global and act local, or to think about local solutions for global problems, situating yourself where you are, by interacting with your environment and seeing what are the resources and needs in your area. Localism is therefore a call for autonomy and local democracy or democratic autonomy, for short, as a principle for the organisation of society.
OUR PRINCIPLES
Wherever there is credit, there is trust. Trusting somebody in Circles means that you are willing to accept their claims to get resources from you. You trust that the mutual obligations in the network can be cleared with Circles. Circles therefore flow in exchange for what people commit to give.
This website explains Circles UBI through the example of our flagship pilot in Berlin.
It helps you understand the concept of our community-based basic income, and if you are interested in other hubs, you can find link to them, and they might follow slightly different ways of working.
FLAGSHIP PILOT IN BERLIN
Assemblies are self-administration structures formed by individuals and are at the core of our active communities.
