Abstract
Alternative currencies are means of payment that circulate alongside—as an alternative or complement to—official currencies. While these currencies have existed for a long time, both society and academia have shown a renewed interest in their potential to decentralize the governance of monetary affairs and to bring people and organizations together in more ethical or sustainable ways. This article is a review of the ethical and philosophical implications of these alternative monetary projects. We first discuss various classifications of these currencies before analyzing the ethical challenges linked to the way they tackle social and environmental issues. We also examine the incentive-based and coercive mechanisms used by these currencies from an ethical perspective and debate the promises and perils of monetary decentralization and democracy. We conclude by identifying an agenda for future research.
Highlights
Introduction to Energy Currencies and AccountingLondon: New Economics Foundation.Conti-Brown, Peter. 2016
It is fair to say that all Alternative currencies (ACs)—from local exchange trading systems (LETS) and local currencies to Bitcoin—have been designed for a certain normative purpose, which can be social, environmental, or economic
With a growing number of AC initiatives worldwide, we believe that it is important and timely to analyze the ethical implications of these currencies from a broader social, political, and economic perspective
Summary
ACs can take a number of physical or digital forms, have various internal characteristics, and rely on different external structures. We show how this literature raises important questions regarding the nature of money and develop it further by connecting it to philosophical discussions about the ontology and normativity of money
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