The Social Coin| Ivan Caballero | TEDxBarcelona

The social coin was created in Barcelona and it's a coin that promotes selfesh actions which can be followed and measured. It reminds everyone who carries these coins to help someone without receiving anything in return. A lot of selfesh actions have already been started thanks to this coin.

Do you know where
the first coin was created?

It was created in Turkey,
around 600 B.C.

with a very simple goal:

to permit farmers, livestock owners,
blacksmiths and craftsmen

to make transactions easily,

and make their living as
they had made until then,

but in a simpler way.

Where is all this leading us?

Gradually, mankind,
the human race,

we have become keen on
accumulating coins.

Where is it leading us?

You just have to look at the media:

fear, depression, and anxiety.

Where is it leading us?

We think that
this has led us to need

a currency to remember
what our human values are.

This my wife, Ana, and
she is pregnant

It was a beautiful and incredible moment.

However, what triggered
that moment was:

will our baby be born
in the best place and at the best time?

and above all, what we are doing
to improve this world?

At that time, I owned a company

with a lovely partner
and 17 happy employees.

How many of you are parents?

Surely, you'll agree with me
that this picture, this moment,

is one of the most incredible moments

that a person can experience.

People say that an image
is worth a thousand words,

but this picture cannot explain

all my feelings at that time.

However, there was
something wrong, somehow.

I had been months without my company,
without talking to my partner

and without talking
to any of my employees.

My life was turned around completelly.

And in fact, it was the best
thing that happened to me.

In the following months,
I started going out

with a group of young
and extraordinary students

trying...

to formulate a hypothesis

and to see if it was for real.

We decided to do selfless actions

for anyone whether they asked us
or not, or even if they needed it,

whether we knew them
or they were strangers.

And the first thing we did
was going out around Barcelona.

We did simple and normal things,

such as stopping a sad person on
a cold morning and buy them a coffee,

washing a stranger's car
and leaving them a note,

giving a flower to a little old lady
as she was coming out of the supermarket,

carrying her bags and
accompanying her to her home.

And little by little
the project was crystallizing.

We realized that selfless actions

are a source of universal happiness,

not only for those who receive them,

but also for people who perform them.

And so, the "social coin" was born.

"The social coin" is a currency
that all of us carry in our pockets

and it symbolizes a selfless action.

The currency is passed among people

and they are helping each other.

It works in a very simple way.

The coin has a unique code
which allows it to be traced

and all the stories of helping are
being stored on a web page,

where it is possible to read them,
to add comments, and even to mint more.

The currency is also biodegradable,

and as it contains a seed,

it can be planted
at the end of the chain.

This currency cannot be stored,

it only last for three months.

For example: Pau has a coin.

He knows Jane, a friend from Japan

who is coming to Barcelona.

Pau sets a goal on the web:

showing Barcelona to Jane.

They go out for a walk, Pau invites her
to dinner and gives her the coin.

He makes sure that Jane
is going to follow the chain,

and Jane goes home
with the coin.

She goes to the web and explains
that not only did Pau give her

a tour of the city, but he also
invited her to dinner,

and in Japan, she passes the coin to John.

John gives the coin to Liu,
and so on for three months,

until they finally receive an email

to plant the coin together.

I would like to show you
the social coin evolution.

We started six months ago in Barcelona

with coins and a group of volunteers.

We started doing favours

to all the people that we met.

In the second week,
two companies joined us

to mint more coins

and to distribute them
around Barcelona.

Soon, the coins were everywhere in Spain,

and by the second month we
had coins all around Europe already.

By the third month, we had
coins around the world.

And it has become a global movement.

To this date, we have 15,000 coins,
with more than 100,000 favours made

in more than 40 countries,
and with 4,000 trees planted.

As I said, it is a movement.

We have created this project
for everybody, for all of you,

and I encourage you to participate,
to enter the website,

to mint a coint,
to send us an email

and to tell us that you
are interested in helping.

And certainly, one of the most
incredible things

is the sustenability of the project.

It is possible thanks
to people and companies

that are minting coins, distributing
them among their employees

and offering a new challenge
to the society,

to sort out a social problem.

People like Diana, a young executive
who is always telling me:

"Don't say that I am addicted
to the social coin!"

But, in fact, she is pretty addictive.

Every month, she goes to
the website every month

to make more new coins.

And what is she doing ?

She is distributing coins among
her friends and family,

and she is doing so simple things

as giving them a plant, a fruit or
a vegetable from her orchard.

And, what will these veggies become?

They are turning into people
who help other people at work.

They are turning into people
who become part of a group,

to help someone who is
going through difficult times.

Diana is an example for us
and we keep saying,

despite everything, the world
is a perfect chain of events.

And as Diana does, it should be
very important to find our place in it.

As Eduardo Galeano said:

"Humble people, in small places

doing small things
can change the world."

As farmers, blacksmiths
and craftsmen have been doing

since 600 B.C.

(Applause)