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Complementary currencies have spread to many places around the world at the beginning of the 21st century. Creating sustainable economic cycles and short transport routes are often the goals of introducing them. Due to their manageability, regional currencies can be embedded in debates of regional economics and sustainability. Above all, they are suitable for democratic experiments that can show in real environments whether currency designs work as examples of collaborative communities and research. One of these monetary experiments is the climate bonus, which is linked to the local currency Chiemgauer. The research path goes into the daily routine of a real laboratory to find out which methods would be effective enough to deliver carbon savings. The climate bonus creates a monetary network where people can try out new behaviors in a protected space. As a result, three years after the initiation of the project, carbon reductions are above expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subsidies in the form of direct transfers from the government to citizens constitute a powerful mechanism for crisis mitigation and for the alleviation of economic inequalities. However, the connection between direct transfers of cash assistance to selected individual beneficiaries and the prosperity of their immediate surrounding local economy has not been sufficiently explored. This paper presents a case study which analyzes the effects of allocating cash assistance in the form of a local currency. It shows that, under certain conditions, such a transfer not only provides the beneficiaries with additional purchasing power to satisfy their needs but also that the monetary injection benefits local SMEs by generating additional turnover. Using transactional data from the system, some indicators are proposed to analyze the properties of the system, namely, user satisfaction, total and average income generated by local businesses, the local multiplier, the recirculation of the local currency, and the velocity of its circulation. Our findings indicate that cash assistance provided in the REC local currency could contribute to local economic development and financial stability by sustaining local commerce, while preserving most of the original positive effects of cash assistance in a legal tender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External shocks, like the climate catastrophe or the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as intrinsic fallacies like the securitization of bad debt leading up to the financial crisis in 2008, point to the need for updating our monetary and financial systems. Ensuring their adequacy and resilience is an important factor for sustainability at large. This paper examines the definitions of "money" and "currency" in financial legislation as a foundational factor in achieving systemic resilience by allowing or hampering monetary innovation and diversity. From the unencumbered vantage point that the practice of complementary currencies offers, definitions of the terms "money" and "currency" are here traced through the laws and regulations of the United States of America, from the beginnings of modern banking to the recent rulings on crypto-currencies. They are both found to be used and defined in contradictory ways that are inapt even in regard to conventional modern banking practices, let alone when applied to novelty in payment, issuance and valuation. Consequently, this paper argues that basic legal definitions need to be reviewed and consolidated to enable the innovation and diversification in monetary systems needed for long term macro-economic stability. With this in mind, a terminology that is consistent with monetary practice--current, past and future--as well as the procedural difficulties of reforming laws and regulations is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the oil price downturn of 2015, the United Arab Emirates and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council countries have worked hard to expand digital payments in the interest of improved tax and revenue collection, transparency, and security. Yet despite a deep transformation and diversification of their payment eco-systems and the formalization of plans to become "cashless economies" modelled on South Korea and Sweden, cash continues to dominate payments in both countries. While industry players typically attribute the prevalence of cash in the region to questions of infrastructure readiness, transaction costs, and cyber-security, this paper finds that plans to expand digital payments at the expense of cash may not be well-adapted to countries with high levels of socio-economic inequality. It proposes a link between socio-economic inequality and use of cash in emerging economies, and concludes that it may be better to not view the relationship between cash and digital payments in binary zero-sum terms, until there is a better understanding of the socio-economic, technological, and policy context in which countries like South Korea and Sweden have managed to reduce their reliance on cash in favor of a diversified digital payments eco-system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community currencies are only sometimes economically advantageous. We focus on seasonal changes in money supply and assume that community currencies stabilize the money supply in a local community. This leads to additional transactions during seasons of insufficient supply of national currency. We hypothesize community currencies are therefore economically advantageous in a surrounding of seasonally insufficient money supply. We test the hypothesis qualitatively with two case studies, the German Chiemgauer and the Kenyan Sarafu Credit. We find community currencies are only economically advantageous in an environment of insufficient liquidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to contribute to the scientific debate on "complementary monetary systems" (CMSs), what strategies may be the best for allowing the implementation of a CMS in a territory and that optimise the potential that it seems to have to strengthen processes of sustainable local development and urban resilience. For this, the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats-Analytic Hierarchy Process methodology (SWOT-AHP) has been used, which has allowed us to identify four strategies: (1) build a social, economic and political consensus, (2) create a community observatory for "complementary social monetary systems" (CSMSs), (3) define communication tools for raising awareness and education in ethical finance and (4) promote the alignment of the CSMS with sustainable local development strategies. These strategies have been formulated so that that they can be implemented by any entity, public or private, and for any of the types of CMS that may be part of a CSMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local digital currencies (LDCs) can be defined as technological platforms in which transactions occur between users without the use of any form of official tender. Although there is empirical evidence with regard to the sustainable development-related benefits of this type of currency, its use is still highly marginal and incipient, with relatively short lifecycles. To understand why LDCs have not gained a firmer footing or implementation in society and subsequently gain the ability to define a series of actions making this possible, an integrated model has been developed. Based on a review of the available literature, this model permits an analysis of the perceptions, beliefs, and attitudinal factors impacting upon the process of adopting this kind of currency. Based on a sample of 1559 subjects, the results obtained from the structural equation modelling performed provide important conclusions in terms of both the theory and the management of LDC-based communities, whether this is for the creation of new communities or the attraction of new users, or to consolidate existing communities or the participation of users once they have registered with them. Perceptions (attitude, subjective regulation, and perceived control), beliefs (compatibility, perceived utility, interpersonal influences, self-efficacy, and enabling conditions) and previous experience have a significant influence on the intention to be part of a community based on a local digital currency, with all that this implies for the defining of strategies to promote the use of LDCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]