Personal Currencies

Circles is about creating a fairer money system. Traditional money and most cryptocurrencies reward those already established; Circles ties issuance to time so everyone mints at the same rate.

Circles aims to solve this by ensuring equal opportunity for all. Each user continuously generates tokens at one CRC per hour, regardless of join date. Existing Circles incur a demurrage fee of ~7% per year. By tying issuance to time—a resource everyone has—Circles gives everyone a chance to accumulate tokens and encourages circulation.

Issuance

Each user generates their own currency (CRC) at a steady rate of one token per hour. Minting rules are encoded in the Hub (the token factory for individual Circles tokens).

All tokens ultimately root in personal tokens (v1 only personal; v2 adds group currencies collateralized by personal tokens).

Demurrage

All tokens are automatically demurred at ~7% per year.

For human users, steady income offsets demurrage for roughly a lifetime (~80 years) before balances shrink; after death, minting stops and demurrage drains the balance.

Organizations cannot mint tokens; their balances are always subject to demurrage.

The following graph shows an account balance over time assuming no activity and continuous minting:

If interpreted as tax, it is negative at first (you receive tokens), then positive after ~125,000 CRC:

Implementation

Circles v2 uses ERC-1155. The Hub uses allowances for path transfers; token metadata mimics a profile.

Halting Mint

Circles v2 caps minting at 14 days’ worth of Circles; minting can be stopped manually if required.

Rust SDK is read-only today; transfers and mint halts require runner support.