Hey Luke,

I like the idea of running a #HiveToSurvive experiment in some capacity here in Malaysia. However, as you quite correctly pointed out, the chances are slim and it's not easy to mobilise, educate, coordinate an entire community (even a small gated community) unless they are firstly united with a strong common need. Money only becomes a problem when it stops working. Problem is, when it does stop working... it's already too late.

There is one group, however, I think will onboard on this very quickly. There are 250,000 displaced refugees in Kuala Lumpur who have no legal identities or status to get proper jobs in the country. I came to know of a small group of 50+ refugees; some with families and kids. The men often earn cash at construction sites, the women earn cash via odd jobs; and unfortunately get harrassed by the police and its not uncommon that a significant portion of whatever they have goes to paying bribes and avoid jail... justified or not.

I've always wanted to help them in some way. I'm just unsure...

• would I be wearing too big a hat?
• would creating a marketplace be enough? A marketplace might help them sell products and get paid in HIVE but if they don't have places where they can spend HIVE for their daily needs - they are just going to "cash out". And that's neither helpful nor meaningful.

The more I think of it, this sounds like a really big project. In order to make this work, they would need:

• To create their own production & consumption cycle;
• Purchase their own products rather than rely on traditional merchants e.g. for their own groceries

What do you think? Do you know anyone who has done this before in Southeast Asia or in other places of the world?... so I don't have to reinvent the wheel. Just apply what works and make things happen.