The recent New Economics Foundation* report, ‘Money with a purpose - community currencies achieving social, environmental and economic impact’, on the progress of the CCIA (Communities Currencies In Action) collaboration project which has been running from May 2012 to June 2015 in North West Europe, found that “community currencies have rapidly risen to prominence in the years following the financial crisis. When the conventional monetary system foundered, alternative means of exchanging time and goods were created to plug the gaps.” 

The report assessed six CCIA pilot projects:

(For more details see: www.communitycurrenciesinaction.eu)

NEF analysis found that: 

• time credit currencies in Amsterdam (the Makkie) and the United Kingdom (Spice Time Credits) have helped to rebuild social capital and people’s confidence in their own capabilities
• business currencies in Amsterdam (TradeQoin) and Nantes (SoNantes) are starting to provide interest-free credit and alternative networking platforms outside of the corporate world.
• between these two models, local currencies like the Brixton Pound offer an easy interface for businesses and local authorities to bring identity and place back into everyday connections.
• E-portemonnee in the East Belgian province of Limburg is building a currency system that supports the environment and makes it easy for people to make sustainable choices.

The key findings were that communiity currencies:

1. democratise services and organisations
2. support the SEME economy
3. counter inequality and social exclusion
4. address environmental impacts.

Bringing currencies together

As we showed in our post on 23 February 2015: “There is a need for exchange rates for converting to & from cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, etc. Indeed, Kipochi tried in 2013 to launch an M-Pesa integrated bitcoin wallet which allowed people in Africa to send and receive bitcoins, plus convert them to and from the Kenyan currency M-Pesa. It failed because M-Pesa wouldn’t co-operate, but cryptcurrency wallets are here to stay and will need FX conversion services.

But most complementary currencies are unlikely to need FX conversion to financial currencies, unless they become really huge/global and then operators might have to provide currency conversion.”

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* New Economics Foundation (NEF) is an independent think-and-do tank that inspires and demonstrates real economic wellbeing.