Could you add me to your e-mail list as well?

Thanks!

Jim

E-mail: JMTrimQ80@aol.com

webmaster@neark.net

quote:

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Originally posted by ignorantbliss:
Anyone have the live level II?

---

.03 BID
.034 ASK

Bruce Kamm is the New CEO of Bentley
Bruce Kamm, Highly Regarded Barter & Trade Industry Executive, New CEO of Bentley Commerce Corporation

LOS ANGELES, CA, January 20, 2004 – Bruce Kamm, one of the barter and trade industries most experienced and highly regarded executives, has been named CEO of Bentley Commerce Corporation (OTC:BB BLYC), effective February 1, 2004. is the emerging leader in online barter and trade.

“Bruce Kamm brings 20 years of experience, leadership and extraordinary accomplishments in the barter and trade industry that will be of incredible value to Bentley. “ said Gordon Lee, chairman and current CEO of Bentley. “He has already been instrumental in guiding all aspects of Bentley’s entrée into the industry, including designing and developing VirtualBarter, the business-to-business, Internet e-commerce system that is the foundation for Bentley’s new online marketplaces and distribution channels for worldwide barter and trade.”

Mr. Kamm is the developer of VirtualBarter software that enables exchanges and their members to manage, merchandise and market their products and services in an online barter marketplace to an integrated worldwide network of trade exchanges. It has made global online trading possible since January 2000. He is also the founder and CEO of Intertrade Capital Group, a global alliance organization that enables barter, trade, countertrade, asset management and alternative capital and financial transactions to greatly expand liquidity and bottom line profitability. At Intertrade he engineered numerous alternative finance and corporate trade transactions for many of America’s foremost companies.

Previously, Mr. Kamm established an ITEX office in New York City, which in less than one year became ITEX’S largest and most successful exchange and facilitated the highest amount of trade volume and revenues of any ITEX office for seven consecutive years, culminating in over $16 million in annual trade volume in 1999.

In addition, Mr. Kamm founded TradeBanc, at the time, the first and only Internet based transactional trade banking system that enabled barter transactions, trade finance and asset auctions between small, medium and large national and international companies on a global basis. He was co-founder of UNITE, the global trade network of barter and trade exchanges. Mr. Kamm also founded and managed a real estate development company that specialized in using trade and offset as a component in many of its real estate and construction transactions.

quote:

---

Originally posted by dawn0304:
Did anyone see this on the newswire today??

Bruce Kamm is the New CEO of Bentley
Bruce Kamm, Highly Regarded Barter & Trade Industry Executive, New CEO of Bentley Commerce Corporation

LOS ANGELES, CA, January 20, 2004 – Bruce Kamm, one of the barter and trade industries most experienced and highly regarded executives, has been named CEO of Bentley Commerce Corporation (OTC:BB BLYC), effective February 1, 2004. is the emerging leader in online barter and trade.

“Bruce Kamm brings 20 years of experience, leadership and extraordinary accomplishments in the barter and trade industry that will be of incredible value to Bentley. “ said Gordon Lee, chairman and current CEO of Bentley. “He has already been instrumental in guiding all aspects of Bentley’s entrée into the industry, including designing and developing VirtualBarter, the business-to-business, Internet e-commerce system that is the foundation for Bentley’s new online marketplaces and distribution channels for worldwide barter and trade.”

Mr. Kamm is the developer of VirtualBarter software that enables exchanges and their members to manage, merchandise and market their products and services in an online barter marketplace to an integrated worldwide network of trade exchanges. It has made global online trading possible since January 2000. He is also the founder and CEO of Intertrade Capital Group, a global alliance organization that enables barter, trade, countertrade, asset management and alternative capital and financial transactions to greatly expand liquidity and bottom line profitability. At Intertrade he engineered numerous alternative finance and corporate trade transactions for many of America’s foremost companies.

Previously, Mr. Kamm established an ITEX office in New York City, which in less than one year became ITEX’S largest and most successful exchange and facilitated the highest amount of trade volume and revenues of any ITEX office for seven consecutive years, culminating in over $16 million in annual trade volume in 1999.

In addition, Mr. Kamm founded TradeBanc, at the time, the first and only Internet based transactional trade banking system that enabled barter transactions, trade finance and asset auctions between small, medium and large national and international companies on a global basis. He was co-founder of UNITE, the global trade network of barter and trade exchanges. Mr. Kamm also founded and managed a real estate development company that specialized in using trade and offset as a component in many of its real estate and construction transactions.

Bentley’s executive management team will consist of Mr. Lee, chairman of the board and chief financial officer; Mr. Kamm, chief executive officer; Robert Schumacher, president and chief operating officer; and Joe Crump, president of the Bentley Crump Barter Network with its membership of 180 independent local barter exchanges and about 50,000 members that trade through them.

---

Remeber that Barter is just another form of MONEY and/or CURRRENCY and Exchanging it is just another form of Financial Trade Transaction...albeit a form that is proven but relatively undeveloped or not yet widespread= thus the HUGE Opportunity for enhancing and enabling this First and Future Money...which BLYC is Planning,positioned and progressing on doing so.

REMEMBER:LIQUIDITY AND UBIQUITY ARE THE FACTORS WHICH RULE ACCEPTANCE OF ANY CURRENCY (BARTER-DOLLARS), PUBLIC OR PRIVATE ISSUED, AND THE PERCEPTIONS AND REALITIES "BACKERS" OF THAT CURRENCY (SOVEREIGN CASH=FIAT=WORD TO PAY ;OR COMMODITY-GOODS AND SERVICES ASSETS)AND ITS VALIDITY/STRENGTH. AT ONE TIME,GOLD WAS IT...NOW WHAT?

One repeat link of great source info/DD is:
www.BarterNews.com ,and related industry links from there), from which the following is excerpted:

Electronic Barter Network Will Fuel World Economy

The competition for capital is going to be dramatic as the enormous needs for infrastructure development of the 3rd world (lesser developed countries) grows in the coming millennium. More barter is virtually assured as the need for trillions of dollars comes to pass. And the emerging sophistication of the commercial barter industry could well be an important adjunct in providing additional "capital" around the globe.

The use of a commonly used unit of account (trade dollar) and adequate computing power, to make sure all transactions could be settled immediately, would provide a liquidity and financing tool of unimaginative magnitude.

Today's major countertrade deals, now bilateral (one-to-one) trades, are often exceedingly tedious and difficult to finalize because of the nature of such constructive, rigid efforts. However, the rudiments of a major worldwide barter currency is developing. There are several possibilities.

The International Reciprocal Trade Association's "Universal Currency" is the most developed, and accepted by barter companies in 23 countries. With a few changes it could be expanded to incorporate other entities.

Multilateral trading possibilities, for the small business owner as well as the Fortune 500 companies are within the burgeoning commercial barter industry's grasp. The creation and development of an electronic barter economy is going to stagger even the most optimistic visionary.

A worldwide barter currency, backed by goods/services and uninhibited by borders, could become larger than any country's central bank. (The coming issue of BarterNews will expand on this staggering notion.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: THE NETWORK THAT BLYC IS LOADING ONTO ITS SYSTEM OF 180 PLUS EXCHANGES AND 50,000 PLUS MEMBER BUSINESS'...AND GROWING, WILL ALL SYSTEMATICALLY CONVERT THEIR BARTER/SCRIP CURRENCIES TO THE BLYC OVERALL "BARTER-DOLLARS" DURING ANY ONLINE OR POS (RETAIL POINT-OF-SALE)TRADE TRANSACTIONS....MAKING IT THE CURRENCY OF CHOICE AND STANDARD FOR ALL TRADES. IT WILL THEN SOON BE THE MOST WIDELY USED/ACCEPTED (UBIQUITOUS AND LIQUID)BARTER CURRENCY (COMMODITY BACKED...GOODS AND SERVICES AT LEAST...) ON THE PLANET!

"The creation and development of an electronic barter economy is going to stagger even the most optimistic visionary.

A worldwide barter currency, backed by goods/services and uninhibited by borders, could become larger than any country's central bank"

. (The coming issue of BarterNews will expand on this staggering notion.)

as she said..."ITS HUGE..REALLY REALLY HUGE"...

SHALOM! ECONOMIC PEACE & POWER,AND RESULTANT PROSPERITY/PROFITS ARE A COMIN'...MORE ON ALL THIS LATER...BUT SOON!

Simple One-to-One Exchanges Will Give Way to Organized, Computerized, Multi-Lateral Barter

The following article was written for World Trade magazine by BarterNews editor Bob Meyer.

In late August the world's economic leaders met for an annual policy conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Alan Greenspan was there, as were the heads of the central banks of Britain, Japan, and 26 other countries.

One of the attendees, Mervyn King, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, ruminated on the impact of electronic commerce and the future of money. His conclusion, quoted below, will be startling to some, yet obvious to others--particularly those engaged in the commercial barter industry, which I've been covering for 20 years.

"There is no reason products and services could not be swapped directly by consumers and producers through a system of direct exchange--essentially a massive barter economy.

"All it requires is some commonly used unit of account (trade dollars) and adequate computing power to make sure all transactions could be settled immediately.

"People would pay each other electronically, without the payment being routed through anything that we would currently recognize as a bank. Central banks in their present form would no longer exist--nor would money."

International business growth coupled with today's blistering technological change, means it's only a question of time before electronic commerce impacts the role of money, inasmuch as companies of every size look for easier, more efficient ways to facilitate their business efforts.

Mr. King's suggestion of electronic barter payments would make international business considerably easier for many, as it would negate today's struggle to acquire sufficient U.S. currency--which is still the unit of exchange in the majority of international transactions. Barter is used because foreign trading partners don't have, or don't want to use, their limited hard currency to buy products and services from the sellers.

Unfortunately, today's international mode of bilateral one-to-one barter is very tedious and restrictive. The foreign entity uses the U.S. company to, in effect, become their defacto marketing arm. Additionally, growing nationalism often requires an "offset" component be added to the transaction. The buyer's country dictating, "If we give you this (sale) business opportunity, you will be expected (or required) to bring back business to our country--a percentage of the deal's total value." This could be in the form of pushing tourism toward them, building a factory in their country, or agreeing to make selected purchases for other products and services from the country.

Various countertrade mechanism's will evolve as the magnitude of world trade expands. (The World Trade Organization, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, and The Economist magazine say it accounts for 8% to 10% of the $5 trillion business now done between the countries of the world.) One of the changes will be the introduction of a direct exchange utilizing a unit of account as envisioned by Mr. King. The use of a "trade dollar" as a form of payment offers multi-lateral trading possibilities. Interestingly, it's an alternative already being used by hundreds of thousands of small business owners. And its use is growing, percentage-wise, faster than countertrade.

Computer + Trade Dollars = Multi-Lateral Trading

Whereas countertrade has always been used by Corporate America, this new form of barter evolved from the small business sector. Known as a trade exchange, it's a proven, effective way to conduct business without the use of cash. Now used worldwide by some 600,000 companies aggregately, it has recently taken on an international bent by increasing its availability from three countries ten years ago to a present 23 countries. This method of trading is more sophisticated and versatile than today's countertrade methods, because it's multi-lateral rather than countertrade's bilateralism. In short, why would one take canned hams as a countertrade payment, which entails remarketing, if one can instead acquire a unit of account (a trade dollar) which can be spent in a variety of ways for needed products and services? A trade dollar is easier, faster, and less expensive to use.

How A Trade Exchange Works

In 1960, "Mac" McConnell, then a 38-year-old unsatisfied president and principal stockholder of a Los Angeles thrift and loan, devised and developed a debit and credit system for barter which enabled traders to circumvent the cumbersome one-on-one trading.

McConnell, who studied accounting at Washington University and later earned a master's degree in econometrics--the statistical application of economics--at the University of Chicago, not only developed a professional accounting system for barter, but more importantly created a credit system that gave it liquidity.

The company he started, Business Exchange (known in the industry as BX), is one of the largest exchanges in the U.S. with 20,000 members. Shortly after his successful endeavor others followed, all emulating the McConnell model. There are now over 700 trade exchanges worldwide, with 450 of them located in the United States.

A trade exchange is a privately-owned company that provides its members a conduit to other like-minded members, who sell and buy from each other using a trade dollar as a medium of exchange (equivalent to one cash dollar for use of accounting purposes).

Each time a member makes a trade purchase, the exchange debits the buyer's account and credits the seller's account with trade dollars. Sales are normally made at the seller's normal pricing structure, whether retailer, wholesaler or liquidator. A cash commission of typically 10% is paid to the exchange for its services.

Under the Tax Equity & Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) trade exchanges are classified as third-party record-keepers, having the same fiduciary obligations as bankers and stock (securities) brokers. For tax purposes trade dollars are taxable in the year they are earned, and reported as such on 1099-B forms to the IRS. All members of an exchange get a 1099-B showing their barter sales for the calendar year.

Industry Associations Established

In 1979, the first of two national trade associations was formed. Known as the International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA), its goal in those early days was to bring together trade exchanges to foster the common interests of a fledgling commercial barter industry.

Today IRTA members (barter companies) come from as far away as Russia, Iceland, Germany, Chile, Turkey, and Australia. A second association, the Cleveland-based National Association of Trade Exchanges (NATE) came into existence in 1984 and focuses on a domestic agenda for its membership.

Universal Currency Established Promoting Global Barter Business

It wasn't long after the first IRTA organizational meeting in California twenty years ago that trade exchange owners, newly introduced to one another, began trading among themselves so they could expand the goods and services offered to their respective networks--thereby helping their clients.

They did so on a reciprocal basis, owner-to-owner, inasmuch as their trade dollar currencies were inconvertible. However, given the inherent risks in providing extensive credit to one another, the potential for trade between trade exchanges was limited until a way of lessening the liability was created.

That occurred in 1996 when a proposal was made by IRTA's chief executive to establish and operate a Universal Currency Clearinghouse (UC). Instead of trading hard product between each other, a currency just for this purpose would be established. IRTA would administer and control the currency.

The idea was overwhelmingly approved by the Board of Directors, and the opportunity was immediately at hand to develop a worldwide system which would enable trade exchange owners, regardless of their size or location, to easily trade with one another by using this special currency. Transactions are processed by an automated 24-hour authorization center or via e-mail, with UC monthly trading volume currently at $1 million.

Dot.com Companies Enter Barter Arena

Within the last year barter on the internet has appeared and promises to take the industry to the next level, as the bartering opportunitiess for various products and services become increasingly global using this new medium.

Ubarter.com in Seattle and Melbourne-based BarterExpress.com are expanding rapidly. On the horizon are two other venture-capital backed internet barter companies, which are in the pre-launch stage. Their backing reportedly comes from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Sanford Robertson, as well as Vector Capital.

Recently a new market-making service, TradeBanc.com, has been introduced by one of the industry's successful practitioners. Its computerized technology will enable members of trade exchanges to trade directly, online, with members of other trade exchanges--anywhere in the world--as long as their barter company is a TradeBanc affiliate.

Every barter company will continue to have their own front-end, operating as they do now. That's because TradeBanc (being the market-maker) is the facilitator or clearinghouse, rather than a third-party record keeper.

The new technology will be a valuable adjunct to the commercial barter industry. It promises to catapult international trading efforts forward since the aggregation of all goods and services from all the participating TradeBanc affiliates will be housed in a single database. The tranactions will be cleared by the local exchanges, and settlement will be made using IRTA's Universal Currency.

How Your Company Can Benefit

Trade exchanges and corporate barter companies facilitate the movement of $10 billion in goods and services annually. Now done almost entirely in their respective domestic markets, as the Universal Currency is still in its infancy.

That is changing, however, as members of trade exchanges are finding that trips abroad can be handled through their trade exchanges. I personally know scores of business owners who have taken extensive business trips to Europe and Asia, covering the expenses with trade dollars. Additionally, media around the world is increasingly available for companies who have international needs.

For further information on barter companies that are members of IRTA and use the Universal Currency, contact IRTA at (312) 461-0236, or their web site:www.irta.com.

Conclusion Mr. King's vision of the future implementation of direct exchanging--becoming an immense barter economy--is plausible, because all the ingredients necessary for attainment are now at hand with today's enormous and ever-growing computer power. The use of trade dollars, as a viable currency or a medium-of-exchange, is four decades old and utilized in millions of transactions.

The ubiquitousness of the internet and its infrastructure should/could enable the development of a massive online electronic barter economy, to complement and expand the off-line barter offices now dotted around the globe. Which leaves only one final part of the puzzle to be found--capitalization.

Basically, this will require that one or more major corporations grasp in totality the enormous magnitude of creating and ultimately implementing a private, worldwide barter currency.

The move in this direction is, admittedly, very fragmented at this time. But the commercial barter industry's evolution is on-going and will continue. Dot.com companies entering the barter arena will speed the movement forward. The question at this time is: How big will the electronic barter economy ultimately become?

Given the projections for U.S. business-to-business e-commerce (defined as orders placed between businesses via the internet) which is expected to explode over the next few years reaching $1.3 trillion in 2003, it is not that far a reach to assume that with financial might and manpower, the creation of an efficient, effective mechanism for commerce could be constructed which would allow for the payment and acquisition of goods and services by utilizing one's own products and services.

About the author: Bob Meyer, a former major league baseball player, is the founder and publisher of BarterNews magazine, established in 1979. In 1997 he was the third inductee into the IRTA "Barter Hall of Fame." He can be reached at www.barternews.com.

Now more related on topic from Top playres:

Page 1 of 9
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Printing? Use this version

The Future of Money

He used to be the most powerful banker in the world. Now he's talking like a cypherpunk. An amazingly frank interview with Walter Wriston about money, the economy, and the digital era.

By Thomas A. Bass

SEE ALSO
Archive Category:
Future of Money

6.05 - May 1998
The Promise of One to One (A Love Story)
The honeymoon's over. A new look at the Web's true power to serve and sell you.
By Chip Bayers

6.05 - May 1998
Europe to U.S.: No privacy, no trade.
The European Union has a very simple plan: they want every country on Earth to adhere to a global privacy code.
By Simon Davies

6.01 - Jan 1998
Is The Revolution Over?
An anthropological expedition to late 90s Silicon Valley reveals that it takes more than some engineers, VCs, headhunters and electronics stores to make a miracle.
By Po Bronson

5.12 - Dec 1997
Attention Shoppers!
The currency of the New Economy won't be money, but attention -- A radical theory of value.
By Michael H. Goldhaber

Global Economy

Privacy

Encryption

Online Commerce

He used to be the most powerful banker in the world. Now he's talking like a cypherpunk. An amazingly frank Wired Interview with Walter Wriston about money, the economy, and the Digital Era.

Want to know about the future of money? Talk to Walter Wriston.

Wriston was there at the creation of the modern wired economy, when money began turning itself into bits and bytes and started flowing around the world through satellite transponders and fiber-optic cables.

Wriston bet the bank on technology during his 17-year reign as chair and CEO of Citicorp/Citibank. Under Wriston, Citibank set out in the 1970s to "wire" its customers into automated, online, checkless, international users of "financial supermarkets" based on CATs and ATMs. This "thin branch" of customers wired into a global network would be the engine of Citibank's financial growth.

By the time Wriston retired in 1984 - turning the bank over to John Reed, the wunderkind who had implemented much of Wriston's technological vision - Citibank was America's largest bank, and its investment in computer hardware and software was approaching US$1.75 billion.

Wriston, who has served on the boards of several dozen companies ranging in size from Silicon Valley start-ups to General Electric, is the author of two books on money (Risk & Other Four-Letter Words, 1986, and The Twilight of Sovereignty: How the Information Revolution Is Transforming Our World, 1992). The basis for wealth, he says, has evolved from land to labor to information.

"Information about money has become almost as important as money itself," he said - a famous remark now inscribed in the lobby of New York's Library of Science, Industry, and Business.

Wriston is the subject of a 1,000-page biography called Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank, and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy (1995), which regards him as the kingpin of modern American finance. "I'm too busy to read it," says the 77-year-old banker. "That's the past. I'm interested in the future."

Wired: What is the future of money?

Wriston:

The revolution that's waiting in the woods is smartcards. They issued 300,000 during the Olympics in Atlanta. It was the first mass use of smartcards in America.

Explain smartcards.

One kind is an electronic purse. It's basically a traveler's check that makes exact change. You give 7-Eleven 50 bucks, and they give you a card that goes in vending machines. When the card is debited down to zero, you throw it away.

The second kind of smartcard is rechargeable. A third kind involves identification. It holds a computer chip with your DNA signature or a digital picture.

This technology is on the verge of exploding, and when it does, people will think of smartcards as money in the same way they now think of traveler's checks as money.

Can anyone issue smartcards?

The United States had no central bank until 1913, so every bank issued its own dollar bills. In the early days these bills were different colors and sizes, and some of them weren't worth the paper they were printed on. The same thing is happening with smartcards. 7-Eleven is issuing smartcards.

Why switch from greenbacks to smartcards?

The idea of carrying a card with both built-in identification and money has a certain charm, as opposed to carrying a bunch of cash that can get lost or stolen. The card is secure, because it won't work unless you know the personal ID numbers. In France, they introduced smartcards by fiat: they just announced one day that you had to use smartcards for all automatic teller machines. Smartcards are very big in Germany, and in 1995, 400 million smartcards were shipped to Asia. You can't make a phone call in Japan without one. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think money is about to remake itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thomas A. Bass (tab@hamilton.edu) is the author of The Eudaemonic Pie. His latest book, Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home, is published by Soho Press

Page 2 >>

LOS ANGELES, CA-October 28, 2003 – Bentley Communications Corp. (OTC BB:BTLY), the emerging leader in the online trade and barter industry, has signed an Independent Sales Office (ISO) agreement with HMSBLUE Corp. to provide transaction processing services including credit, debit, online checks, ACH, loyalty and gift card issuing and acquiring. Bentley will offer these services to the estimated 50,000 companies that trade through the exchanges on its Crump Barter Network.

Bentley will offer a host of programs and products through HMSBLUE for merchants that want to accept credit and debit card payments. This includes Internet Payment Gateway (iPG) which provides merchants using electronic commerce with a cost-effective and robust way to securely process payment cards and ACH transactions through the Internet in real-time, and iSwipe which reduces costs by processing swipe (card present) transactions through the internet, in addition to terminal based hardware and software POS solutions.

Bentley will also offer HMSBLUE’s stored value, gift and loyalty card programs that are powered by eBusiness Secure & Guaranteed™, developed by HMSBLUE's sister company Oncaldera Corp. This includes PINpago, a payment product for internet transactions where financial institutions authenticate their customers (buyers), and send guaranteed payments to merchants (sellers).

About HMSBLUE:

HMSBLUE, based in Los Angeles, is a technology-driven, business-to-business provider of comprehensive merchant authorization, settlement and accounting systems as well as a broad range of Point-of-Sale products and services. HMSBLUE, a Visa and MasterCard registered ISO/MSP of the J P Morgan Chase Bank, offers Credit, Debit, online checks, ACH, loyalty and gift card issuing and acquiring services.

About Bentley Communications Corporation:

Bentley is a business-to-business, Internet e-commerce company that seeks to establish a new marketplace and distribution channel for worldwide barter and trade. Bentley is working towards becoming the online “market maker” for the barter industry -- a neutral intermediary that brings together fragmented multiple groups of buyers and sellers online. Through the development of a seamlessly integrated family of online barter services, it envisions that most barter transactions can be handled in real time, with proprietary software. Bentley intends to serve as a clearinghouse for barter trades for fortune 500 trading partners, scores of existing retail barter exchanges that serve companies of all sizes, corporate barter companies that serve large multinational corporations, trade associations and their member companies, as well as media and travel agencies.

Forward-Looking Statements:

With the exception of historical information, this news release and accompanying information may include forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated as a result of various risks. There are numerous factors that could contribute to such differences, therefore such projected events and anticipated results are not warranties or guaranties that such events will occur or that the Company will achieve such results. For more information about this corporation and risks involved in the investment of their publicly traded shares, please see the company’s website(s), and/or documents filed with the SEC, which are easily accessible in the EDGAR database system.

Contacts:

Bentley Communications Corporation
Gordon Lee, 310-445-2599 • email: lee@bentleycommunications.com
Website: www.bentleycommunications.com

HMSBLUE
Masih Madani, 818-442-6000 • email: masih@hmsblue.com
Website: hmsblue.com

Bruce Kamm, Highly Regarded Barter & Trade Industry Executive, New CEO of Bentley Commerce Corporation

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 21, 2004--Bruce Kamm, one of the barter and trade industry's most experienced and highly regarded executives, has been named CEO of Bentley Commerce Corporation (OTCBB:BLYC), effective February 1, 2004. www.bentleycommerce.com is the emerging leader in online barter and trade.

"Bruce Kamm brings 20 years of experience, leadership and extraordinary accomplishments in the barter and trade industry that will be of incredible value to Bentley," said Gordon Lee, chairman and current CEO of Bentley. "He has already been instrumental in guiding all aspects of Bentley's entry into the industry, including designing and developing VirtualBarter, the business-to-business, Internet e-commerce system that is the foundation for Bentley's new online marketplaces and distribution channels for worldwide barter and trade."

Mr. Kamm is the developer of VirtualBarter software that enables exchanges and their members to manage, merchandise and market their products and services in an online barter marketplace to an integrated worldwide network of trade exchanges. It has made global online trading possible since January 2000. He is also the founder and CEO of Intertrade Capital Group, a global alliance organization that enables barter, trade, countertrade, asset management and alternative capital and financial transactions to greatly expand liquidity and bottom-line profitability. At Intertrade he engineered numerous alternative finance and corporate trade transactions for many of America's foremost companies.

Previously, Mr. Kamm established an ITEX office in New York City, which in less than one year became ITEX'S largest and most successful exchange and facilitated the highest amount of trade volume and revenues of any ITEX office for seven consecutive years, culminating in over $16 million in annual trade volume in 1999.

In addition, Mr. Kamm founded TradeBanc, at the time, the first and only Internet-based transactional trade banking system that enabled barter transactions, trade finance and asset auctions between small, medium and large national and international companies on a global basis. He was co-founder of UNITE, the global trade network of barter and trade exchanges. Mr. Kamm also founded and managed a real estate development company that specialized in using trade and offset as a component in many of its real estate and construction transactions.

Bentley's executive management team will consist of Mr. Lee, chairman of the board and chief financial officer; Mr. Kamm, chief executive officer; Robert Schumacher, president and chief operating officer; and Joe Crump, president of the Bentley Crump Barter Network with its membership of 180 independent local barter exchanges and about 50,000 members that trade through them.

About Bentley Commerce Corporation:

Bentley Commerce Corporation is a business-to-business, Internet e-commerce company that seeks to establish a new marketplace and distribution channel for worldwide barter and trade. Bentley is working towards becoming the online "market maker" for the barter industry -- a neutral intermediary that brings together fragmented multiple groups of buyers and sellers online. Through the development of a seamlessly integrated family of online barter services, it envisions that most barter transactions can be handled in real time, with its proprietary VirtualBarter software. Bentley intends to serve as a clearinghouse for barter trades for fortune 500 trading partners, scores of existing retail barter exchanges that serve companies of all sizes, corporate barter companies that serve large multinational corporations, trade associations and their member companies, as well as media and travel agencies.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Seigniorage may be counted as revenue for a government when the money that is created is worth more than it costs to produce it. This revenue is often used by governments to finance a portion of their expenditures without having to collect taxes. If, for example, it costs the U.S. Government $0.05 to produce a $1 bill, the seigniorage is $0.95, or the difference between the two amounts

NOTE: EVEN PRIVATE CURRENCY PRODUCERS EXPERIENCE THE ADD-VALUE OR REVENUE INHERENT IN "SEIGNIORAGE"...THINK ABOUT IT! AN OTC:BB STOCK USED FOR FUNDING START-UP AND EXPANSION/IMPROVEMENT OF COMPANY IS REALLY A "BARTER CURRENCY".

ADD YOUR OWN PRIVATE GLOBAL LIQUID/UBIQUITOUS UNIVERSAL STANDARD OF BARTER CURRENCY TOO (BLYC = BARTERDOLLARS).....PLUS ALL TRANSACTIONS REVENUES IN CASH AND BARTER AND INCREASED VALUE OF BLYC STOCK TOO...AND YOUVE GOT SYNERGISTIC/EXPONENTIAL VALUE GROWTH...CAPICHE?

Editorial Reviews
G. Dale Weight, Ph.D., former Federal Reserve Economist
"A most intriguing and exciting book. It opens one's eyes to the future of a new marketplace."

Joe Morris, CPA author, former Project Manager with the Financial Accounting Standards Board
"An enlightning and stimulating book with a very unique perspective. A fascinating discussion of the evolution of how people exchange."

About the Author
Years of experience in the Barter industry. Neal founded ITEX, the largest retail barter company in the country. Neal is a financial consultant to businesses and governments in eleven countries as well as a number of legal and aco****ing firms in the US and Canada.

Book Description
Authors introduce readers to alternative economies-where big deals and transactions take place with "trade dollars", and "cash equivalent credits". Author shows how important trading will become in the future as more and more savvy business people, enter the entrepreneurial market.

Many examples shown how airline credit, artwork, stocks, phone cards, media credits and other goods become currency.

The Future of Money:
Creating New Wealth, Work, and a Wiser World

by Bernard Lietaer
The following bullets are reality-checks extracted from The Future of Money (published in January 2001, also available in German from http://www.futuremoney.de), illustrating the dramatic changes we face in the near future.

Your money's value is determined by a global casino of unprecedented proportions: $2 trillion are traded per day in foreign exchange markets, 100 times more than the trading volume of all the stockmarkets of the world combined. Only 2% of these foreign exchange transactions relate to the "real" economy reflecting movements of real goods and services in the world, and 98% are purely speculative. This global casino is triggering the foreign exchange crises which shook Mexico in 1994-5, Asia in 1997 and Russia in 1998. These emergencies are the dislocation symptoms of the old Industrial Age money system. Unless some precautions are taken soon, there is at least a 50-50 chance that the next five to ten years will see a global money meltdown, the only plausible way for a global depression.

The Information Age has already spawned new kinds of currencies: frequent flyer miles are evolving toward a "corporate scrip" (a private currency issued by a corporation) for the traveling elite; a giant corporation you never heard of is issuing its own "Netmarket Cash" for Internet commerce; even Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, foresees "new private currency markets in the 21st century."

Exorbitant compensations are paid to the very few at the top: it started with movie stars and sports heroes, and has now spread to top lawyers, traders, doctors, and business leaders. In the 1960’s CEO’s salaries were only thirty times greater than those of the average worker, compared with two hundred times today. Is this the dawn of a society where "Winner-takes-all" or a short-term last gasp of the transition out of the Industrial Age?

1,900 local communities in the world, including over a hundred in the US, are now issuing their own currency, independently from the national money system. Some communities, like in Ithaca, New York, issue paper currency; others in Canada, Australia, the UK or France issue complementary electronic money.

The value of barter transactions — exchanges which do not use any money as medium of exchange - totaled almost $6.5 billion in 1994 in the US and Canada, and is increasing three times faster than normal exchanges. The magazine "Barter News" covers the industry’s development and now has 30,000 subscribers. It estimates the total barter worldwide at $650 billion in 1997, and growing at an annual rate of 15%.

All of the above is part of an irreversible process of change in our money system and our societies. We are now in a transition period, an interval of great risk but also of great opportunity. The risks are not only financial, some of the emerging money technologies could create a society more repressive than anyone of us thought possible. More importantly major opportunities are also becoming available: now more than ever it has become possible to address some of the most critical issues of our times, such as enabling more meaningful work, fostering cooperation and community, even realigning long-term sustainability with financial interests. None of this is theory, real-life implementations have pragmatically demonstrated such results. Combining these innovations can make available a world of Sustainable Abundance within one generation.

Specifically in Europe, the traditional ways to handle unemployment are increasingly failing. In areas with high unemployment, people have already demonstrated that living conditions can be significantly improved by creating their own complementary currencies instead of just relying on welfare. Surprisingly, it is in fact not the first time that such solutions have been successfully implemented in the Modern world. During the 1930’s many thousands of such initiatives were operational in the US, Canada, Western Europe and other areas affected by the Depression. Complementary currencies could become a key tool to buffer a region from the shocks caused by failures and crises in the official money system. Finally, this approach is a win/win for both locally owned businesses and society at large.

The degradation of the environment due to short-term financial priorities can similarly be addressed with pragmatic money innovations. Short-term thinking is shown not to be due to human nature, but to the prevailing money system. It is also possible to reverse this process, by using a currency designed specifically for multinational trade and contracts which would make long-term thinking a spontaneous process, focusing the attention on long-term sustainable solutions without the need for regulations or taxation. Historical precedents have proven such results, some of them lasting over several centuries.

Introduction
Three Promises
Underlying Viewpoint

Chapter 1: Money - The Root of All Possibilities
The Time-Compacting Machine
Age Wave
Information Revolution
Climate Change and Biodiversity Extinction
Monetary Instability
Money at the Core of the Time Compacting Machine
What is Sustainable Abundance?
What Prevents Sustainable Abundance?
Four Seasons in 2020
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter

Creating Sustainable Abundance with Complementary Currencies
A Road Map to Your Money, Your Future
PART ONE: What Is Money?
Synthesis of Part One
Chapter by Chapter Outline
A Primer on How Money Works
"Your" Money
How does Banking Work?
How Did Banking and "Modern" Money Start?
The Secret of "Modern" Money
Credit Markets

Your Savings: Storing Value
A Scorecard
Real Estate
Stocks
Bonds
Currencies

Central Banks and Other Firemen
National Level
"Money’s Family Portrait"

Money as a System
The Firemen’s Viewpoint
Back Full Circle to You

Chapter 2: Today’s Money
A "Simple" Question
Where is the money mystery coming from?
The History of Money
The Needs of the Confidence Game
Why Money is not a Thing

A Working Definition of Money
The Origin of Money’s Power
Money Shifts and Power Shifts

Today’s Money
Four Key Design Features
The Effects of Interest
What next?

Chapter 3: Cybersphere--The New Money Frontier
Post-Industrial Society=Knowledge Age
The Nature of Information
Implications for the Economy and Society

The Positive Forces
The Negative Forces
Distribution and Retail

Implications for Money
Payment Systems
New Money

Implications for Banks and Financial Services
Wisdom in the Information Age?
Chapter 4: Five Scenarios for the Future
Scenarios - Windows on the Future
The Official Future: "More of the Same"
Why the Official Future is Not Going to Happen
The Corporate Millennium
Timetable for the Transition
How is this Possible?
The Case of the Stealth Mega-Store
From Information Age to Corporate Millennium

Careful Communities
Assessing Possibilities of Breakdowns
The Forces Feeding "Careful Communities"

Hell on Earth
Sustainable Abundance
The Four Scenarios in Perspective
The Two Driving Forces

PART TWO: Choosing Your Future of Money
Chapter 5: Work-Enabling Currencies
An Important Distinction
Unemployed? Who? Me?
The Path not Taken in the 1930s
Today’s systems
Conclusion: Complementary Currencies as ‘Early Prototypes’.
Chapter 6: Community Currencies
Community Breakdown
Currencies that Build Community
Complementary Currencies in the Information Age
Conclusions
Chapter 7: Some Practical Issues
Complementary Currencies, Legal and Tax Authorities
Complementary Currencies, Central Banks and Inflationary Pressures
Elements for a European Social Policy for the Information Age
How to Start Your Own Complementary Currency
Chapter 8: A Global Reference Currency - Making Money Sustainable
Long-term Sustainability
Positive Results of the Modern Money system
Status Report on Biosphere Earth
The Three Tools of Persuasion
Relationship between Money systems, Time Perception and Sustainability
Far-Seeing Glasses?
A Global Reference Currency (GRC) and the Terra Unit
Terra as a Business Initiative
Chapter 9: Sustainable Abundance
A Visit to the Stanford Campus
Towards an Integral Economy?
The Three Waves toward Sustainable Abundance
A Monetary System for Sustainable Abundance
The Four Seasons of 2020 Revisited
The Four Scenarios Revisited
Conclusion
Epilogue and Prelude

This is another hot link compilation on Alternative Currencies including BARTER...

And Alternative Financing FEATRURING BARTER as the PRIME means for the astute:
http://www.strictlybusinesssites.com/barter.htm

GO: BARTER, BARTERDOLLARS, VIRTUALBARTER ,INTERTRADECAPITAL, CRUMPBARTER AND ALL OF BLYC ALLIANCES AND ACQUISITIONS...PROGRESSIVE, POWERFUL AND PROFITABLE PLANS-IN-ACTION!

THIS IS REVOLUTIONARY IN SCOPE AND POTENTIAL REVENUES/VALUE...GOT IT?! IF NOT GET IT...DO THE SERIOUS AND THOROUGH DD...STUDY, THINK ADD TOP INTEL AND VISION...AND YOU WILL!

This is a year that will find us all trying to get a better deal by outsmarting the other man. It his hard to keep track of who is winning, as the right hand has no idea of what the left hand us up to. One thing is for sure, this will be an extremely progressive time. We will all steam ahead, and even if we do not apply ourselves to the utmost, we will be carried forward by the surging tide of the Monkey's natural talent for learning and advancement.

The lucky imp of a Monkey who rules this year will urge us to gamble, speculate and exploit risky but ingenious options. If you are quick on the draw, this year will yield huge dividends. It is definitely not a year for the faint-hearted or slow-witted. The Monkey gives no concessions and asks none in return. If there is a recession, the year of the Monkey will quickly put an end to it. Business will skyrocket under his optmisitc and shrewd influence. The Monkey's resourcefullness will amaze and confound everyone.

It is very interesting to note that America was born in the year of the Fire Mokey, 1776. Perhaps this explains her phenomenal growth and fantastic achievements within such a short span of time.

Great DD!!!