Stories of Local Currencies

The end of the Bristol Pound is accompanied by a new currency concept, the Bristol Pay, that is expected to be launched in 2022 by the Bristol Pound CIC. Unlike the Bristol Pound, Bristol Pay would be entirely digital.

The initiative aims to create a payment platform (backed by the pound sterling) that can be used in the city of Bristol in any businesses that choose to participate to purchase any type of goods or services. While this concept may not seem as locally focused friendly as a more "traditional" local currency scheme - which is usually more selective about the independence of participating businesses - the idea is that transaction fees collected with each payment on the Bristol Pay platform will be donated to social and environmental projects in Bristol. Indeed, the leakage of transaction fees out of the country due to digital payments is estimated at £60 million per year in Bristol alone. Thus, the idea is to prevent this money from leaving the local economy.

More than that, Bristol Pound CIC has a new desire: to foster community spirit and move towards a more circular economy that helps people to be more than consumers in a market economy. To do this, the initiative proposes to set up a system of tokens that would recognise and count various pro-social and pro-environmental actions, but would have no financial value. The idea would be to encourage people to help one another, reduce resource use and waste, for example by sharing equipment (e.g. tools) and using low carbon ways of getting around. Each member would have an account on the Bristol Pay app through which their involvement in the community would be displayed and, optionally, shared. The app is said to be designed to be fun, and the tokens can be seen as a form of social reputation currency - in the same way as ‘likes’ on Facebook posts or Uber scores. On a city level, it would be possible to estimate the scale of all these activities and to see the city being transformed to be more socially and environmentally conscious.

Importantly, the data collected through the both the payment transactions and the tokens would not be used for advertising purposes, as is usually the case with social media platforms and the likes of Google, but would be anonymized and used to help planning to deliver Bristol’s One City Plan with its environmental and social objectives. Finally, the Bristol Pay project is thinking big and has the ambition to create a system that can be replicated in cities across the UK and beyond.

The Bristol Pay platform is currently still under construction, and would initially function as a pilot project if financial partners are found in time. When this project is successfully launched, it is hoped that it will be able to fulfill its objectives, thereby alleviating environmental and social problems, and contribute to build a sustainable future for all.