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Overview
A team of volunteers is actively overhauling the CES system. The core of it will be a state-of-the-art mobile app, and the CES website will also change to embody the functionality of this app. This is a huge undertaking that will require ongoing fundraising and a phased introduction of enhanced capabilities in 2025 and 2026. Please read on for further details.
Why the upgrade
It’s been over 22 years since CES was launched. With over a thousand exchange groups in more than 100 countries, CES has grown to become the world’s foremost moneyless exchange system. However, parts of CES are still running on its original software, which had its origins in the last century! Technology has advanced to such an extent that the opportunity presents itself to take CES from a small operation to one with global mass adoption.
The timing of this opportunity coincides with a heightened change in consciousness toward money and its role in creating inequality and separation among humans. We now have the wherewithal to take a quantum leap towards a post-money society. Global mass adoption will enable our shared vision of relating to each other in the spirit of the gift, thus catalysing a broader realignment of our social fabric.
Evidence for this includes the fact that we have seen over six hundred new exchange groups registered in South America in the past year.
What will change
Imagine yourself at a local market transacting instantly on your CES phone app via a QR code or by tapping phones with NFC. Or, perhaps you receive an app alert at home from your local farmer for your favourite vegetables, as you had saved various requirements on the CES’ AI-assisted search engine.
With an emphasis on speed, simplicity and functionality, we envisage the average size of CES groups increasing from less than a hundred today toward a critical mass of thousands, if not tens of thousands, thus enabling users to satisfy most of their day-to-day needs without money. Not only will this require the development of an app, but also the CES website itself will be redesigned to embody the functionality of the app. Of course, all of this will not only require a huge amount of design and programming work, but also new backend enhancements. Furthermore, governance and ongoing support structures will need to be put in place.
Running alongside all the work happening within CES, we are partnering with global organisations that are leading the way in the decentralised, open source, collaborative and regenerative fields to enable all CES users everywhere to share in the exciting developments happening within this space.
Partnering organisations: MetaProvide, Komunitin, Open Coop, Credit Commons, Murmurations, Ivan Casco consulting
Our approach
Over the past twelve months, a team of highly-skilled and motivated volunteers have been diligently working on the CES upgrade project and is daringly targeting a Q3 2025 rollout date for an initial beta version of a CES app. During the balance of 2025, we envisage introducing various other upgrades in a phased manner. The scale of the work involved is extensive, including a re-writing of all CES software to open-source packages with an emphasis on privacy, security and decentralisation. To progress so rapidly will require hard currency (we get the irony!). So we are now raising funds in a phased manner. Please stay tuned for further updates as the CES upgrade progresses.
Progress update (May 2025)
For the past nine months, major work has been completed on CES to add new administrative features and automate others to allow mass adoption of CES at the national level, following Ecuador’s surge in the creation of new groups. At the same time, the CES code has been migrated to a new managed server for improved reliability and speed. All the CES features, both on the desktop and mobile sites have been tested and rationalised for improved reliability. The CES mail server was also configured to improve email deliverability. For teamwork, the developers have moved to Nextcloud, an open-source, self-hosted file sharing and collaboration platform designed to provide a secure and private alternative to cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive.
In February 2025, Esteve Badia of Komunitin was invited to join the CES 2 project. Komunitin itself is a project that has its origins in the original CES. It first appeared as a fork of CES in Catalonia, Spain, called IntegralCES. This variant used Drupal as its framework, but Komunitin has now adopted a more modern approach. On considering the Komunitin open-source software, a decision was taken to adopt it as the starting code for CES 2. Esteve has agreed to upload the Komunitin software to the CES 2 GitHub site.
The updated architecture will make the system more secure, decentralised and easier to expand as needed. We are completely redesigning the app with mobile devices as the priority, allowing users to use NFC tags and QR codes for transactions, and receive push notifications about transactions and other important events. The navigation is being simplified to improve user experience, along with other features to enhance community engagement. The new system will make use of modern technologies, including TypeScript, Go, Vue.js, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Docker. Our plan is to initially run the new and classic interfaces simultaneously, connected to the same database. This approach will let users start using the new app right away, while the more complex administrative features will continue to be available through the classic interface.
A repository for CES 2 has been created on GitHub, placing the code in the public domain under an AGPL-3.0 license. While no code is currently available for programmers to inspect, the current phase involves deciding which features are necessary for the launch of the new software. We invite programmers to access the GitHub repository to view the current issues.
In the near future, work to improve CES will feature: Content Distribution Network (CDN) adoption, migration to cloud email delivery services, setup of tools for software developers and teams to manage the code and collaborate on projects, API specification for connecting the future mobile app and outside resources with the CES database, and the mobile app design.
Support the project
If you would like to contribute to this exciting project in a practical way, please write to us at info@community-exchange.org
Core team members
Tim Jenkin
CES Global Founder
Cape Town, South Africa
Alex Krenz
CES Director, Upgrade Project Lead
Cape Town, South Africa
Esteve Badia
Komunitin lead programmer
Catalonia, Spain
Daniel Chen
CES Taiwan Founder, Upgrade Project Compliance Consultant
Taipei, Taiwan
Olivier Riche
CES North Coast Community Exchange, System Upgrade Lead
Coleraine, Ireland
Mark Lewis
CES Grand Union Terra, Upgrade Project Facilitator
Hertfordshire, England
Hamish Murphy
CES Awa Jungle, Upgrade Project Communication Lead
Chiba, Japan
Bjorn Cakka
MetaProvide Founder, Upgrade Project Consultant
Mostly Anywhere
Ivan Casco Valero
System Architecture Upgrade Consultant
Dublin, Ireland
Manuel Hernandez
CES DINEC Super Admin, Latin America
Loja, Ecuador
Contact
For further information please contact:
Alex Krenz
CES NPC Director, Upgrade Project Lead
Cape Town, South Africa
Email: alex@ces.org.za