For most of us, ‘currency’ automatically means ‘legal tender’ currency, for example the Dollar or Pound, which we use every day. Running in parallel with this ‘normal’ money there are also many forms of so-called complementary currencies, which complement the national currency without trying to replace it: Regional currencies, Customer Loyalty Programs, Business to Business (B2B) barter systems and the WIR Bank, State-issued parallel currencies, LETS and Time Banks, so-called Virtual and Crypto-currencies (Bitcoin), Energy currencies, Freebanking and other Complementary Currencies. Each type of system fills a different niche in our economic ‘ecosystem’. A variety of monetary systems is just as useful for developing society as a variety of species is for a sustainable environment.

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