simbi.com - A combination of communism, e-gold, a barter economy, and probably a scam.

  • 🔧 At about Midnight EST I am going to completely fuck up the site trying to fix something.

Splendid

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Ok, so I found this great website.
Thanks to @CricketVonChirp for mentioning this in the Leah Albee thread.

Let me set a tone for the thread with their manifesto, which is helpfully linked on every page.
simbi_manifesto.jpg

The CEO has literally posted this on their blog:
"The old economy isn't working for 99% of us, so we're building a new one."
So basically, they're communists. If you don't believe me, just wait.

So what is Simbi? Simbi is a website designed to connect people who want to directly exchange their services with each other, because barter economies are such a great idea.
Seems harmless enough, right, but what if you want to get something from somebody but they don't want what you're offering? Well, you can't use money on Simbi, that runs contrary to the spirit of the website. Instead, you pay in their private currency, called... "simbi". Yes, the only difference between the name of their commie experiment and the name of their currency is one capital letter.
Now, unlike real money that is backed by governments, and digital currencies like Bitcoin, which are backed by math, Simbi is backed by nothing. The company can simply issue as much Simbi as they want, which is as dumb as it sounds.

symbiotic_economy1.jpg

(Actual unedited image from their website)
Let's learn more about this currency, which I'll be calling "Simbi Credits" ($SC) since their name is fucking stupid.
Here are a few of the ways that you can earn Simbi. Keep in mind that new free Simbi credits are being created every time anyone performs one of these actions.
  • Join Simbi: 50 $SC
  • Share Simbi on Facebook: 25 $SC (and you get another 25 $SC when they offer their first Simbi service)
  • Like Simbi on Facebook: 5 $SC
  • Give them your phone number: 15 $SC
The full list is here.

According to Simbi's own blog, the average Simbi user has a mere 70 $SC in their wallet, and their "high-demand roles" include Wellness professionals, Designers & illustrators, Web developers, Business consultants, and Physical therapists. This of course means that even 1 $SC is absurdly overvalued, and before you ask, no there is no such thing as a Simbi Cent, 1 $SC is the smallest unit of currency available.

Their blog is fucking insane as well. Here are some choice quotes.
  • "Don't hoard your simbi"
  • "A long time friend sent me a link to Simbi. I was hesitant at first. What can I offer? I thought, “I can offer reading Tarot cards.” This is something I do as a hobby and have been doing for over 20 years. I created my ad and bio, that went easy enough. What else can I offer? I am also, a retired counselor. I can still offer it as long as people realize, I am no longer licensed. So, I put out there that, If you have anything you need to talk about I’m here to listen and help." (Note: this woman is an elderly dangerhair hippie with Sarkeesian-sized earrings with a peace symbol in the middle.)
  • "Anyone that lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination" - KJ Erickson, Simbi's CEO.
  • This entire post, where they basically go over why Simbi Credits are a terrible idea.
  • This post too. It's an entire post where they kiss Portland's ass for being full of "quirky" hipsters.

Now why do I say this is a scam in the subtitle?
It's just too perfect. This just fucking screams San Francisco hipster startup to me. (They are literally located in SF by the way.) And the rhetoric and feel-good bullshit all over the site makes me think they're targeting left wing socialist retard types.
 
So... it's amazon without any benefits to anyone at all?
No, on Amazon you can buy physical goods.
Due to the way Simbi is set up, you can pretty much only sell services, not goods.
Don't fucking ask me how that works.
 
No, on Amazon you can buy physical goods.
Due to the way Simbi is set up, you can pretty much only sell services, not goods.
Don't fucking ask me how that works.

No, fuck you, I'm going to ask. How is that supposed to work?
 
Anyone got any good ways to abuse the system? Since they list "business consultants", I was thinking hoarding a bunch of simba coins and using them to start up a company where you don't have to pay any of the employees in real money
 
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No, fuck you, I'm going to ask. How is that supposed to work?
I T D O E S N ' T .
It cannot work. Economies of scale can't exist (because you can't open a company that runs on this shit, because you can't actually pay any employees.) And of course, you can't produce new goods in this economy at all because you can't do things like refine raw resources unless you're building all of the machines to refine them yourself.

By the way, Linden dollars, the currency of Second Life, is literally worth more than simbi credits.
 
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I could have sworn I saw a pic of someone using this to sell "spells".
So you can use money that doesn't exist to buy a spell that doesn't work
They featured a woman who sells tarot readings on Simbi.
She's the one who admitted working as a counselor without a liscense.
 
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This video explains everything?
Once upon a time, designated shitting streets were a far off dream that hadn't even been conceived yet, and you would just shit in an alley next to your house.
Once upon a time, we died at 30.

Also, they literally say, "Goodbye Scarcity, hello Simbi" in that video.
They are seriously claiming that they will create a post-scarcity economy.
Simbi confirmed for scam.
 
Oh come on mang, real life is like Skyrim where you can just pick flowers and mine iron and just grind for 50 hours and become a badass at everything, man!

But seriously, I'm just guessing Simbi is started by millennial fruits who've read too many HuffPo / Zero Hedge articles about barter economies in Greece and / or Venezuela and thought "Wow, man, they do so much with so little man, maybe we should emulate them, man!" *takes pull from bong*
 
Anyone got any good ways to abuse the system? Since they list "business consultants", I was thinking hoarding a bunch of simba coins and using them to start up a company where you don't have to pay any of the employees in real money
If you register with your real social media account and a fake one, you can easily rack up $100SC.
That's 30 more than the average person has in their wallet.
And since Facebook doesn't really check accounts, you can do this over and over if you have a modicum of tech skills.
You can then transfer the SC to yourself through sham transactions.
This is retardedly simple.

If you also happen to have the ability to give yourself the Simbi Credits *wink* you can effectively buy all the services you want, because they're backed by nothing, so you can just introduce all the new currency you want.
Also, since it's fake digital money, the seigniorage on each credit is 100%.

EDIT: Also, you can repeat the above scam infinitely as long as you space out the transactions a little. They can't detect or stop it.
It's pretty much a matter of time until some Russian scammers or the GNAA comes along and wrecks their economy.
 
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At least my employees will be able to use their payroll to pay for masseuses and therapy :evil:
 
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