THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

table should help in such a selection. It provides a synthetic overview
of the main characteristics of various currency systems reviewed so
far.
The only new complementary currency system in this table is the
ROCS (Robust Currency System) which synthesises the most robust
features of all the different systems. It is designed to be able to resist
best any shocks in the monetary system, and will be described in
more detail at the end of this section.
Each of these systems has characteristics, which can be considered
as advantages or defects depending on the circumstances. For
example, tying the unit of` the complementary currency to the
national currency (as is the case for most LETS systems, WIR and
Tlaloc) has the advantage of making pncing· easy for everybody
including merchants, given that any product or service has the same
numeric value assigned in both currencies. On the other hand, if the
national currency is in crisis, the value of the complementary
currency would depreciate in parallel. In this sense, the
complementary currency's role as back-up system, as 'spare tyre', is
clearly less effective.
Depending on your priority, it may make sense to choose a
currency that ties in with the national one, or one that does not. In the
latter case, the unit that makes most sense is the hour. The hour is a
universal standard and almost all-contemporary systems, which do
not tie their unit to the national currency, are using it.
Another key decision is whether to use a fiat currency model (as
Ithaca HOURS or WIR) or a mutual credit system (as LETS, Time
Dollars, Tlaloc, or ROCS). There are two important reasons why a
mutual credit system will generally be preferable, particularly for
systems that are designed to be able to be scaled up or replicated in
large numbers.