This report looks at complementary currencies and other platforms for reciprocal exchange.

Key findings

• There are four broad types of exchange scheme, all created to solve a set of problems that impact on public services and public outcomes more generally.
• Expansion of these exchange systems will be driven by the urgent need to find ways of rebuilding social networks and supporting small businesses, as well as local authorities’ increased freedom.
• The reciprocal exchange landscape now includes successful, mainstream models and it seems likely that new kinds of exchange will become increasingly mainstream.
• This is because digital and mobile technology make these ideas much more practical and simpler to manage for individuals.
• It also seems likely that the private sector will catch up with what is happening within the next decade.

It's increasingly clear that we live in collaborative times. Many of the most interesting innovations of recent years have at their heart ideas of sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, exchanging or swapping. These are age-old concepts being reinvented through network technologies and a cultural shift driven by the more civic minded millennial generation.

We commissioned this report in an attempt to learn the lessons from the past and to provide a framework for understanding the many different approaches to complementary currencies and other platforms for reciprocal exchange.

Author

David Boyle