A shared record for neighbours
What if your street didn’t need money to help itself?
A neighbour fixes your tap. You teach their daughter maths. Someone bakes bread for half the street. Common Story keeps a fair record of who gave what, so everyone can keep on giving.
Free · No bank, no fees, no company in the middle · Works without internet
- Anna baked bread for TomAnna +8 · Tom −8 8
- Tom fixed Ellie’s dripping tapTom +12 · Ellie −12 12
- Ellie taught Sam’s daughter mathsEllie +15 · Sam −15 15
- Sam repaired Anna’s bicycleSam +10 · Anna −10 10
All of us together0
Why it exists
Most places aren’t short of skills, time or good will. They’re short of the thing that lets those skills change hands.
The plumber can’t afford the tutor. The tutor can’t afford the plumber. So both of them wait, and the tap keeps dripping.
Common Story takes the waiting away. You don’t need to earn before you can receive. You receive now, give when you can, and the whole community stays in balance.
How it works
Every exchange is a line in a story you write together
Something is given
Anna bakes bread for Tom. It could just as well be a lift to the station, an afternoon of babysitting, or a guitar lesson.
Both of them write it down
Tom scans Anna’s code. His balance goes down, hers goes up by the same amount, and both phones sign the line. Nothing is created out of thin air and nothing is taken from anyone else.
The story carries on
Anna spends hers on a haircut. The hairdresser spends hers on a bike repair. Line by line, the community writes a common story. That’s where the name comes from.
Your community names its own unit of contribution. Call it whatever feels like home.
Below the line is fine
Being below zero isn’t a debt to fear
It simply means you’ve received before you’ve given. That’s a normal place to be. There’s no interest and nobody profits from it. Someone else is above the line by exactly as much, and together you always add up to zero.
+16 Ellie
+6 Tom
−8 Sam
−14
+22 and −22. The street adds up to zero.
Who it’s for
People with something to give, and something they need
The retired teacher
Plenty of time and knowledge, a small pension. Tutors on Tuesdays, gets her laptop sorted on Thursdays.
The freelancer between jobs
Skills stay sharp and needs stay met while the next contract takes its time arriving.
The new parent
Needs a hand with the baby this month. Will offer one back next spring, and nobody keeps score in a nasty way.
The village without a bank
The branch closed years ago and the signal is one bar. Exchanges still work, phone to phone.
What we left out, on purpose
Small by design, so it stays yours
No money
Units aren’t lei or euros. They can’t be bought or cashed out, so nobody gets rich from them.
No accounts
No name, email or phone number. Your wallet grows from a secret phrase only you know.
No server
Records live on the phones of the people who made them. It works with no internet at all.
Nothing about you
We collect nothing, because there’s nowhere for it to go. Privacy notice
Get the app
Start your community’s story
Install it on two phones, make your first exchange, and see how it feels. The user manual walks through every screen, from creating your wallet to backing it up.
Version 1.0.8 · 67 MB · Android 7 or newer
A word of honesty: Android will warn you that this file didn’t come from the Play Store. That’s true, it didn’t. Allow your browser to install it, and switch the permission back off afterwards if you like. Google Play and F-Droid are on the way.
On a computer? Scan this with your phone.
For the careful
Check you got the real thing
Until the app stores arrive, this page is the only place it comes from. So you don’t have to take our word for it.
The first identifies the exact file. The second identifies the key it was signed with, the same key this website uses to tell your phone the app may open its links.