Grantcoin Is The Worlds First Global Universal Basic Income
Universal Basic Income is an unconditional income given to every citizen, a guaranteed minimum income dispersed as a social dividend.
![grantcoin movement.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://s24.postimg.org/7q4v7cah1/grantcoin_movement.jpg)
Wikipedia defines it as:
A basic income (also called unconditional basic income, Citizen's Income, basic income guarantee, universal basic income or universal demogrant[2]) is a form of social security[3] in which all citizens or residents of a country regularly receive an unconditional sum of money, either from a government or some other public institution, in addition to any income received from elsewhere. credit
Grantcoin is unique in that it is the first global universal income project so anyone in the world can be part of it.
![grantcoin map.png](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://s21.postimg.org/hkuzb9ukn/grantcoin_map.png)
I wrote a post about it on Steemit and have signed up to Grantcoin, world's first gloabal basic income digital currency.
I have received some comments from Steemit users asking questions that I promised to answer in a post.
Since that earlier post I have learned more about Grantcoin and I wanted to clarify and share what I Have learned since.
After signing up to Grantcoin I was directed to sign up to a site called Ekata where I could see points deposited into that account daily. It has since come to my attention that those points are not Grancoins at all.
I don't know how I was directed to that site at all, but it seems Ekata will be partnered with Grantcoin at some point in the future and will make things easier to use for people not familiar with digital wallets.
When I wrote to support for the Ekata website they responded by email with:
Grantcoin Foundation is using the Ekata platform currently for their signup process. We are also working on hosted grantcoin wallets within the platform. This is because many people do not know or understand how to run their own wallets. just one example is eventually Ekata will have a marketplace increasing the usefulness of grantcoin. Ekata will be more than just for Grantcoin Foundations uses, eventually the plan is to have other socially responsible cryptocurrencies as well.
So I shot an email to Grantcoin directly and got a response from the founder Eric Stetson.
I wrote:
Is GrantCoin still happening?
I noticed it's about to be dropped on the Bittrex exchange
and I have no coins in my wallet since joining in September 2016
He responded back promptly with:
Yes, Grantcoin is definitely still happening. Nothing has changed because of the Bittrex delisting, and in fact our project is continuing to make good progress with many new signups (over 2,000 now in 80 countries) and other positive developments.
Grantcoin can still be traded on SouthXchange: https://www.southxchange.com/Market/Book/GRT/BTC And we will also be looking for another exchange to list the currency too.
We will be publishing an announcement tonight about recent developments including the situation with exchanges and other news.
I will look into the issue of your wallet. I need to take a look at our database and see if you're in there as a verified participant in Grantcoin distributions and what wallet address we have on record for you. I'll let you know.
Thanks, Eric
He did follow up a couple days later and I now have a wallet installed on my laptop and Grantcoins have been deposited beginning the day I joined.
People interesting in signing up for Universal Basic Income can do so with this link from Grantcoin and will be directed to a sign up page. Once you enter some basic information you can download a wallet and get coins deposited each month.
The first time you load a Grantcoin wallet it will take some time for the wallet to synchronize with the network so be patient.
Eric also sent me a link to a page that shows all my coins in one easy to read format. Once you have an account you can go to that page too. This is the web address but you'll just need to replace the web address with the address they will give you: https://chainz.cryptoid.info/grt/address.dws?PUT-YOUR-GRANTCOIN-ADDRESS-HERE.htm
I hope this answers some of your questions about Grantcoin and if you have more just ask and I'll try to help.
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![luzcypher-emoji-verified-2.png](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://s16.postimg.org/fg72y0snp/luzcypher_emoji_verified_2.png)
@camille1234 has told me a little bit about Univeral Basic Income. There is so much I do not understand. Do you receive it in addition to your social security and your lifetime savings? Is it a taxable income? I realize that we are probably headed this way but like I said it is confusing.
A basic income consists in purchasing power provided at regular intervals, such as a week, a month, a term or a year, depending on the proposal.
In Grantcoin's case, it is distributed monthly in the form of Grantcoins, a digital currency much like bitcoin or steem, and can be sold on an exchange and converted into either another digital currency or fiat (cash) in your country.
You just get it because you breathe???
That is the idea. It is important to get away from the old ways of thinking. Modern reality is that there is plenty of wealth to go around, but the wealthy who are getting 99% of it are failing to consider others in their consolidation of wealth.
We "breathers" buy their food, their cars, their houses, their junk, their X, their Y and Z and on and on and on. The coming of robots, AI and exponentially growing economies will mean exponential profits for the rich, but exponential poverty for the poor. That's the system. We need to break that circle of thinking and share the wealth more, plain and simple. Furthermore, there could be artistic and other cultural benefits, if most people did not have to grind out a job they really don't want in order to exist.
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So you get to keep all your existing income and get Universal Basic Income too? That's hard for senior citizens to wrap their head around. After all we worked our asses off for many years and we are loosing our hard earned money in the stock market. If you want to take it out of your IRA they tax you to death and you loose more. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I realize the the elite want to keep us in a subservient position that is why I came to explore the possibilities here on Steemit. Followed upvoted and resteemed for sure. Blessings to you and yours!
There could be some trade offs. The Swiss UBI plan would have given each citizen about $2500/month and there would be no welfare programs, but citizens would have to buy there own health insurance or pay in cash. For young healthy people, this is a windfall. However, I'm a senior myself and I know that when it comes to medical bills and insurance, $2500 is peanuts if your health starts to fail.
If you are a millionaire, you could opt to not take the UBI, but I was brought up in a wealthy environment and I know that the wealthy pinch pennies too. I would guess that most millionaires would take the UBI, if only for the spare change.
UBI is coming. They are already experimenting with it in Europe. It is not what one would think at first. I'm keeping an open mind and learning about it; Lord know I need the money;))
Correct. Everyone is eligible regardless of where you live or your age, at least in Grantcoin's case.
I will go back and read everything and I have to admit it looks interesting for sure! Thanks for the info.
I read a post about Grantcoin some ways back and thought the whole concept was interesting, simply because I am a believe in the idea of UBI... seems to me it's the only way to (functionally) go in a world that becomes more and more automated. Automation is going to replace 50% of what we now think of as "paying jobs" over the next 25-30 years... so we're basically hosed unless some alternatives are created.
I don't know what it's going to take for the idea to truly gain "traction," especially in societies founded on the "work ethic" as the way to survive... but I'm all about exploring ideas.
The trend towards automation is precisely why a UBI is needed now more than ever. I find it interesting that societies founded on the "work ethic" as a way to survive seem to ignore that ethic when companies push towards automation. The work ethic was popular when big business needed workers and as they move towards automation they forget all about that.
Agreed... much of the time-- when people start moaning and groaning to me about their jobs being gone because of "immigrant workers" and "outsourcing," I point out that those good jobs they keep remembering-- like checking people out at Home Depot-- were not taken by people but by a bank of self-checkout stands.
You've probably seen this short documentary, but I thought I'd share it anyway, just in case:
I have seen this film and recommend it.
I have been living outside the U.S. for quite some time and returned for a bit recently and found the self-checkout at supermarkets to be the strangest thing. I feel like I'm threatening someone's job using those and if I have to become my own checkout person I should at least get a discount off my purchases.
Amazon has been testing the first no checkout stores called Amazon Go, a new brick-and-mortar convenience store that will let shoppers pick up items off the shelves and leave without standing in line to pay.
With technology like this on the horizon, not only are manufacturing jobs becoming automated, but even the last of the human-dependent jobs in the retail and service sectors could become a thing of the past.
@luzcypher
I greatly appreciate your work on this Grantcoin matter, because I believe in UBI 100%. There will be more financial trouble for humanity in the future if mankind doesn't implement a more effective way to distribute the untold wealth that the human race generates.
I will send another message to Eric and see if I get a response...
In addition, your article brings to light important useful information about Grantcoin that I had not been aware of. Thank again for your diligent efforts!
@allsteemians: Please upvote this COMMENT as per the Steemit reward model, if you think it furthers the Steemit platform.
Thanks for asking me some good questions and inspiring this post.
UBI is for everyone.
Good post about UBI and Grantcoin!
I've been with Grantcoin from the beginning and referred a few people. The people running Grantcoin and Ekata are nice and do reply to emails. Unfortunately the price fell quite a bit about a week ago. http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem/
This might be a good time to buy some GRT! I bought some recently and maybe some people who did well this week on DASH or ETH, or who rode the BTC price upward might trade some for GRT. Grantcoin and UBI are ideas that have a lot of potential in the future!
Grantcoin seems to be doing a good job. It's early still but they are growing and communicate well. I grabbed some Dash just before the price rise luckily. Things look good with Dash too.
Glad to say that I've been with Grantcoin for a few months and I am eventually going to save up to buy one of their nifty flash drives with wallet and GRT installed. Eric Stetson has been SUPER at communicating with me as well since my wallet was on Bittrex. I've since moved it to SouthXchange but will be looking into a desktop wallet in the future.
I hope these links are using your referral code @luzcypher
I agree, Eric Stetson has been great and doing a fine job growing the network worldwide.
NOTE: Last day GRT is on Bittrex is March 18th, 2017
Yes, the links are referrals
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Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll give it a try
Hi @luzcypher, I signed up for grantcoin the same day I signed up for steemit about a week ago. I've got my account on Ekata all set up, but there was no option to download a wallet. I had a service message when I first logged in that told me to contact two different "Staff" users on Ekata. I sent them messages but didn't hear back. Should I try the grantcoin email instead? Thanks, also thanks for all the fun with the open mic! It's been a blast.
Well, apparently Grantcoin is dead. They completely removed all account information from Ekata so I can't even access my wallet. And the site of the Manna, which they promote as Grantcoin successor, currently shows a 404 error.