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Universal basic income (UBI) is a state or other institutional material support for community members. Universal (guaranteed) income consists in the absence of additional (along with belonging to the society) requirements for receiving assistance. It is believed that such a support system can reduce financial anxiety and improve mental and physical health, increase motivation to work. Typical arguments against a decrease in the desire to work and a corresponding decrease in productivity.

This is a social concept that involves regular payments of a certain amount of money to each member of the community by the state or other institution (such institution is represented by CENTUS seigniorage network in this document).

Universal basic (unconditional) income is regular payments, which are sufficient to cover basic expenses: rent, food, and clothing. They are provided regularly, free of charge, without any counter obligations, and do not depend on age, marital status or income level.

Initially, this method of interaction between the state and the individual was considered from the point of view of eliminating excessive social inequality. This was a key goal. And as an economic background, they used such a concept as “social dividends”. It was introduced by Clifford Douglas, British major, who was convinced that every citizen is entitled to a part of the national wealth.

Everything looks quite logical: if you are a citizen of the country, then you also own part of the national wealth. It is like being a shareowner and receiving a part of the company’s profit in the form of dividends.

Attempts to introduce cyclical payments of UBI in different countries are accompanied by discussions and contradictions of opponents and supporters of this measure of socio-economic support of the population.

Taking into account different approaches, states are trying to replace social payments with monthly accruals of UBI, thereby giving to the society the right to dispose its income based on its needs. However, it was calculated that, if Switzerland had introduced such kind of social benefits, the expenditure for the introduction of this measure would have been about 200 billion dollars per year. Given the financial condition and small population of this country, this figure is significant even for them.

So far, the main sources for payments of universal income have been named as follows:

1. Universal basic income should replace all existing social benefits.
2. Higher taxes. This is nothing new, and now all social programs are implemented by the state at the expense of taxes. Nevertheless, at present, social benefits and taxes are not symmetrical, that is, taxes are paid by some people, and benefits are received by others. The progressive tax rate is designed to redistribute money from the richest to the poorest.
   We can often hear reproaches such as why those who work should support those who do not work, or who, in the opinion of society, do not work enough. What can we reply? It is in the interests of society as a whole. At least, this is how economists and sociologists explain this fact.
   In addition, the redistribution of funds between social strata by other means is becoming more difficult.
3. Another source of payment of universal basic income are funds saved on reducing the bureaucracy. After all, officials dealing with social payments will no longer be needed. Every citizen will simply receive the amount due to him or her on a monthly basis.
4. One of the options for obtaining funds for the payment of universal basic income is seigniorage (income received from the issue of money and assigned by the issuer on the property rights).

A number of countries have successfully implemented UBI accrual policy.

Canada

One of the very first experiments on the payment of a universal basic income took place back in the 70s in the city of Dauphin (Canada). The project is called Mincome. According to the project, each resident of the city received monthly payments for 5 years. We must admit that this was one of the longest experiments organized at the state expense.

Evelyn Forget, an economist at the University of Manitoba, studied the results of this experiment. She noted in her report that the level of employment has not decreased at all. At the same time, the number of volunteers has increased, and the social activity of the population has increased.

The rate of hospitalization in the city decreased by 8.5%. During the experiment, a larger number of teenagers graduated from schools, rather than leaving school study unfinished.

Namibia

A coalition of organizations launched a pilot project in Ochivero village, Namibia, with a population of about 1,000 people. For a year, each resident of the village had received 100 Namibian dollars per month. As a result, men stopped illegal hunting, children were not starving, and many children improved their school performance. Employment increased by 11% as people opened pastry shops, hair-dressing salons and brick-making workshops. Additionally, crime rates dropped by 42%.

India

In 2011, the Association of women entrepreneurs, supported by UNICEF, conducted an experiment that lasted a year and a half. Each adult in 10 villages was paid 200 rupees and a child was paid 100 rupees monthly. Economic activity has increased, and food and school attendance have improved. The government of India took into account the results of the experiment, replacing 29 different social programs with direct payments to citizens.

In addition, this year, Arvind Subramanian, an economic adviser to the government of India, suggested that the introduction of unconditional income at the national level should be considered. In the annual report for the government, the estimated amount was also named – 7620 rupees or $113 per year. Even such a small amount, according to many, could significantly reduce the level of poverty in the country.

Germany

In 2014, the German entrepreneur Michael Bohmeyer started implementation of the pilot programme “Mein Grundeinkommen” (my basic income). Several dozen randomly selected people had been receiving 1,000 euros each month for a year.

All participants of the project note that their sleep has become much calmer. However, not much has changed in their lives in general as students continued to study, workers continued to work.

The author of the project noted that the idea of basic payments is based on four principles: it is universal, it solves individual problems, it does not depend on any conditions and creates a high minimum standard of living for citizens.

Many countries are in the middle of an “experiment” now. We will be able to evaluate the results only after some time. You can find few examples of these countries below.

Finland

The Finnish national insurance authority has proposed replacing social benefits with a fixed payment for all adult citizens of the country, regardless of income level. It is expected to set payments at 550 euros per month, and later raise to 800 euros.

Kenya

In October 2016, Givedirect, the New York based charity organization which fights poverty in East Africa, launched the largest project thus far for paying an universal basic income in Kenya. Residents of 40 villages will receive about $ 22.5 per month for 12 years. This is not just a charity event, but a scientific experiment aimed at collecting and analysing data on the effectiveness of universal basic income.

USA

Participants of the Economic Security Project, launched at the end of 2016, are researching the potential benefits of universal basic income in developed economies. The initiators of the project with a budget of 10 million dollars are more than 100 organizations and individuals, including Chris Hughes, Facebook cofounder, and Sam Altman, Y Combinator Foundation President.

Spain

Dans le cadre des mesures visant à atténuer les conséquences sociales et économiques de la pandémie de coronavirus, le gouvernement espagnol va introduire prochainement un revenu universel de base. Nadia Calvino, ministre des Affaires économiques, l'a annoncé le 5 avril 2020. Le gouvernement espagnol veut maintenir un revenu de base universel même après l'épidémie. Le ministre des Affaires économiques a exprimé l'espoir que le revenu universel de base restera un « outil structurel permanent ».

Any member of the CENTUS seigniorage network, a coin owner, is entitled to receive basic income in the form of interest accrued on the amount of coins in his wallet. The basic income rate is determined by network participants – owners of DBC tokens intended for project management. This is done to prevent CENTUS coin owners from indefinitely inflating the interest paid, thus no excessive supply of coins is created on the market.

Dans le réseau de seigneuriage CENTUS, non seulement les participants qui ont acheté des pièces peuvent recevoir un revenu de base. Il est également possible pour les membres de la communauté qui n’ont pas la possibilité d’acheter des jetons de recevoir un tel revenu. Pour ce faire, les participants peuvent promouvoir le projet à un certain stade en gagnant et en accumulant des primes spéciales, qu’ils peuvent convertir en CENTUS et recevoir un revenu de base. Bien sûr, ils peuvent vendre ces pièces à tout moment opportun.

À l’avenir, à mesure que le projet se développe et que la capitalisation de CENTUS augmente, en plus des frais d’intérêt, il est prévu d’ajouter un paiement d’un montant fixe minimum en termes absolus, par exemple, de 50 à 100 dollars américains, à plusieurs centaines de dollars américains, à chaque participant à CENTUS.

At the initial stage, we reserve the right to use any combination of seigniorage (basic income) payments, including dividing accruals depending on how CENTUS was received: for example, those who purchased tokens at their own expense can count on the maximum payout, while those who received them through bonus and other exchanges, as well as various incentive programs can receive accruals par- tially.

People living in developed countries take for granted the availability of a stable currency. If you are in the US with unlimited access to dollars or in the EU with access to euros, you may wonder why the world needs a digital currency with a stable price. However, in countries with weak financial institutions and unstable currencies, high rates of inflation and currency devaluation are common. We expect CENTUS with its stable price and integral seigniorage to be in high demand in these markets.

At the time of publication in the second quarter of 2020, annual inflation in Egypt was 6.8%, in Argentina – 50.3%, and in Nigeria – 12.2%. These are only those countries whose governments are relatively more stable. Let us look at Venezuela, which currently has an annual inflation rate of 9586%. What would you do if your savings were disappearing at a rate of 9586% a year? Faced with a rapidly depreciating local currency, people are looking for other ways to survive, often leaning towards the dollar. This effect is known as dollarization.

It usually takes three forms:

• Premièrement, la population peut préférer utiliser le dollar au lieu de la monnaie locale sans aucune coordination du gouvernement local. Le dollar américain est utilisé comme monnaie de facto dans un certain nombre de pays d’Asie centrale et d’Afrique subsaharienne, et son taux d’adoption peut être extrêmement élevé, malgré l’absence de coordination officielle. Par exemple, pendant 2 ans, de 2006 à 2008, la dollarisation aux Seychelles est passée de 20% à 60%.
• Deuxièmement, les citoyens d’un pays peuvent exiger le dollar, malgré les contrôles de capitaux de l’État qui empêchent le mouvement du dollar à travers ses frontières. Ce n’est un secret pour personne qu’il y avait un marché du dollar noir en Argentine, connu sous le nom de dollar bleu, pendant la période de contrôle des capitaux de 2011 à 2015. Au cours de ces années, entre 10 et 40 millions de dollars par jour ont changé de mains à des taux de 25 à 30% supérieurs au taux officiel. Ces paris ont même été publiés quotidiennement dans les journaux nationaux, bien qu’ils soient officiellement illégaux.
• Troisièmement, la dévaluation de la monnaie peut devenir si grave que les gouvernements peuvent officiellement passer au dollar américain, comme cela s’est produit au Zimbabwe en 2009. Aujourd’hui, tout le pays exige des livraisons régulières de dollars et de pièces de monnaie en papier physiques.

The prospects are obvious. Regardless of whether dollarization is officially approved, citizens, banks, and governments incur significant costs when importing physical US dollars. CENTUS, which allows millions of dollars to be transported by making the phone call and generates regular income, seems to be a significantly better alternative to paper dollars in all dollarization scenarios.

In conclusion: existing digital currencies have found an appeal in some countries with hyperinflation, for example, the use of bitcoins in Venezuela is growing as the country has faced a currency crisis. However, Bitcoin can never truly free people from their unstable local currency due to the lack of quote stability. For example, if bitcoin goes through a devaluation cycle, users do not see the difference between devaluing bitcoin and devaluing the local currency. Even if bitcoin only crashes once, people will want to switch to an alternative that is stable in price – if such option exists. Thus, the CENTUS seigniorage stablecent, which allows you to receive regular income, will be an excellent solution for developing countries experiencing rapid currency devaluation.

Aujourd’hui, de nombreux participants du marché de la cryptographie convertissent leur crypto-monnaie en pièces stables rattachées au dollar américain lorsqu’il y a des turbulences sur les marchés de la crypto-monnaie. Pour répondre à ce besoin, une solution centralisée, connue sous le nom de USD Tether, a été générée, mais pour des raisons qui seront discutées plus tard, une solution centralisée telle que Tether a peu de chances de fonctionner à long terme et, par conséquent, Tether a fait face à un sentiment négatif important. En outre, lorsque le marché chute et que le trader conserve ses actifs dans une pièce stable régulière, telle que USD Tether, il n’obtient aucun profit, contrairement à CENTUS, qui a également un prix stable et apporte en même temps un revenu (seigneuriage) à son propriétaire.

Une monnaie numérique de seigneuriage avec un prix stable peut répondre aux besoins des traders numériques. Par conséquent, les traders de crypto-monnaie peuvent naturellement être enthousiastes à propos des nouveaux protocoles, et ici nous nous attendons à une demande initiale pour CENTUS Stable Cent.

CENTUS combine une monnaie numérique qui apporte à son propriétaire un profit sous la forme d’un seigneuriage au stade de la croissance, et une pièce stable rattachée au dollar américain.

Due to instability, today’s cryptocurrencies are not suitable for even the most basic financial contracts that our economy relies on. Can you imagine a job for which you get one bitcoin per month, but you pay all your monthly bills in US dollars – what will happen to you and your family if the price of BTC falls? How about buying a home with a 30-year mortgage denominated in bitcoin, in a world where you probably still get paid in dollars? It is impossible to predict the development of events in such cases, because the credit and debt markets, and in fact the markets for any financial contract over time depend on price stability.

Lorsque vous concluez un contrat hypothécaire, le plus grand risque que vous prenez en tant que prêteur est le risque de défaut. Cependant, si cette hypothèque a été libellée dans un actif instable tel que Bitcoin, vous êtes également exposé à un risque de prix très élevé. Par exemple, le coût d’un prêt hypothécaire de 30 ans libellé en bitcoins peut soudainement être très bas si le prix du bitcoin chute de 90% un jour donné au cours des 30 prochaines années. Pour conclure des accords, vous devez être prêt à spéculer sur le prix du Bitcoin pour chaque prêt que vous fournissez ou à trouver un spécialiste qui le fera. Dans tous les cas, l’emprunteur devra payer pour votre volonté de couvrir les risques de prix. Cela ajoute des aspects, difficiles à négocier, aux contrats financiers les plus simples.

Un certain nombre de visionnaires de l’industrie de la blockchain pensent que nous verrons bientôt un écosystème d'«applications blockchain » qui implémentent les services existants avec des outils décentralisés. Par exemple, un jour, nous verrons peut-être “Uber blockchain” ou “Airbnb blockchain”, each using its own tokens. In fact, this is already happening with Filecoin, a service for decentralized file storage on the Internet.

Bien sûr, si chaque application blockchain crée son propre jeton, il doit y avoir un système de conversion entre “a universal token that during its holding brings a constant income and has 100% liquidity” and the tokens of any of these applications. We assume that each person will become a owner of a universal token and will pay with it when using any blockchain application. Then, after payment, the universal token will be immediately converted into an app token at the market rate. This will be similar to your bank account in US dollars and using your debit card in another country, such as Spain, in which case your bank converts your US dollars to euros at the market rate every time you make a purchase, without having to think about it. At the same time, you also get a regular basic in- come in the form of a seigniorage for tokens.

S’il y avait cet écosystème d’applications blockchain qui nécessiterait l’utilisation d’un jeton universel, il serait très étrange que ce jeton universel ne soit pas stable en prix à la condition d’un revenu régulièrement reçu. En d’autres termes, si vous croyez en l’avenir des applications blockchain, vous devez non seulement croire qu’une pièce à prix stable sera nécessaire pour l’échange, mais aussi espérer qu’une pièce à prix stable réussira.