Why Now is the Time for a Big Barter Comeback 💪

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Barter is the oldest form of exchange… so why do we keep banging on about it? While the word itself might sound outdated, the motives behind it are not. Bartering is as simple as trading what you have, for what you need. And yes - money came on the scene to facilitate this trade. But the money system doesn’t always serve our highest good. So there are many reasons to bring barter back, and fast.

1. Uncertain Times

What ordinary people fear is price inflation without wage inflation and you know as well as we do, this is one of the big problems in the mix today. Add in the growing rates of unemployment and underemployment, currency market volatility, supply chain disruption - and naturally we’ve been left with a mindset of scarcity worldwide.

One thing that has proven to remedy this mindset, is barter - which “tends to increase during times of economic recession and inflation” (Cambridge University Press). We’ve seen this time and again, and for just reason too. If you don’t have the money to pay for something, you need to find another (legal) way to get it. What better way than barter?

Economic depression happens when there are plenty of goods and services to be exchanged, but a lack of money by which to exchange them. When we take money out of the equation though and remove its power, it is no longer a limiting factor.

During the Great Depression in the United States, it’s estimated that over 300 barter organisations were founded - “American currency was hard to come by - and barter helped assuage that need” (The Art of Barter).

We’ve since seen throughout the years that bartering can spread in countries with both struggling and strong economies alike - Argentina, Lebanon, England, Ireland. So why wait for things to get worse, why wait for a collapse? When we can start bartering, and benefiting from it, right now.

2. Longing for connection and community

Among the greatest of unmet needs today - is that of connection. We tend to live quite separate lives, ironically under the same roofs as our neighbors and colleagues, who are probably doing the same. Don’t you ever wish you better knew the people in your apartment block, your coworking space, your office building? Wouldn’t it make you feel more secure?

This lack of community affects us both socially and economically. Communities of the past were connected by a web of stories, and networks of reciprocity. Modern stressors like paying for childcare weren’t an issue - because if you minded someone’s kids today, someone would mind yours tomorrow. As the proverb goes “it takes a village to raise a child” - now unfortunately, it takes half your earnings.

Wendell Berry says a proper community “is a commonwealth: a place, a resource, an economy. It answers the needs, practical as well as social and spiritual, of its members - among them the need to need one another”. Bartering fosters exactly this type of community, built on mutual trust and support. It gives us the occasion to interact and share, to truly connect with the places and faces we see each day.

3. People are open to new systems of exchange

“The sharing economy is one of the most rapidly growing market phenomena in history” disrupting many traditional sectors of business (CFI). At first, people were skeptical of companies like Uber and Airbnb. You’d hear them say ‘nobody is going to get into someone else’s car or sleep in a stranger’s house’. We now know that those declarative statements were wrong.

The boom of the sharing economy has changed how we think about business, interaction, and exchange. Mindsets have become increasingly open, and there’s an underlying understanding that perhaps there’s another way to get things done. Even if that does disrupt certain industries and challenge the status quo.

Our team knows first hand that direct barter is a particularly special way of sharing. Let’s compare it to Christmas just gone, when we make a ceremony out of gift giving. Now imagine the giving and receiving of skills and services - our literal human gifts - feeling as personal, as meaningful, and as sacred.

4. Modern technology can solve traditional barter issues

Barter stopped being mainstream because of several issues, the most significant being the ‘double-coincidence of wants’. To trade without money, you have to find someone who both wants what you have, and has what you want. This was a trek. But modern technology can now do this work for you. Hello matchmaking algorithms!

We’re at a time in history where our monetary system is failing many. But we’re also at a pivotal point where there’s fertile ground for a shift in how we give and receive. Barterchain offers users a way to trade value without depending on money, and eliminates the challenges that were native to traditional barter.

Just as technological developments facilitated the dawn of the sharing economy, it’s now making way for the great barter comeback. We have the technology, and now is the time. Come be part of our Barterchain!

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References:

1. Cambridge University Press. “Barter in the World Economy”. 1985.

2. Karen Hoffman. “The Art of Barter: How to Trade for Almost Anything”. 2010.

3. World Today News. “Bartering: a useful trick in Argentina during the crisis”. 2020.

4. Reuters. “As Lebanon crisis spirals, families barter for food on Facebook”. 2020.

5. BBC. “Could bartering become the new buying in a changed world?”. 2020.

6. The Irish Times. “Bartering makes a comeback among cash-strapped consumers”. 2009.

7. Wendell Berry. “The Art of Common Place”. 2003.

8. CFI Corporate Finance Institute. “Sharing Economy”. 2021.