Calling this a currency is generous... it’s more of a token that externalizes the normally intrinsic reward for acting charitably. It’s like the stickers that I give my 6 year-old son for doing his chores.
Money you can pay taxes with is the specialised kind of money: “state money”.
You limit yourself in some ways if you consider state money to be the only money. It ties you to your state: which is OK when you agree with your state, but sucks when you don’t. It ties you to the state’s economy (the problem these novel/local currencies attempt to solve). It ties you into statecraft, international relations, and the horror show that is global currency exchange. It invites the state into every transaction you make. It invokes your state’s monopoly on violence, with every transaction you make.
All these have their uses, but they are also a burden sometimes.
But it's also a store value when you can spend those credits a local businesses. If your kid could turn in his stickers for toys or pizza then it would be an apt comparison.
I really like this idea of businesses accepting different types of currencies to encourage specific types of work like charity, volunteering, good grades for kids.
That’s the point; I don’t give dollar bills because that is money. It’s not like you couldn’t pay these people in dollars instead of “time credits”. Why use time credits? Because they aren’t really money and may or may not be worth anything at the end of the day. Show me a community where someone can meet their day-to-day needs exclusively with “time credits” and I’ll concede that it is money.
