Among various crypto initiatives, Intercoin is unique in that we focus on serving communities. Money is a community phenomenon, benefitting from network effects similar to social networks, languages, and culture. The value of money to any particular user is whether others will accept it in exchange for goods and services they require. The more widely a currency is accepted in a given community, it is useful it is as money.
Intercoin was launched with the idea of helping organizations, large and small, issue their own community currency. Just as casinos have launched their own chips, and theme parks have launched their own tokens, so have entire cities. The goal is to help money stay in the local economy, and encourage people to buy locally.
At times in history, local currencies helped stabilize economics in communities amid rapid hyperinflation, such as the Wara in Germany and the later miracle of Worgl in Austria that helped safeguard the economy of local towns in the midst of the Great Depression. Had these experiments not been shut down by national authorities, perhaps other communities could have experienced economic stability and the Nazi regime would have never risen to power.
Currencies don’t necessarily have to be issued by banks or political entities. They can take the form of credit money issued by local utilities, businesses and other merchants. Here is a great overview:
