Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Consensus tokens, Russia and AMS systems

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The headline is ridiculous. But I couldn’t make this up in my wildest dreams. Yes, cryptocurrency, blockchain, and association management systems (AMS) are all interconnected. And the primary connection is Russia.

Stay with me for a second, get a cup of coffee, and read on.

First cryptocurrency isn’t a thing. It’s two parts. I try to explain cryptocurrency like this:

  1. BlockChain = Clipboard with a piece of paper. You check stuff in and out until you are out of paper. Some clipboards have more sheets of paper than others.
  2. Scarcity – Scarce object = some mathematically difficult to produce number. Or controlled by an authority like the Private Federal Reserve in the US.

Picture a clip board. And you are checking in and out some token. That token only has value if it delivers value. And the best way to determine that is really a classic economics popularity contest.

Note: This author does a GREAT job of explaining concensus capital:

These are not tulips. Blockchain is a tech that will disrupt everything from how we do a Turn-Around at the Olefins units at LyondellBassell, to how BP manages wind farms, to how carfax will be disrupted by a VIN blockchain startup.

What does this have to do with Association Management Systems?

Believe it or not, they are intertwined. So be careful on your selection of crypto for smart contracts. I’d recommend looking at HyperLedger  ( as an alternative to Russian Bank backed by Dmitry Buterin and his son Vitalik’s Ethereum .  ( )

Not everyone in the crypto community is fond of Ethereum and Russian owned AMS Wild Apricot, now Personify, even in the crypto community. ( )


If you can’t access the code, self host if you want, and export ALL of your data when you want, well, why not? Why does anyone in the NonProfit / NPO / NGO / Association Management space tolerate that in 2018? It is 2018, right?

If you signed up with a company where the deal was “too good to be true”…. um…. ya, think that one through again. They have to pay people, so they are either funded by someone, or they are selling your data.

YOU are part of the problem with InfoWars and Propaganda in the US. (is that too blunt? Nope.) For example: Wild Apricot / Personify.

Wild Apricot, Russia, AMS
25% of American Constituents in Russian Backed Wild Apricot

Ethereum is at least open source ( ) so you can view the code. With the exception of Tendenci ( ) and CiviCrm, ( ) most AMS vendors aren’t open,  not even ones created and financed by Russia and the Chief Apricot ( ), who is also coincidentally the father of Vitalik himself ( ).

On the plus side, after years of joking about it, for once we can legitimately blame Canada and their dual-citizenships.

We’re building a wall with Mexico and allowing Russian company’s interests to mine Uranium ( ) in the US. And Russian programmers to control 25% (according to the Personify web site ) of US Constituents like Washington’s League of Women Voters ( ) .

And then we act surprised that Russia is meddling in our elections and knows know how to target voters.. Baroo?

These are strange times. But yes, Canada? I’m looking at YOU!

And as a reminder, as if y’all needed me to state this again, but we strongly encourage you to use an OPEN SOURCE solution with transparency. If it’s Tendenci, WordPress, Drupal, CiviCRM, Joomla,

Just please stand up for what’s right.

Demand access and transparency.

Tendenci is a movement.

Tendenci is a community committed to open association technology.

Global. Multilingual. Collaborative. Positive. Respectful of your privacy and functional at a level as you would expect from a product approaching 20 years old.