Research hypothesis
Multilateral exchange and collaboration
Payments may be monetary, in kind or a combination of both. Participants do not have to seek barter or netting: every transaction may be paid for in money. The research concerns how coordinating needs, resources and mutual commitments can help independent participants organise joint activities.
People and organisations need concrete results: goods, services, knowledge, equipment and completed work. The capabilities needed to obtain them often exist across different participants but remain unconnected.
Multilateral exchange makes it possible to consider arrangements in which a participant contributes to some people and receives what they need from others. Coordinating future actions opens up a broader possibility: jointly creating results that no one has yet.
We are investigating how a network of mutual commitments and AI assistants might help find such arrangements, reconcile interests and support collaboration among independent participants.
From direct exchange to generalized reciprocity
A person may help one participant while receiving needed goods, services or support from others who are not connected to the first. Money already enables this kind of indirect exchange, but it does not exhaust the possible mechanisms for aligning human capabilities and needs.
ObliNet investigates whether additional coordination and mutual-commitment mechanisms can expand useful cooperation. The aim is not to replace money, but to make it easier to combine resources and abilities for mutually acceptable outcomes. Settlement may remain monetary, in kind or mixed.
Willingness to participate depends not only on material benefit, but also on personal goals, values, trust and expectations. This research direction does not prescribe barter, unpaid help or the abandonment of money.
Possibilities we are investigating
Creating shared results, making demand and supply more predictable, using idle resources, reconciling interests and recovering from disruptions. We are also interested in whether joint activities can preserve participants’ independence, develop their capabilities and lay the groundwork for further projects. Reducing the need for monetary payments is only one possible option, not a prerequisite or the main measure of benefit.
Explore possibilities and potential benefitsHow this might work
A model example with three participants:
- Mechanic → FarmerCommitment: repair the farmer’s machinery.
- Farmer → Computer specialistCommitment: supply the agreed produce.
- Computer specialist → MechanicCommitment: repair the mechanic’s computer. The chain closes.
All three participants may obtain what they need, even though no pair is required to exchange directly.
Actual execution requires agreement on the value and volume of each contribution, schedules, quality requirements, acceptance conditions, responsibility and legal arrangements. Closing the chain does not, by itself, make it economically beneficial or legally permissible.
This is a specific barter example. A more complex network may connect supply, production, learning, transport and sales. The result of one action becomes a condition for the next. Participation may involve goods, services, money and agreed rights to a future result.
A closed chain is one possible arrangement. Real projects may involve several connected chains and external participants. Money and goods do not have to circulate in a closed loop; every transaction may be paid for in money.
Barter and netting are not the same thing
Barter involves providing goods, services or work in exchange for other goods, services or work.
Multilateral netting involves agreed settlement of reciprocal obligations among several participants and may require a separate legal arrangement. Not every exchange chain can automatically be assumed to constitute lawful netting.
Transaction values must be agreed and documents prepared, with registration and reporting where required by law. Depending on the country, participants’ status and transaction types, VAT, income tax, accounting, licensing and other obligations may arise.
The absence of monetary payment does not, by itself, mean there are no tax obligations.
Before using a legal debt-netting mechanism in a real pilot, professional legal and tax advice must be obtained for the participants’ jurisdiction and types of activity.
Invitation to research
What goods, skills or services can you offer? What do you need to obtain? Could your capabilities and others’ needs form a useful chain of collaboration?
We invite researchers, developers, entrepreneurs and community organisers to help test this idea on models first and then, if results are sufficient, in a limited, lawfully organised pilot.
A general anonymised description is enough. Do not send confidential information, other people’s personal data or real financial documents. This page offers neither an exchange service nor an educational form for sending such data.
Propose participation in the research