What can be done about how much money is generated by Black communities – but spent outside them? Activists have envisioned a “community” currency that can only be spent locally.
To try and keep small businesses afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, one town actually took this idea and ran with it.
Citizens of Tenino, Washington created their own wooden currency to encourage local dollar circulation.
The concept is not only legal and potentially powerful, it’s not new.
Communities in Ithaca, New York in the 1990s, and even the cryptocurrency creators of GUAP coin, have created their own means to incentivize “concentrated exchange.”
The benefits, it turns out, could be just what Black communities need.
It helps prevent U.S. dollars from leaking out of Black communities one transaction at a time, but also could “[provide] a method for people without access to paid employment to earn 'money' through charitable or other community work,” says the BBC.
That means it’s also a novel way to survive prolonged unemployment.
One lesson learned by the struggles many community currencies have endured throughout the years, though, is that the concept needs to be adopted by a trusting population. It can’t hinge on the enthusiasm of just a few charismatic leaders.
But if consumers, employers, and investors are all bought in, the sky’s the limit!