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After society crumbles, the ability to use the fiat currency which was in use before vanishes. Likewise, when politicians decide that certain people no longer should be able to purchase food, medicine, or healthcare, the ability to use the fiat currency which was previously stored becomes much more difficult. It’s in times like these that the ability to create a barter network matters.
What does this entail? Are there things I learned about this from living through the collapse of Venezuela? Absolutely, but first, we must understand that this is nothing unique. The creating of barter networks is absolutely nothing new.
Barter has history.
Trade is intrinsically tied to mankind. One doesn’t have to look far in ancient history to find semi-nomadic tribes living by the ocean exchanging seashells, salty fish, or textiles to get what they needed. When society returns to a primitive state, the means of exchange will as well.
In this article, I will limit myself to deal with physical bartering. Selco has covered pretty well the skills bartering topic in this article. Of course his experiences come from much more crude scenarios, if you will. Venezuela post-collapse was bad, but it wasn’t a literal war zone.
Like anything else, bartering has advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage? Not having to use money. This link elaborates on that.
What should you take in account for starting a bartering network?
Therefore, there are reasonable odds that all sort of people will end trying to barter all kind of goods. Once a critical mass of users is reached, some good measurements based on common sense are needed. And, of course, you have to be sure that bartering is for you.
The first factor to consider is this:
1. What platform are you going to use?
Are you going to use a social media profile? Is it safe to use social media to barter a couple of boxes of .22LR for 5.56 through this venue?
Is it safe attempting to exchange 5-oz of silver with someone who we don’t even know when SHTF? Should this person rip you off, you can’t just go with the police to file a claim.” In this part of the world, it’s risky enough already even with a law enforcement infrastructure.
I would suggest those in smaller communities using an old-school style BBS message board, as a backup means for Internet-based barter/trading platforms.
Why? It’s much more likely to be “online” than the Internet! Just check this out. If anything happens to the web, we’re all pretty much…