Lessons from the Bristol Pound Project and thoughts on digital

Written by Diana Finch, former MD of the Bristol Pound and author of Value Beyond Money

Bristol Pound was arguably totally ahead of itself as it created a new way that payments could happen with both paper and digital money, while weaving in a strong community focus to support Bristol and its economy. As the former Managing Director of the Bristol Pound, I believe there are some lessons that other new digital money instruments may find useful. I was involved managing the project from mid-2018 and envisage a future of different experiments made possible by new technologies. One of the key potential uses of distributed ledger technology (DLT) is in the evolution of the economic system. New technologies offer new tools and the opportunity to approach problems differently. If you only have a hammer, you treat everything as a nail. Until now, this has been the situation for economic activists, valiantly attempting to create novel economic solutions with only the limited tools of the past. 

“The Bristol Pound operated from 2012 to 2021. It was the first local currency to have d…