FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What?

What is the GEO?

GEO is a alternative currency which is designed to complement national fiat or gold-backed currencies such as the US dollar or Euro.

GEO exists in several different, interchangable forms, much like the silver dollar and the dollar bill are different.  These different currency forms include a cryptocurrency form, paper notes, golden notes, corporate shares, and others.

GEO is a part of a whole monetary ecosystem designed to bring more stability, more prosperity, and more sustainability to the communities or groups which use it.

What are the Benefits to Users of GEO?

GEO users will benefit from the many world changes which GGTrust will be able to establish by using the funding with GEO allows.

Users will benefit from a stable currency, which is not constantly inflating like the US Dollar, the Euro, and other national currencies.

Users will be able to send money to any other user or exchange for pennies, rather than the high fees which banks charge.

Users will be able to transfer money to any other user, without any government being aware of it, stopping the transaction, controlling it, etc.

Users will have a way to transmit value from their local currency into any other local currency in the GEO system.  And they can transmit value from GEO or their local currency into many national currencies, as well, for pennies per transaction.

Users can exchange currencies for pennies, instead of the percentages which banks and exchangers charge.

GEO users can interface with their local currencies, and have a local currency which supports cooperation instead of competition, benefits women and gender balance, and increases local wealth and prosperity.

Users will be able to take back the 17% of the economy which currently goes into the banking and financial system.  Imagine what the world might look like if everyone had 17% more money!

Users will be able to securely transmit property and intellectual property and contracts without the need for lawyers or bankers.

Users will be able to use conditional money transfers, and escrow functions, so that their transfer only goes thru when they get their product.

Users will be able to have a place to store money, without a bank, and without bank fees.

Users will see the money in their community circulate much more than it does elsewhere, up to 10 times as much!  This gives up to 10 times as much prosperity and wealth in their community!

Users will be able to use a currency that is gold backed, and backed by assets, instead of debt.  So that when they have more currency, they have more assets, instead of more debt.

Users will see their viewpoint shift from short term, self centered, to long term benefits which benefit the whole community, not just themselves.

Users will be able to enjoy an increase in the sustainability of the economy.

Users will feel more balance between their own male and female characteristics.

Users will feel more connection with the Earth, and the Divine Feminine.

What currencies is GEO accepting for trade? and what is the minimum trade amount?

If you want to exchange some of your currencies for GEO now, we would be glad to accept US Dollars, Euros, Bitcoin, and others.

After we have set up our structure, we will accept many more currencies.

What is the difference between Bitcoin and GEO?

Bitcoin is the first Cryptocurrency.  Its value is produced by complex computer calculations, which it has called “mining”.  Bitcoin’s price has varied from less than a penny up to over $1200.  It is now down to about a third of that price.   Speculators like  instability of currencies and of prices, because it lets them make money, by betting on the future activity of the markets, but it is not good for the stability of the world economy.

There is no physical representation of a Bitcoin–it only exists in digital form.

GEO has characteristics of a cryptocurrency, but also characteristics of other currency forms.  It is available as a gold note, in digital forms, and it also is available in paper and other forms.  One important characteristic is that the price of GEO is stable, compared to a basket of gold, commodities and other assets.  It therefore is not subject to the wide swings that occur in gold, commodity, stocks, and other currencies.

You can see more comparisons at the chart at the bottom of the HOME page.

Can the GEO be used to replace a whole country's currency?

GEO is not designed to be the only currency in a country.  As a complementary currency, it is designed to complement, or balance, the national currency.

That said, GEO COULD be used for an entire country, much as the Swiss WIR is used to balance the Swiss Franc.  And unlike the WIR, it could be used as the MAIN currency for in-country transactions.

GEO could be used as a national currency to balance international fiat or gold backed currencies.  It could be used similarly to a local currency.

Another alternative is to adopt a yin-type local complementary currency as the national currency, and use it within the GEO system.

By when do you expect GEO to be widely accepted? What is the timeline?

We expect that GEO can be launched in six months from launch of this website (May 2015).  That would mean late in 2015 we will be ready for a launch of the currency system.

It will take a year or more for GEO to be “widely accepted”.  But as with Bitcoin, there will be slow initial growth, growing faster and faster until it is accepted widely, similar to Bitcoin.  This will be affected by the external economy, and by the number of local economies which choose to integrate into this system.  A strong national economy would cause delayed acceptance of GEO.  Weaker national economy and more strong local economies would decrease the time required.

Why?

Why would I want to use GEO?

History has shown that using a “yin type” currency to complement a “hard asset” currency like today’s national currencies has led to the following benefits, among others:

  • Promotes Abundance and Sustainability
    • Keeps Local Wealth Local
    • Promotes Long-term Thinking and Investments, instead of Short-term
    • Reduces Greed and Scarcity Consciousness
    • Promotes Health
  • Promotes Relationships
  • Promotes Community
  • Inherently Benefits Women, and Promotes Gender Balance
  • Promotes Cooperation, Instead of Competition
  • Promotes Liberty
    • Free from Governmental Manipulation and Control
  • Is Asset Based, not like debt-based national currencies
    • Using it Creates Wealth, instead of debt
  • Has Benefits of Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin
    • Cheap and Easy to Transmit Internationally
  • And Much More!

A longer list is in our vision statement.

You can learn more by reading our 7 part explanation.

Control

Who has control over the GEO?

GGCurrency  will operate primarily as a disseminated autonomous organization (DAO), a self regulating computer program free as much as possible from human interference and control.  Monitoring the DAO will be necessary at first to insure that the self-regulating feedback loops are properly tweaked to give the independent operations required.  No changes will be made in the system without concurrence of a wide group of users, programmers, economists and cryptocurrency experts.

The DAO is monitored by The GEO Foundation, which is located in a country with a history of being free in financial affairs.

The foundation will not own it nor control the DAO, and ultimately, the control of the DAO will reside in each of thousands of computers which are running its algorithms.

The foundation will be run by a board of directors having at least one economist like Dr. Lietaer, commodities specialists, free market specialists, bankers, IT cryptocurrency specialists, and others.

Can the GEO be destroyed by a court order / government?

GEO will operate primarily as a disseminated autonomous organization (DAO), free as much as possible from human interference and control.

The GEO Foundation, which monitors the DAO, will not own it nor control it, and ultimately, the control of the DAO will reside in each of thousands of computers which are running its algorithms.  Ownership of the GEO will reside in the users, who truly are shareholders.

Since there is no owner of the currency, or the DAO, there is no way that a valid court order could be given to any entity.  A court order against the Foundation would fail for lack of jurisdiction, as the DAO would not exist in the same jurisdiction as the Foundation, and the Foundation would not be owners or controllers of the DAO or the currency.

Investment

What are the Benefits to Investors in GEO System?

Investors get to assist in manifesting world changes thru investing in GEO and GGTrust.

Investors help to stabilize the world economy. Like in the Swiss economy, a parallel complementary currency will tend to stabilize the cyclical swings of national and world currency systems.  Investors may be able to hedge against their own business cycles using the countercyclical parts of this currency system.

Investors receive a store of value of for their assets. Unlike fiat currencies which lose 10% or more each year, GEO will be tied to a basket of commodities and other values.

Investors initially receive shares as Certificates of Financial Interest in GGTrust.

Then, they receive an equal amount of tradeable GGTrust Shares which are par value and exchangeable with GEO.

Investors may receive valuable and collectible silver share coins.

Investors may receive periodic dividends of shares as certain milestones are passed.

Investors may receive monetary dividends from profits of the GGTrust projects in which the investment funds are invested.

Investors get first option to mine GEOs, when the mining is easiest and most productive.

Can I make money buying GEO like I could with Bitcoin?

No.  GEO is designed to keep a stable value, unlike commodities or other currencies.  So, there is not a wide swing of value for speculation.

However, you may be able to make money by investing into GEO, as you may earn dividends of more stock shares, and cash dividends from the GGTrust projects that your investment is invested in, as well as other benefits of currency production.

What happens to the money I spend for GEO?

Please see the Implementation Plan.  Initially, your investment will be allocated to creating the computer code and solidifying the ideas for GEO system.  Some will be used for office operations and IT infrastructure.

Then, funds will be spent on GEO share certificates and notes, in paper and precious metals.

Funds will then be used for fundraising, crowdfunding and other funding methods.

After the launch of the currency, funds will be used to purchase assets to back the currency (gold, silver, other commodities), and for investment into low risk, high return GGTrust projects, such as development of in ground precious metal assets, transportation projects, and others.

How may I purchase shares?

You may purchase shares through our Investment page.  It may be useful to contact us directly about this purchase.  We will have more information published soon about the share purchase process.

Please be aware that initially, we will only be issuing shares in the form of Certificates of Financial Interest.  Issue of tradable share certificates will only occur after we have received enough funding to have them printed.  Initial investors will receive BOTH the certificates of Financial Interest and the share currency notes, for double the value.

If GEO is so profitable, why are you asking for donations?

GEO is not intended to be a profit-making venture.  It is a means of exchange.  But, there are ways that it can make money for investors.

Even though GGTrust owns or controls billions of dollars of assets, that doesn’t mean that we have the money right now to exploit those assets.  We have billions of dollars of gold in the ground, but we do not yet have the scores of millions required to mine that gold.

Similarly, we have many  technologies which we firmly believe will lead to trillion dollar industries, but we do not have the millions to develop them.

GEO needs start up money to create the computer coding and physical currency to launch.  That is why we ask for your donations and investments.

Recent history is showing us that internet related applications whose time has come may grow at a fast exponential rate.  See how fast Amazon, eBay, Facebook, and e-currencies  like Bitcoin have gone from just an idea to what they are today.  We expect the same to happen with the GGTrust and GEO.

How would you like to have had the opportunity to invest in Google, Amazon or Bitcoin at the very beginning?

Mining—What does it take for me to start mining currencies?

Mining currencies takes a computer and the appropriate software.  The software for mining GEO has not yet been written, so you can’t start mining yet.

As an example of mining currency, Bitcoin mining has become very competitive, so that very powerful computer chips to do the mining have become required to stay in the race.  These chips are called Application Specific Integrated Circuits, or ASICs, and are produced by two companies in China, which not surprisingly, also do most of the Bitcoin mining.

GEO mining might be possible using an ordinary computer.  It is possible that, like Bitcoin, more and more computational power will be needed as time goes on.

GEO will offer a license to mine GEO well before the launch of GEO.  Early mining is much easier and more profitable than later mining, because the computations are easier at the early stage.

After launch, GEO may offer kits with the software and any required special hardware for mining.  We will like as many people as desire to be involved in the mining process, since mining keeps the currency system healthy and secure.

Local Currency

How do we get a local currency started?

The first thing to do is to start an interest group of interested people to explore the subject and see if there is enough interest to create one.

QOIN.com can help your group to decide what type of currency is best for your community.

What type of local currency should we start?

GEO can interface with pretty much any type of local currency, but we will work with Qoin to come up with a recommened “plug and play” currency which will work In most situations.  It will be able to be modified at will, and to use a standard scrip already printed, or a custom one with your local name and graphics.

What needs to change to add my local currency to the GEO System?

Your local currency has to undergo valuation to come up with an exchange rate.  If you currently need 100 units of your currency to buy an apple, but you want to make it equal in value to GGCurrency, some adjustments would need to be made in the value of your currency.

Your currency system would also need to undergo evaluation as to its structure and control.  If your currency is managed by a “central banker” who has freedom to print money whenever he wants to (like most nations), and he wants to continue doing that while trading 1:1 with GEO, that would not be allowed.  GEO system cannot be responsible for overprinting of local currency or overspending of local currency participants.  GEO is not created by local participants.  It is created by mining.

You would need to establish a local exchange office to coordinate integration of the two systems.  This would initially be done in conjunction with the GEO Foundation.  The local currency exchange office would also help to integrate the long-distance exchange capabilities of GEO system, and would help to integrate your local currency with other local currencies which might be in the area.

How long does it take to get a local currency functioning?

If you choose to use a standard local currency as already prepared by GEO or Qoin, it could be as little as 2 weeks to get a local currency up and running.  Modifications to the system and printing of custom scrip would take another 2 weeks or so, after the design is settled.

What if my local currency wants to join the GEO System but our rate is not the same?

Two possibilities.

You could revalue your currency to match GEO’s value, GGTrust share value, and the value of the basket of assets upon which the price of GEO will be based.

Or you can keep your value, and the local exchange enter will help you to convert from your price to the GEO price whenever you want to do trades outside of your local currency system.

Do we have to change the name of our local currency to join GEO system?

No.  You can keep whatever name you want to use. It may be that a consensus develops among local currency users, so you might want to change it, but it will not be required.

To submit your own question, please do so with the orange Give Feedback button on the left side.