This document discusses alternatives to traditional money and banking systems. It presents several alternative models that have been used, including local currencies, virtual currencies, time banks, gift economies, and shared economies. It notes that there is no law against establishing alternative currency systems. The document also questions the standard historical narrative that barter economies preceded money, citing research showing that communities have long engaged in systems of mutual credit and debt. While alternative systems currently play a small role compared to national currencies, the document argues that necessity and human ingenuity will continue to drive experimentation with new approaches to exchange outside of traditional models.

1. Boa tarde
Filipe Moreira Alves
Obrigado|Thank you
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2. 2
There are better alternatives.

3. 3
1. Money Myth 2. Alternatives
3. Questions and
visions for the
future
There are better alternatives.

4. 4
There are better alternatives.
“Any sizable group anywhere, any day,
could start a nonpolitical monetary unit
and system. There is no law against it,
and no legislation need to be invoked.”
E.C. Riegel

5. 5
There are better alternatives.
Money / Currency
Or
Credit systems
Gift economy
Shared economy
Community/familiar
economy

6. 6
There are better alternatives.
“No example of a barter economy, pure and simple, has ever been
described, let alone the emergence from it of money; all available
ethnography suggests that there never has been such a thing.”
Caroline Humphrey
“The standart economic-history version has little to do with anything
we observe when we examine how economic life is actually
conducted, in real communities and marketplaces, almost anywhere
– where one is much more likely to discover everyone is in debt to
everyone else in a dozen different ways, and that most transaction
take place without the use of currency.”
David Graeber, Debt: the first 5000 years

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There are better alternatives.
TINA:
THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE

8. 8
There are better alternatives.
Property
(Re)Distribution,
allocation and
Exchange systems
Value and
Indicators

9. 9
There are better alternatives.
To design things
DIFFERENTLY

10. 10
There are better alternatives.
It’s not about re-
inventing the wheel but
more about re-
designinig the wheel to
better serve us..

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There are better alternatives.
Property
(Re)Distribution,
allocation and
Exchange systems
Value and
Indicators
 Genuine Progress Indicator (EUA, Internalização)
 Genuine Wealth Assessment (Dr. Mark Anielski)
 Green Gross Domestic Product (Rio1992)
 Living Planet Index (WWF)
 Happy Planet Index (nef)
 Human Development Index (Amartya Sem ’90)
 Global Peace Index
 Gross Domestic Happines Index (Bhutan)
 Local currencies
 Global virtual currencies
 Mutual exchanges systems
 Credit Services
 Barter Markerts
 Sharing Economy
 Gift Economy circles
 Sharing economy
 Commons
 Gift Economy
 Earth rights / Condominum
 Appropriate scale and function economics

12. Internacional
Nacional
Regional
Local
Goods
Services
Shadow|Loveeconomy
GDPEconomy
Bancos
do
Tempo
Euro;Dolar;Libra
Freecycle
BARTER
Points/Miles/Credits Systems
Local
currency
There are better alternatives.
B2B
C2C
B2C
Prosumers

13. 13
There are better alternatives.
Seyfang, Gill et Longhurst, Noel (2013), Growing green money? Mapping community currencies for sustainable
development, Ecological Economics, Vol. 86, pp: 65-77

14. 14
There are better alternatives.
Rosl, Gerard (2006), Regional currencies in Germany –local
competition for the Euro?, Economic Discussion paper No 43/2006,
Deutche Bundesbank

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There are better alternatives.
5.1. - Granja
5.2. - Solidário
5.3. - Justa
5.4. - Torga
5.5. - Sorriso
5.6. - Sol
5.7. - Campino
5.8. - Esito
5.9. - Diabitas
5.10. - Saurius
5.11. - Beijinho
5.12. - Crialito
5.13. - Morango
5.14. - Swap
5.15. - Feijão
5.16. - ESECO
5.17. - Pomba
5.18. - Pombalino
5.19. - Aleixo
5.20. – Jardim
5.21. - Giro
5.22. - Rio
5.23. – Virtas
5.24 – Mayor
5.25 – Estrela
5.26 – Canguru
5.27 – Gaivota
5.28 – Brinca
5.28 – Mor
5.30 - Coroa
Garcia, Armando (2014), Notafilia: Moedas Comunitárias em Portugal, Lisboa

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There are better alternatives.
Scale
Parity
Function
Interest/tax
Physicality

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There are better alternatives.
Alternativestolegaltender
• Local currencies
• Virtual currencies
• Social
complementary
currencies
• Slow Money
AlternativestoMoney
• Time
• Energy
• Barter
• No Money and no
alternative currency
AlternativestoBanks
• Full reserve banks
• Ethical banks
• Social and co-
operative banks
• Transactional
banques separate
from Investment
banques
• Sovereign money
• Communnity
bonds
• Social Impact
Bonds
• Crowdfunding
• Time Sharing

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There are many
and better
alternatives.
And they are
NOT new…

19. 19
There are better alternatives.
Glass–Steagall Legislation

20. 20
There are better alternatives.
Navqi, Mona et Southgate, James (2013), Banknotes, local
currencies and central bank objectives, Quaterly Bulletin
of the Bank of England, London, UK
“However, given that the overall volume of
regional currencies in circulation in Germany
amounts only to roughly € 200,000, the current
economic welfare losses resulting from the
issuance of Schwundgeld are negligibly small”
Rosl, Gerard (2006), Regional currencies in Germany –
local competition for the Euro?, Economic Discussion
paper No 43/2006, Deutche Bundesbank

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There are better alternatives.
Why?
Instability & crises (1970-2007):
124 Crises Bancárias Sistémicas
208 Crises de Moeda
63 Crise da Dívida Soberana
Laeven, Luc et Valencia, Fabian (2008): “Systemic banking
Crises: A New Database”, Working Paper IMF WP 08/224
Inequality in the U.S.

22. 22
There are better alternatives.
Geels, W. Frank and Schot,
Johan (2007), Typologies of
sociotechnical transition
pathways, Research Policy, Vol.
26, pp: 399-417

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There are better alternatives.
Patterns in Transition processes:
 Top-down Transition Paths (Reconstellations)
- Radical Reform
- Revolution
- Collapse (failed transition)
 Bottom-up Transition Paths (Empowerment dominated)
- Reconfiguration (with regime adaptation)
- Substitution (without regime adaptation)
- Backlash (failed transition)
 Squeezed Transition Paths
- Teleological
- Emergent
- Lock-in (failed transition)
 Transformation paths
- Transformation
- System breakdown
Haan, J. and Jans Rotsmans (2011), Patterns in transitions:
Understanding complex chains of change, Technological
Forecasting & Social change, Vol. 78, pp: 90-102
Positive Money
proposal
Alternative
currencies
Banks, ACAF’s

24. 24
There are better alternatives.
Is it a matter of scale and critical mass?
Is it a matter of path-dependency and institutional lock-in?
Is it a matter of economic and financial literacy?
Is it a matter of top-down repression and marginalization?

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There are better alternatives.
While it is unlikely at the moment that alternative currency forms a
serious threat to the paramountcy of official currency, it is equally
unlikely, even in the very long term, that the future belongs to one
single integrated currency. Monetary dissent on the grounds of a
shortage of means of exchange has been a constant of monetary
history and is likely to remain so as long as certain sections of the
economy feel that their access to money is restricted. Necessity
combined with human ingenuity will always find ways of bypassing
such restrictions.
Rachael Tibbett (1997) Alternative currencies: A challenge to globalisation?, New Political Economy, 2:1,
127-135, DOI: 10.1080/13563469708406290

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There are better alternatives.
Muito obrigado
Thank you
Filipe Moreira Alves
fmalves@fc.ul.pt