Imagine there is no money and you would have to think for yourself how to exchange services or goods with other people fairly and efficiently. Since the direct exchange of goods and services without money is very impractical, you would have to think about a means of exchange (money) and how it could work.

After a while, perhaps you would realize that the amount of time it takes to produce something or to provide a service is a fairly reasonable measure to determine the value of it. Perhaps you would realize that something only costs money if a person has spent his or her time doing something and has made it available to someone else. Thus, the realization is that money is really just time, and human working time at that.

Now all it needs is a simple solution, how you could use simply everywhere and uncomplicated working time as exchange means and/or money. This is exactly where the Minuto concept comes into play.

The basic idea behind Minuto is that people issue each other vouchers for their time (qualitative working time). To start, a group of people get together to make these Minuto vouchers. There is a template for the vouchers to print out. Everybody who wants to create his own Minuto vouchers needs besides the template, a pen to sign, his own stamp, as well as a female and male guarantor, who confirm his own vouchers again with stamp and signature.

These finished Minuto one can use then similarly like cash for the payment. The person who has accepted the Minuto can spend them everywhere where Minuto are accepted, until they go back to the creator of the vouchers (voucher creator).\ To support the idea, not everyone needs to create new minuto, it is enough to accept them and use them for payment.

We recommend to invite a number of people to play the Minuto Game in order to get familiar with the concept. After that you can start issuing Minutos.

Minuto vouchers are based on qualitative human working time, therefore they are stable in value during the validity period. The conversion rate, may vary depending on the region and may also change, for example, due to inflation of the legal currency. The price of a craftsman hour is a rough guide to determine the conversion rate.

Recommended conversion rate: 60 minuto = 30€ (as of 2021).

For business use, you need the conversion rate. At the above rate, if for example 60 minuto are received, then this corresponds to a taxable cash income of 30€. If these 60 minuto are spent again, this corresponds also again to an expenditure of 30€.

It can make sense to accept only a percentage in minuto, so that enough euros are taken in to be able to pay expenses, taxes, etc.

Minuto is a decentralized and self-responsible concept, so you should actively network locally even without the Internet. Of course, modern means of communication can also be used. A central possibility for offers and requests is currently located at: www.minuto-regional.de

Often at the beginning the argument comes that the thing with the guarantors and the effort to create valid Minuto is too complicated. At the first moment it may seem so, however, a distinction must be made between the use and the creation of Minuto vouchers. The creation of new Minuto is somewhat complex, but the use is very simple and not everyone has to create Minuto to participate.

If you have valid Minuto coupons, using them is very easy. You just need to know what valid Minuto looks like and then use it just like cash. The only difference is that this cash is only accepted in certain places or only in the region and that they have a certain conversion rate for business use.