Commitment pooling and community currencies

Rebecca Mqamelo

Rebecca's research explores the integration of EVM-based local currencies with traditional economic practices in Africa. Her study will analyze ERC20-based local currency models, comparing (1) traditional digital vouchers where they are backed by a government body or money and (2) an emergent, potentially transformative model where the community pools their future production capacity as commitment. How does tokenizing social contracts redefine our understanding of the function of money in a community? What are the underlying protocols that sustain non-monetary, indigenous practices of resource coordination? And how can these protocols find new expression in decentralized technology, transforming inherited systems into powerful tools for ecological sustainability, cooperation and mutual care? In an attempt to answer these questions, the project will focus on communities in Kenya and South Africa that are reviving their customs through Grassroots Economics’ Sarafu Network(opens in a new tab), which also offers 6+ years of onchain data.