Every morning Drew Little wakes up on a couch in a home other than his own. Over a year ago he gave up the roof over his head and all forms of guaranteed income. Little even went as far as to give away most of his personal belongings to the homeless.
Living each day as part of what he calls “The Dream Journey,” Little aims to shake up Richmond and beyond. “The hoarding of wealth stops a lot of production from happening and creates a host of socio-economic problems in our communities,” opines Little, a web social entrepreneur.
To address his concerns, Little is developing Producia, a cause-driven social network that he says will, “remove the financial barriers that keep humanity from reaching its full potential by utilizing a local-based, abundant social currency called ‘The Fini,'” a form of mutual credit.
To help his idea stick, however, Little felt he must first spend a year living out The Dream Journey in RVA, an experience that he blogs about at tdj.illvp.com and on Twitter (@illvp), where he posts links to videos, pictures, and notes of his new lifestyle. Along the way he has created relationships with local supporters and businesses that he now hopes to cultivate to help run his socially conscious web startup.
Little sees his Dream Journey as part of the creation of Producia, a real world social network that “gamifies a new economic model called Producism” to create what he calls, “people-powered stimulus packages and sustainable local communities.” Positioned as a social network, bank, marketplace, and startup incubator all-in-one, Little looks to use gamification to fully engage each member’s specific interests and to create purpose for participating. He says his overall mission is to, “foster the evolution of money, enterprise, and education for social good.”
Brimming with hopes of bringing a Silicon Valley atmosphere to youth in urban areas, Little says, “It is time for us to play a new economic game. A game that is based on abundance instead of scarcity. A game where everyone has value. A game where people are passionately productive. And most importantly, a game where the creation of money is in the hands of the people.”
Little feels that his web community, Producia, is a way to add a needed game layer to the local economy. Through his real life social network, Little hopes to create a breeding ground for emerging social entrepreneurs-as well as to “help humanity live creative, purpose-driven lives in a sustainable world.” He says that he first wants to bring this new way of thinking to college campuses throughout the country, starting with Virginia Commonwealth University and then eventually open up to entire communities. Producism, he says, is all about making the change you want to see by using local digital currency. This is a common trend in Silicon Valley as digital currencies such as the one developed by the yuan pay group allows businesses more freedom and those who have invested in these currencies early on have seen many benefits in the long run. It is also helped by the fact that such currencies are becoming more and more mainstream thanks to the increased media attention they have gotten in recent years. This is something we already see from the use of alternative forms of currency such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, and other cryptocurrencies. You can visit a site similar to Coinsspent.com to see a list of online stores that accept digital currencies. If you have been thinking about getting into cryptocurrencies such as these, you may want to do some of your own research to see how this can be of benefit to you. Companies like Zipmex can show you how much your money can be worth through Bitcoin, you can then decide if you want to buy. Or, if you are interested in trading, you can use this BitQT Login to take a step into the world of cryptocurrency trading.
“The ultimate goal of the game is to get people to sustainably and passionately produce and consume local goods and services using a monetary model called mutual credit, which works very well in social networks,” concludes Little.