Instrument 1 of 3 · Civic Credits
Pay for the work a community needs.
Civic Credits are a public unit of value created only after verified work for the community. They are not borrowed into existence and carry no debt. They run alongside national money at one-to-one, on the same card terminals and apps people already use. If the work needs doing and people are ready to do it, society can afford it.
How a credit is made
The workflow stays familiar. Only the money changes.
- 1Do the workA verified shift in health, education, care, housing, food or community services.
- 2Verified that eveningSupervisor sign-off, with time records and random audits.
- 3Paid by morningThe clearinghouse issues credits equal to the day's wage into your wallet.
- 4Spend like moneyTap to pay for groceries, rent, transport and utilities.
- 5Back to the publicCredits return through taxes, fees and public services, and are retired or reissued.
- Contracted at 40 credits an hour, she completes a 10-hour shift+400
- Her employer's system sends the verified completion; overnight the credits appear400
- Groceries−40
- Transport−10
- Utilities that accept credits−50
- The grocer keeps 20 credits to pay local fees and exchanges 20 for dollars at the clearinghouse. Those 20 credits are retired later, when a citizen pays tax with them.
Why a credit holds its value
Three anchors work together.
Who pays?
No single source, and no new debt.
A credit is created against work already done, so the credit itself needs no budget. What needs funding is the reserve that lets shops cash credits out at parity, and the centres and systems that run the plan. These rest on several layers, so no one source can bring the system down. Each country sets its own mix and adjusts it as conditions change.
- No budget needed for the creditWork-backed issuanceCredits are created only against verified work and return through taxes, fees and public services. The value is the work itself.
- Backs the reserve and the centresThe commons dividendRevenue from natural resources and public utilities, logged in plain units (kilowatt-hours, litres, tonnes, gigabytes) and converted on a published schedule. The funding paper's split: 60% to the workers who run those systems, 20% to maintenance and infrastructure, 20% to a community dividend for the centres, healthcare and education.
- Feeds the stabilisation reserveResource and licence feesFees on companies that extract or use public resources, higher for finite resources like minerals and oil than for renewable ones like timber.
- Keeps the peg credibleThe stabilisation reserveGuarantees that any merchant can exchange credits for dollars at parity, with its coverage published daily. As more taxes and supplier bills are paid in credits, the pressure to cash out falls.
- Makes the centres self-sustainingCentre enterprisesEach centre's own goods and services, surplus renewable energy, training contracts, public-works contracts and recycling. The 2025 edition targets 80–100% of a centre's running costs from these by year 10.
- Builds the first centres and systemsInvestment and partnersPublic budgets for education, health and labour; development banks through results-based loans and social bonds; philanthropy paid out only when credits for verified work are issued; and licence fees from organisations that build on the plan.
The foundation is the Civic Charter for Resources: no one created the land, the water, the minerals or the air, so the value they produce belongs to everyone and flows back as Civic Credits. Alaska has paid a resource dividend to its residents since 1982; see what already works.
What a credit pays
Every role has a published rate.
A Role Standards Board defines each role and its rate from current market data, reviews the rates every quarter, and publishes them for public comment.
Pilots start at today's going rate, so nothing is disrupted on day one. Reviews then move each rate toward the full value society already pays for the work: where a contractor bills $40 an hour for a technician it pays $20, the work is worth $40. Disputes go to an independent tribunal.
Communities can propose new roles. If the work has a measurable public benefit and can be verified, it can be added.
What work earns credits
- Care and healthNurses, paramedics, mental-health and disability support workers, home-care aides.
- EducationEarly-childhood educators, teachers, tutors, vocational instructors, adult-literacy coaches.
- Infrastructure and environmentClean-water and recycling crews, solar and efficiency installers, transit operators, reforestation teams.
- Community safetyMediators, restorative-justice facilitators, emergency-response volunteers, elder-care coordinators.
- Food and housingUrban farms, food distribution, kitchens, affordable-housing construction and repair.
- Digital and civicLifeLink technicians, accessibility designers, translators, community tech support, public-interest media.
Who takes part
Choosing credits is voluntary. Spending them is guaranteed.
No one is made to work for credits, and no one is made to join a centre. But a credit is only useful if it spends everywhere, so acceptance is built into the system.
- WorkersChoose roles paid in credits, or stay on ordinary wages. They can switch back.
- EmployersOpt in by signing a standard addendum; their timekeeping and quality checks stay the same.
- GovernmentsAccept credits for taxes, licences, fees, transit and utilities: the first and strongest guarantee of value.
- Payment networksCarry a Civic Credit lane beside debit and credit, with a software update to existing terminals.
- BusinessesIn a national rollout, registered merchants accept credits at parity. They can keep them to pay taxes and suppliers, or cash them out.
- Citizens in needJoining a Poverty Elimination Center is always a choice, never a condition.
Built so it can't be gamed
Trust, but verify: at every step.
- No credit before the workCredits are never issued in advance.
- More than one signatureSupervisor sign-off, random peer checks, and time and location proof where appropriate.
- Audits that respect privacySystem-wide anomaly detection and targeted audits, with personal data kept off the public ledger.
- Rewards for whistleblowersConfirmed reports of fraud earn a credit bonus.
- Real penaltiesRestitution, suspension or removal; serious cases are prosecuted as theft from the commons.
- Everything publishedDaily totals by sector and region, redemption volumes and reserve coverage, reviewed by independent auditors and citizen committees.
Starting small
The rollout is designed to earn confidence before it grows.
- LaunchOne or two sectors per regionFor example nursing aides and home repairs, with strict parity and instant redemption for merchants.
- ProvePublish weekly resultsStaffing up, waiting times down, redemption stable: the evidence that builds trust.
- GrowExpand acceptance and sectorsMore public-sector acceptance points first, then more sectors as the data supports it.
The hard questions, answered
Isn't this just printing money?
No. New credits exist only after verifiable work is done, so spending power rises with output. The mismatch that drives inflation is absent by design.
Won't prices for essentials go up?
Capacity rises with spending: when more nurses work, waiting times fall; when more builders repair homes, backlogs shrink. Prices for essentials bought with credits follow no-profit-on-necessities rules: true cost plus a fair margin.
Will it push out ordinary wages?
Taking part is contractual and voluntary. The first sectors are the understaffed ones where dollar budgets never meet the need.
What if every shop cashes out straight away?
That's expected at first, and it's why the stabilisation reserve exists. As governments accept credits for taxes and suppliers price some inputs in credits, natural uses for them reduce the pressure to cash out.
What stops employers abusing it?
Employers can't create credits; issuance is independent and happens only after verification. Wage rates are set from market data and reviewed in public, and disputes go to an independent tribunal.
What happens in a downturn?
Issuance is capped by sector and prioritises essential services. Because credits aren't debt, there is no debt spiral to unwind.
Is it a second-class currency?
No. It has full parity and public acceptance; it is a purpose-built way to settle essential work, used alongside national currency.
More in the complete public lecture and in Chapter 5 of the Plan, which adds the economic modelling, legal integration and international compatibility.
The working papers
Read every document
7 papers, about 10k words, free to read in full. Each one has a plain-text copy, and most have the original PDF.
These papers were written in 2024 and 2025 as the plan developed. Where one differs from the 2025 edition of the Plan, the 2025 edition is the current statement.
Start here
- Ending Poverty by 2050: Civic Credits, Explained A complete public lecture for first-time audiences
- Civic Credits, Simply An everyday guide for citizens and small businesses
How it works
- Civic Credits: A Debt-Free Employment and Settlement System for Essential Work Technical white paper: logic, mechanics and objections
- Funding and Operations for Civic Credits Utilizing public resources: the Civic Clearinghouse and the daily wage cycle
- National Integration of Civic Credits into Existing Payment Systems White paper
Foundations
The other two instruments
Each instrument does one job. They are designed to work together.
Help build it.
The first pilots need funding, partners and people: the Civic Credits software, the first Poverty Elimination Centers, and LifeLink development.
Follow the plan's progress.
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