Allo logo

Community Currencies

Community Currencies

TL;DR:

Community Currencies are alternative currencies designed to serve the needs and values of a specific community. They can be issued to recognize local labor, facilitate trade when national currencies are scarce, or encode trust in shared social contracts.


Types of community currencies include:

  • Mutual credit systems (credit = debt = trust)
  • Token-based local money (e.g. Sarafu in Kenya)
  • Timebanks (1 hour of work = 1 credit)
  • Reputation-backed scrips or vouchers


In a Web3 context, Community Currencies can be implemented as:

  • ERC-20 or ERC-1155 tokens
  • Smart contract credit systems
  • Reputation-linked issuance mechanisms


They are often non-speculative, non-transferable across systems, and intentionally designed to circulate locally, supporting regenerative value flows over extractive accumulation.


Community Currencies are especially powerful in:

  • Economically marginalized regions
  • Bioregional or mutual aid networks
  • Onchain-local hybrid coordination systems

Best For

  • Local trade and peer-to-peer exchange
  • Financial inclusion in underbanked or informal economies
  • Recognition of informal, care, or cultural labor
  • Strengthening economic resilience and solidarity

Good At

  1. Enabling trust-based exchange without fiat dependence
  2. Embedding values into monetary design
  3. Creating liquidity in cash-scarce environments
  4. Building circular, regenerative economies

Dependencies / Requirements

  • A shared social contract or trusted community
  • Token issuance logic (credit limit, decay, mint/burn, etc.)
  • Governance around who receives or accepts currency
  • Optional: tech layer (wallet, ledger, contracts, mobile app)

Not Good At

  • Global exchange or high-liquidity scenarios
  • Interoperability with speculative token markets
  • Contexts without strong social cohesion or accountability
  • Projects needing rapid capital accumulation

Who Should Use It?

  • Local cooperatives, mutual aid networks, and solidarity economies
  • Public goods builders designing non-extractive finance systems
  • Protocols or DAOs testing bioregional or value-aligned tokenization
  • Regenerative communities seeking autonomous economic sovereignty

Example Use Cases

  • Sarafu Network: community currencies in Kenya enabling trade after natural disasters
  • A bioregional DAO issues a local token redeemable for workshops, food, and services
  • A mutual aid group builds a mutual credit system that circulates among members for care labor and community work