Safety & Fairness

What if people try to take advantage of others in the time bank?  Here are some ways to keep each other safe, and make sure everything is fair.

First of all, we recommend that all members follow standard, normal safety measures for dealing with other humans.  Meet in public. Keep written records. Etc.  

Our moderators will remove any posts that promote illegal materials or activities. We also remove posts that promote cryptocurrency, MLM's, or anything that over-relies on dollars (for example, trading dollars for rings).  We will have a discussion with members who make such posts, and if the behavior continues, the members will be removed from the exchange.  The point of RINGs is to help people in need, not to continue the shady and exploitative practices of the mainstream system.

The software imposes a hard limit on both debits and credits.  Over time as you prove yourself, your limits will be raised, but everyone starts with a 300-ring limit. So the max anyone could "cheat" would be just 5 hours worth.

The registry is transparent to all.  Anyone can look up the past records of any other user on the exchange. If you are contacting someone for the first time, and you aren't sure about them, you can view who else they've exchanged with... for what... when... and how much.

If a transaction goes through that you didn't approve, you can reverse it, or request that the admin does so.

The exchange has a governance board to provide oversight and safety.  Report any suspicious activity to the admin.  If any user demonstrates a pattern of malicious or exploitative behavior, the governance board will take steps to remove them.