Kilowatt Cards are gift cards that pay for 10 kilowatt-hours of electricity in any home utility account (including all taxes and fees) when REDEEMED here. The cards can be redeemed by anyone to pay for household electricity worldwide. Since they can be used to pay for anyone's electricity, they can also be used to barter for other things - resulting in an international store-of-value (assets) and a stateless medium-of-exchange (electricity).
To prove that a Kilowatt Card is real and active, enter the last six digits of its serial number in this form. If the number is active, two new digits will be returned that should be written on the card by hand, forming the end of a new six-digit number, while the first two digits are cancelled. The method creates a new serial number every time, while the old number is cancelled. So nobody holding a Kilowatt Card can use copies of it, since all copies will have a cancelled serial number after any one of them has been AUTHENTICATED
This way plain paper cards can be traded widely, yet proven real by anyone with access to the internet, before they accept it.
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How do electricity gift cards work?
Before accepting any Kilowatt Cards in barter you should AUTHENTICATE them using the form above, to prove they are real and have not been redeemed for electricity before, which means they are still active.
Kilowatt Cards are printed on plain paper but cannot be effectively copied, because redemption value is in the six-digit serial numbers, not just the coupons. One can prove that a card is real by authenticating it, in a process which alters the serial number.
If a Kilowatt Card is active, two new digits will be returned that should be written on the card by hand, forming the end of a new six-digit number, as the first two digits are cancelled. So nobody can copy and use a serial number, since all copies have a cancelled serial number after any one of them has been authenticated.
In this way plain paper can be traded widely, yet proven real by anyone with access to this website before accepting it. You should AUTHENTICATE the serial number promptly (e.g. before accepting a card) or else someone with a copy of that number might do it first, and then own the new serial number.
If you don't write both new characters on the card it will have the wrong serial number and no value - so do it - and write clearly. We suggest you also cross out the old "first two" characters, as shown on the image above.
As the cost of electricity increases (e.g., when the price of oil spikes), kilowatt-hour notes should become more precious. But the effects that may have on this system are difficult to predict. For instance, would the national currencies hold their value in the usual way (i.e., 2 - 15% annual inflation)? Or would they go into hyper-inflation? Would most electric grids still serve the developed world 24 x 7, or would many people use private generators to cope with unrealiable electricity supplies? If so, our basic premise would become somewhat unrealistic and we wouldn't be living in a well-ordered society any longer, but that's life.
While any power utility could issue its own electricity gift cards, the chances for a local system failure due to war or fuel shortages are high. But a delocalized system transforms such physical risks into a financial question, which can be analyzed if the data is published.
Since redemptions of a delocalized system do not depend on the health of any given power company, it can function as a stateless medium of exchange.
Some Kilowatt Cards are FREE but for postage and handling.