Commercial Purpose, cont. Consumer to Business (C2B): An interesting innovation by Strohalm*
Foundation introduced in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, El Salvador,
Uruguay and in the South Brazil is what they call Consumer and
Commerce Circuits or C3. It is an Internet based system in which some
basic rules guarantee sound performance and inter-C3- exchange but
most of the details are decided locally.
Consumers buy vouchers with conventional money from the C3 network
with a locally established premium, varying between zero and 10% to
encourage the consumers to join. The vouchers are used to pay for goods
and services provided by member-businesses. The businesses can use the
vouchers to pay other businesses members of the network or cash them in
at C3 against a small fee (similar to the Save Australia project).
Using this system, businesses obtain customers they wouldn’t get
otherwise, and improve customer loyalty in general. The ‘float’ in
conventional money accumulated in the system is handled by a local bank
that use it to offer low-cost financing for member businesses or projects.
Consumers get loyalty discounts and help make decisions about the way
their money is being invested in the community because consumers and
businesses all get an equal vote in the management of the system; and
there are more consumers than businesses. This, and the fact that
consumers are initiating the creation of the complementary currency by
buying the vouchers justify labeling this approach as a new type of
commercial application: a Consumer to Business (C2B) financial product.
Combinations of the above: There are also successful combinations of
the above: currencies issued by businesses that are used among individuals
as well. For instance, the WIR system in Switzerland, or the WAT system
in Japan fall in this category.
7
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32