OMNIUM

Modern monetary systems operate on a single axis: quantity. A dollar is a dollar regardless of its origin, destination, time horizon, or intended purpose. This paper introduces OMNIUM, a meta-currency framework that extends currency from a scalar to a multi-dimensional vector.

Each unit of Omnium carries five dimensions: magnitude, temporality, locality, purpose, and reputation. This dimensional model enables money to carry semantic information—to remember what it's for, where it belongs, and where it came from—while remaining fully liquid and interoperable.

What if money could remember what it's for?

This question drives the design of Omnium. Contemporary currency is deliberately context-free— a feature that enables efficiency but eliminates meaning. When money forgets where it came from, it forgets where it should go. The result is an economy optimized for abstract liquidity at the expense of human values.

Omnium proposes a different architecture: currency as a multi-dimensional vector rather than a scalar quantity. Each unit carries:

• m (Magnitude) — The quantity of value (0 to ∞)
• T (Temporal Stratum) — Time-bound behavior affecting decay or growth
• L (Locality) — Community boundaries and regional restrictions
• P (Purpose) — Intent channels restricting how money can be used
• R (Reputation) — Provenance chain tracking the money's history

This isn't about adding complexity—it's about encoding the complexity that already exists in human economic life. Money flows through communities, carries intentions, and builds history. Omnium makes that visible.

In Omnium, each unit of currency is represented as a five-dimensional vector:

These dimensions are not independent constraints but interacting fields. A unit might be simultaneously time-locked, community-bound, purpose-colored, and reputation-tracked. The interaction of these dimensions creates emergent properties impossible with scalar currency.

2.1 Design Principles

• Conversions preserve semantic information. Provenance accretes rather than vanishes. History is never erased, only added to.
• All operations are reversible. Nothing is locked forever. Any restriction can be removed—with appropriate fees.
• Complexity is opt-in. Base Ω is simple. Users add dimensions as needed.
• Fees fund commons and prevent gaming. Conversion fees flow to the Commons Pool, maintaining system health.

The temporal dimension encodes time-preference directly into money. Rather than using interest rates set by central authorities, Omnium allows money itself to behave differently over time.

“Moving between temporal strata has costs and benefits, creating a natural market for time-preference without requiring interest rates.”

The locality dimension enables money to “know where it belongs.” Communities can create economic membranes—permeable but present—that allow local resilience while remaining connected to the global economy.

4.1 Community Mechanics

• Entry Fee (1%) — A small contribution when joining a community, funding shared resources.
• Exit Fee (Variable) — Communities set their own boundary fees. Higher fees create stronger local circulation.
• Internal Parity (1:1) — Local currency trades at par within its community. No friction for neighbors.

A unit can belong to multiple nested communities simultaneously (e.g., neighborhood → city → region). Each boundary can have its own membrane strength, creating nuanced economic geography.

Purpose channels allow money to carry intent. When you receive purpose-colored money, you know something about the sender's values—and you're restricted in how you can spend it.

5.1 Standard Channels

5.2 Economics of Purpose

• Adding purpose is free — It restricts utility, so no fee is charged. You're limiting where your money can go.
• Removing purpose costs 3% — Stripping intent requires a fee, discouraging gaming while maintaining liquidity.
• Purpose-colored money trades at a discount — Due to restricted utility, but carries social information.

“Receiving Ω-P(education) tells you something about the sender's values.”

Every unit of Omnium carries a provenance chain—a history of how it came to be where it is. This creates “semantic liquidity”: money flows between meanings, but meaning accretes rather than vanishes.

6.1 Provenance Types

6.2 Reputation Scoring

Provenance chains enable reputation scoring across multiple dimensions:

• Breadth — How many different sources contributed to this money?
• Depth — How many transactions deep is the provenance chain?
• Maturity — How old is the provenance history?

Reputation is entirely opt-in. You can strip provenance at any time by dissolving to base Ω—with a 5% fee. Privacy is preserved as a choice, not a default.

Any dimension can be changed through conversion. The conversion formula applies fees based on the delta in each dimension:

7.1 Fee Schedule

All fees flow to the Commons Pool, funding system maintenance and preventing gaming. The asymmetry—free to restrict, costly to free—creates natural stability.

At the foundation of Omnium lies the Commons Pool: a base layer of undifferentiated value from which all dimensional currency emerges and to which fees return.

8.1 Pool Functions

• Minting — New Ω is created from the Commons Pool according to protocol rules.
• Burning — Ω can be returned to the pool, reducing circulating supply.
• Fee Collection — All conversion fees flow back to the pool.
• Dividend Funding — T2 and T∞ yields are funded from pool growth.

“The Commons Pool is governed by a protocol, not a committee.”

The reference implementation of Omnium is built on a content-addressed storage layer using IPFS/Helia, enabling decentralized persistence without requiring blockchain consensus for every transaction.

9.1 Core Data Structure

interface OmniumUnit {
  id: string;                    // Unique identifier
  magnitude: number;             // Quantity of value
  temporality: TemporalStratum;  // T0 | T1 | T2 | T∞
  locality: Set<string>;         // Community IDs
  purpose: Set<string>;          // Purpose channel IDs
  provenance: ProvenanceChain;   // Complete history
  createdAt: number;             // Creation timestamp
  lastTickAt: number;            // Last demurrage/dividend
  walletId: string;              // Current owner
}

9.2 Architecture Layers

1. Commons Pool — Base reserve, minting/burning
2. Temporal Engine — Demurrage/dividend calculations
3. Locality Registry — Community definitions and boundaries
4. Purpose Registry — Channel definitions and validation
5. Reputation Tracker — Provenance chain management
6. Conversion Engine — Dimensional transformations
7. Persistence Layer — Content-addressed storage

Omnium represents a fundamental reimagining of what money can be. By extending currency from a scalar to a multi-dimensional vector, we enable money to carry the semantic information that human economies naturally generate.

This is not a replacement for existing monetary systems but a meta-framework within which all monetary forms can interoperate. Local currencies, time-based money, purpose-bound grants, and reputation-tracked value can all exist simultaneously, converting between forms as needed.

The result is an economy that can optimize for human values—not just efficiency, but meaning, community, sustainability, and trust.