Layer 3 - Economic & Resource System

How value flows inside the community.

Contribution recognition

  • Labor
  • Care
  • Knowledge
  • Stewardship

Resource allocation

  • Commons vs private
  • Internal exchange
  • External income interface

Treasury logic

  • Transparency rules
  • Spending authority
  • Reserves & risk

Artifacts

  • Internal Economy Protocol (Defines how contributions are recognized and exchanged; non-monetary or token-based, but must be explicit)
    • What counts as contribution
    • How contributions are logged or acknowledged
    • Internal units (time credits, EcoTokens, points)
    • Commons vs private boundaries
    • Limits on accumulation
  • Treasury Ruleset (Defines how shared resources are held and spent; “community financial law”)
    • Income sources
    • Spending authority by amount
    • Transparency requirements
    • Reserve policies
    • Risk and debt limits

Layer Invariants

  • Invariant 3.1: Economic transparency by default Shared resources, flows, and obligations must be visible to the community (with limited, explicit exceptions).
  • Invariant 3.2: Commons protection Resources declared as commons cannot be privatized through informal or unilateral action.
  • Invariant 3.3: Contribution recognition is explicit Unpaid or invisible labor must not be structurally required for system survival.
  • Invariant 3.4: No unbounded accumulation of internal power Economic mechanisms must prevent indefinite concentration of internal influence.

Explicitness Rules

MUST be explicit

  • What is common vs private
  • How shared resources are allocated
  • Spending authority limits
  • Transparency rules
  • External income interface

Why: money + ambiguity destroys trust faster than conflict.

MAY be explicit

  • Contribution valuation models
  • Internal units (tokens, hours, points)
  • Budget categories

MUST remain optional

  • Attitudes toward wealth
  • Equal vs differentiated outcomes
  • Personal financial choices

RCOS Blueprint by EcoHubs

A modular operating system that defines how intentional communities organize — from governance and roles to resource sharing and conflict resolution — in support of resilience, fairness, and regeneration.

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