UBI Sandbox: A Simple UBI Economy.

This project is a research-driven experiment focused on observing real human behavior within a simple universal basic income (UBI) system. While inspired by real-world UBI concepts, it intentionally reduces complexity to isolate core economic and social dynamics.

The system operates as a closed economy. Value cannot be introduced or removed externally—only created through participation and circulated through transactions. This allows us to study how value moves when the rules are minimal and consistent.

Our role within this system is similar to that of a government. We define and adjust economic policy, including taxation and redistribution mechanisms, with the goal of maintaining a functional and active economy. Changes will be made in good faith, with input from the community, reflecting a simplified and transparent form of democratic governance.

Given that this currency has no real-world monetary value, its purpose is not traditional commerce. Instead, it is intended to facilitate social exchange—rewarding helpful actions, recognizing contributions, and expressing gratitude.

In practice, this allows the system to function as a form of social value tracking, where generosity and participation are acknowledged by others. Rather than assigning value through necessity, value emerges through interaction.

Every user who joins the system is issued 100 credits, introducing new currency into the economy and expanding the overall market. This creates a controlled form of inflation while increasing the system’s capacity for economic activity as both the money supply and user base grow together.

Users can freely transact with one another, but each transaction is subject to a 30% tax, rounded up to the nearest whole credit. This serves as the primary mechanism for redistribution—larger and more frequent transactions naturally contribute more back into the system.

In addition, all account balances are subject to a 1% daily holding tax, rounded down to the nearest whole credit. This gently discourages hoarding by causing inactive balances to decline over time, while establishing a minimum terminal balance of 100 credits, below which no further holding tax is applied.

All taxes collected—both from transactions and daily holdings—are placed into a central pool and redistributed evenly across all users each day. This creates a continuous cycle of value flow, where participation is rewarded and accumulation alone is not.