Community currency clearing

Revision as of 16:18, 5 August 2004 by 142.177.94.38 (talk) (draft, messy)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Community currency clearing is the grassroots equivalent of the w:Bank For International Settlements which clears transactions in national currency:

That Bank sets up reserve requirements so that no excessive amount of any national currency will be honoured as "hard currency" unless it meets some basic requirements to respect certain property rights, notably land ownership, and corporate priveleges. Some countries, like China, are outside the system and have "pegged" their currency to the US Dollar so they have the advantages of a hard currency without meeting any B4IS rules.

In reality, the Bank is a formality and currency transactions route around it, they are created by handshakes and by transactions in finanicial brokerages, insurance companies, etc.. But ordinary citizens using community currency like LETS or even such incentive schemes as "Air Miles" or "Green Stamps" are also doing monetary transactions: without any global clearing scheme that would let you earn in one and then spend in another.

The Transitioner is a service concerned with the various issues in how to retain local/community character of grassroots exchanges including community currency and other complementary currency (this is now the standard term as these typically do not replace but augment national money). These might be relevant to Consumerium Services in any of the following ways: