OCCCU FAQ

How much is an OCCCU?

The value is determined by the bargain you agree on. As a rough estimate, you could assume that one hour of your work is worth 10 occ.

Is the OCCCU basic income for free?

Not really. We assume that everybody does some useful work at home or in local communities. That's why you are gratified with a basic income. OCCCU members are expected to follow some ethical principles, such as the nine values at ethify.org. You are entitled to receive 100 occ any first day within each month of your membership.

How can I become a basic member?

Your initial membership lasts for 100 days. Anytime, you can identify yourself to upgrade to normal membership. Currently we can handle CAcert e-mail verification or a Credit Card transfer to check your ID. Without verification of your ID, your membership status will be frozen (you can still do transactions but will not receive further basic income). By checking identities it is ensured that you get basic income only once. A small membership fee (€ 1.50 per month) is requested by members in North America and Europe to cover basic expenses of the administrators.

How can I become a supporting member?

Help to pay our Euro biills for server, programming, printables, renting a shared office space or travelling to events or to occupied places. As a supporting member you can publish up to 10 advertisements without time limit. Supporting membership starts at € 5.- per month.

How can I become a voting member?

In future, OCCCU may be managed by the osAlliance, which is an audited co-operative, based in the Austrian alps. It is currently the proxy for all technical, financial and legal matters. The co-op was founded in 2002 and has proven governance structures for media, software or coworking projects. Anybody worldwide may apply for real membership and order 1-20 shares € 100.- each. This allows you to participate in the co-op's general assembly, decide on membership fees or to be elected for the management or supervisory board.

Can I secure OCCCUs from negative interest?

Your basic income account is good for daily needs, but not for long-term goals which require a bigger sum, as the demurrage melts it down. How could you save for a bicycle or a swing for the playground? Start a loan group! Tell your wish and you (and other supporters) transfer rates, until the goal is met. Any investment which is under public control is exempted from demurrage, as long as basic ethical standards are met. We are looking forward to establish co-operations or build our own crowdsourcing platform, which match ideas with supporters.

Can I have multiple accounts?

Yes. But any person can have only one account with basic income. We'll ask for your ID when you apply for life-long basic income membership.

How can I close my account?

When is SMS clearing available?

We will introduce SMS if there are relevant use cases and groups. You can agree on a bargain also offline if both partners sign a cheque and one of them starts the transaction or writes the inoice later when online anytime.

Can I ask for OCCCUs to promote a discount?

Sure. You may want to offer a product and can not renounce conventional money completely. You always can split a price tag and request a part in OCCCUs. Example: offer a nice boat trip for 40 EUR, or 20 EUR + 20 OCC.

Can I convert OCCCUs?

We'd love to transfer OCCCUs to other time banks or barter systems. Send us a note to info at occcu dot com so that we can discuss rates and interfaces. Specifically, we are looking for peer2peer encrypted systems (bitcoin, payswarm) and give OCCCUs a technological boost, making transfers possible without central clearing.

If everybody has a basic income, so why pay?

Good question. We will be investigating, if the OCCCU also has the side effect of de-monetarization. You can co-operate with

passion without money. Simply wear an OCCCU badge and don't ask for money, unless you need contractual evidence. Still, the OCCCU e-banking may help to confirm your effort or gratify a service or product received.

How serious is Occupy Currency?

Well, occupy is a strong movement, gathering various topics, initiatives and experts. We rethink economic mechanisms and suggest ways out of dilemmas like eternal growth or exploiting the environment or workers. We occupy places and topics worldwide. OCCCU is serious about changing the way how money is created and used. It rapidly evolved from an artistic media project to a full operational barter system, governed by a co-operative, which is taking responsibility on operations. Still, in 2012 OCCCU is to be considered as a media art project and a beta phase experiment. Some parameters or governance rules are subject to change. We are planning a survey in 4Q12 about the usage and effects when using OCCCUs.

In case we decide or are forced to cancel the OCCCU project, all accounts are set to zero and the co-op's general assembly will decide, in which other or new project any remaining assets will go.

Do I need to pay taxes?

Even if the OCCCU community collects a demurrage, it can not pay taxes in your national currency. If you earn many OCCCUs, it has to be considered as an income and you may add the OCCCU account balance of the last day of the year to your annual tax statement (companies may add the OCC currency to their double bookkeeping system). Conversion rate: 10 OCC is your countries average wage per hour. Yes, OCCCU is about work, thus it is more than just earning points in a game!

Where was OCCCU born?

OCCCU was designed by students' at the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences in January 2012 (Natalie Brunner, Karin Feuerstein, Bianca Abbrederis, Christian Rettenberger, Diana Eglseder, Christopher Robosch) under the supervision of Dr. Roland Alton. Public presentation was at occupyWEF in Davos with great people from occupy Switzerland. Social media support is being continued by master students in spring 2012.