Local exchange trading system

LETS allow people to negotiate the value of their own hours or services. Similar trading systems around the world are also known as Community Exchange Systems, Mutual Credit trading systems, Clearing Circles, Trade Exchanges or Time Banks. LETS is a new type of money which makes it easy to pursue new Livelihood without the previous wholesale transformation of the Capitalism.

About Local exchange trading system in brief

LETS allow people to negotiate the value of their own hours or services, and to keep wealth in the locality where it is created. Similar trading systems around the world are also known as Community Exchange Systems, Mutual Credit trading systems, Clearing Circles, Trade Exchanges or Time Banks. LETS is a new type of money which makes it easy to pursue new Livelihood without the previous wholesale transformation of the Capitalism. It is thus regarded as an alternative currency movement, and as a form of political protest. In many countries, the distinction between LETS and timebanking is not clear, as many LETS use time as their unit of account. According to a 1996 survey by LetsLink UK, only 13% of LETS networks actually practise equivalence. Most groups establish alternative systems of valuation in order to divorce entirely from the mainstream economy. A list of services offered by network members is put together to create a LETS scheme, and trading takes place between members using a local currency. Members’ IOUs are logged in a centralised accounting system which publishes a directory as well as balances visible to all members. In case of a default, the loss of value or units is absorbed equally by all members, making it a mutual credit exchange.

For instance, a member may earn credit by doing childcare for one person and spend it later on carpentry with another person in the same network, or they may spend first and earn later. The LETS foundation is a virtual currency, a check book, a directory and a transparent accounting system built on trust and community regulation. The first LETS required nothing more than a telephone, an answering machine and a notebook. There were 5 LETS in Great Britain in 1992. In 1995 this number increased to 350 with 30,000 membership and 2 million turnover. As of March 2019 links to the Geneva-based Community Forge and Spanish IntegralCES. Lets are generally considered to have the following five fundamental criteria: LETS are not a scheme for avoiding the payment of taxation, and generally encourage all groups to personally undertake their liabilities to the state for all taxation, including income tax and goods and services. Generally there is much variation between users, but there are no plans for LETS to become a full-fledged barter system unlike direct barter.

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