Why Build Your Own Community Currency System?
Posted by: Andrew Cheetham in Activism Events, Banking and the Money Scam, Events, Inspiration, Whole Truth Coalition EventsA Local Exchange Trading System (LETS) is a community-owned and run currency system based on a zero-sum model, as opposed to monetary systems in which the money-suppliers continuously add interest, thereby increasing the money supply. Each member’s account is usually set to start at zero; in order to trade on average half the accounts will be “in commitment” but with no interest being charged or earned at either end.
The zero-sum system enables members who engage in mutual exchange activities to record the value of that exchange, as a simultaneous plus and minus in each other’s accounts. Historically, some LETS groups keep manual ledgers, others use stand alone database systems to carry out these transactions. The next generation of networked community currency systems is changing the scene, immensely.
During Wsfii, a local currency was used to manage internal accounting between organisers, and provide attendees with food tokens redeemable in the local shops. The “Lime” (short for Limehouse in London, where Wsfii was held) was not a LETS system proper, but an Event Currency only usable within a discrete period of time. This seemed like excellent way of bootstrapping what could become a fully-developed local currency, because it established with local traders the idea that Limes are real, they equate to the mainstream currency, and they work for all. Once confidence is established, it becomes possible to take the currency “virtual”; so traders would not necessarily feel the need to cash out in sterling, but could keep a balance on their Limes account.
An ideal scenario: perhaps they need some help to serve behind the counter. They could connect to a local information portal and consult a directory to find someone willing to do this kind of work in exchange for Limes, which are redeemable in other local shops. This scenario may be some way into the future, but the Limes experience at Wsfii laid a good foundation for proving the concept could work.
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