Brazilian city creates its own currency

>The cocal is a coin that only circulates in the municipality. With this money people pay bills, receive salaries, Bolsa Senpaiília and even make loans.

>"The currency is safe because it is even approved by the Central Bank and for each cocal circulating in our municipality, we have R $ 1 in the cocais bank," explains João Alves da Cruz, controller of the municipality.

>Eight years ago, São João do Arraial had no bank branch. It was here that the Bank of Cocais and its own currency emerged. Before, residents needed to go to neighboring cities to gain access to banking services. With that, the money ended up not circulating inside the municipality.

>Today the merchants only celebrate.

>"The people spend the cocal here because it only applies here in the municipality", says the merchant Antônio de Molo Lima.

>The cocal already represents about 30% of the money that circulates in the economy of the municipality. And even merchants from other states have realized that to get along in business you need to get the local currency.

>Mr Victorian, who is from Ceará, knows this story well. Once a week he sells fruit and vegetables at the city fair.

>"If I do not receive, I will see little. And getting him I sell more, "he said.

>Good for the economy and also for the safety of the locals. There were only two robberies in 2015. And the actual police force consists of three men per shift. Sergeant Oliveira, responsible for security, does not neglect the patrols, but confirms that the currency is a good aid,

>"I think it draws less attention from the bad guys," he said.

I have more info if u want. What do you ancapists and others think?
g1.globo.com/jornal-nacional/noticia/2016/05/cidade-do-interior-do-piaui-tem-moeda-propria-o-cocal.html

Other urls found in this thread:

google.com.br/maps/@-3.8146128,-42.4475064,3a,75y,340.2h,61.72t/data=!3m9!1e1!3m7!1sBUFPhYLMlBzobYb363EHqA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i54
youtube.com/watch?v=O33Flqcp5B4
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

where do i spend all these favelabucks

I'm skeptical about it, given that it's not even backed by gold or is a cryptocurrency. Seems like a sub-currency for the sake of it, and if it's central bank-approved that must mean they still nonetheless intend to regulate it in some manner eventually.

It might work and look good now, but only time will tell. These are my first *optimistic* impressions.

Ron Paul approved, competition of currencies is good for the people

>>"If I do not receive, I will see little. And getting him I sell more, "

what did he mean by this?

favelas are a urban phenomenom, slums in big cities. This is a small city and on a different category altogether

This is the place tho
google.com.br/maps/@-3.8146128,-42.4475064,3a,75y,340.2h,61.72t/data=!3m9!1e1!3m7!1sBUFPhYLMlBzobYb363EHqA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i54

In bumfuck nowhere and with very few things in it
"If I do not receive [the currency], I will see little. And getting it [this was by google translate] I sell more, "

It's not quite competition. It starts out ok but it turns into something odd afterwards. I'll post some more info

More complete article
>Isolated from the largest commercial centers of Piauí, the city of São João do Arraial, 253 km from Teresina, created a local bank to go around the lack of banking services. Created in 2007, the Bank of Cocais allowed the economic development of the region with the circulation of it's own currency, the "cocal".

>Data from the Central Bank show that, of the aproximately 5,6 thousand brazilian municipalities, 233 (68 in Piauí) don't have banking institutions, that is, they don't even have lotteries, ATM or service stations. In the case of banking agencies, 1900 municipalities in the country don't offer the service.

>Emancipated from Matias Olímpio in 1996, São João do Arraial didn't have a banking agency, which used to make it's inhabitants go to Esperantina, Northern Region of the state, 20km away. "It was hard to move, pay a bill and receive a payment. We always needed to go to another city even to buy clothes and food, since the commerce here was scarce", says resident Maria Antônia.

>"In our research we also realized people didn't need much capital and that wasn't interesting to the big banks. We first created a Municipal Fund to Support a Solidary Economy to raise 40% of the monetary income, generating around R$20 million. Afterwards, I learned about the Bank of Palmas (CE [Ceará, another state]), first communitarian agency in the country. I took the idea to the people of São João do Arrial and, in December of 2007, we inaugurated the Bank of Cocais and the local currency", he explained.

>The bank is ran by civil society, but the town hall and local entities are part of it's Council. Beyond distributing the currency, the institution also works to pay the city's public servants, collect public taxes like water and energy, and distribute benefits [welfare]. "Nowadays it's recognized by the Central Bank, as long as the currency only circulates in that city. The bills go crom C$0,50 to C$20.

>According to the city hall, the growth of the municipality's economy coincides with the cocal's circulation. In the first two years after the currency's deployment alone, the municipality's economy the communitiy's bank moved 3 million reais in cocais, 25% of the 12 million reais in the entire municipality.

>The Bank's coordinator says that, along with increasing the city's income, implementing the new coin helped to create jobs and made the resident's lives easier.

>"Nowadays we notice money flowing in the city, and this makes a difference in the local commerce, to the people. Another important factor is the investment made by the institution in the productive sectors, especially with the liberation of micro-credit to the promotion of small businesses. Today we now for sure of at least C$25 million circulating in São João do Arraial", he said.

>He also reminds us that, beyond implementing the bank and the new coin, the City Council [legislative body, like the House of Reps] approved a law establishing that 25% of public servants in the municipality received their wages in Cocais. The measure was proposed to avoid that public employees [who get their jobs via public tests], from other municipalities, spent their money outside the city. Whoever wants to trade the cocal for the real needs only to go to the bank.

>Even after a lottery and the appearence of commercial spots that accept credit cards, the cocal continues being the most used currency in the city, and every establishment accepts it.

>The merchant Giseia Maria dos Santos, owner of a local bakery, says that "At first the currency was rejected out of fear, but, after insistence and seeing it was for the city's development, people accepted it. It's good to work with the cocal, to know that this moves our local income and benefitted everyone, especially the merchants".

>Another person who celebrates is Jean Santana, owner of a small dresser, who said that there is no difference between the cocal and the real, and that he prefers to be paid in the local currency for security reasons. "Since it only has value here, the number of robberies against stores is almost scarce", he said.

>The currency is worth as much as the real, but with larger buying power due to discounts. If a product costs R$10, it'll cost C$9 if paid with the cocal. The discount is possible because, for each cocal issued, there is a guarantee of a real guaranteed by the community's financial organization.

>According to it's coordiantor, the bank has a cost of R$0,15 for each currency unit, + the transportation costs to bring it from Fortaleza [Capital of Ceará, neighboring state], where the Instituto Palma's (manager and certifier of communitarian banks in Brazil) trusted print shop prints the currency.

>Today, to issue 10 thousand bills, the cost gets to as much as R$5 thousand. It's very expensive. If the currency was made by the Casa da Moeda [brazilian mint], we would have reduced costs, the material would be of higher quality. If we had this support, we would have made a giant breakthrough both from an institutional and a financial point of view, " he added.

So it started out libertarian, but then it got really odd

How do you think this will work out in the long-term?

The only reason why those people who are printing those banks notes are not hanging by nooses right now is because the rest of Brazil is in such shambles I don't think they even care right now

This is a very good idea. Protectionism works as long as central planning is held to a minimum.

who the fuck knows, being in Brazil, the bank's owners might be a bunch of cronies stealing money from the people and putting it away in the cayman islands
they've been going at it since 2005

Right now bitcoin is unregulated (but earnings are taxed), but these people don't even have good internet or knowledge to use it.

I'm somewhat surprised the central bank even allowed this, but it isn't really private money, more like a municipal money ran by a "communitarian bank" (governments always find a way to intervene in those) close to the city hall.

But even having another currency being printed here is odd as hell

Its probably too small to really take any kind of notice or action by the brasil gov't so they just let it slide.
I suprised its been going on for that long and I haven't heard of this before nor anyone mentioning this. They probably don't want anyone to know about this.
In the states people have minted silver coins with a dollar denomination on it and have been immediately thrown in jail and forced to pay a fine.

the central bank actually knows about it and guarantees it

I found news to as back as 2014, but only learned about this when I heard an anarcho-capitalist mentioning how they should be teaching them about bitcoin for ex, instead of just circle-jerking online

>checking out the town in that google maps link
>go for a wander down the street
>see this

is this a commie hideout huebro?

that's the local worker's party directory, so yes.

The city doesn't have many things in it. Google maps shows like 1 restaurant, the city hall, one jehova's witnesses temple, a bar, a couple churches. It's a typical "literally where?" smalltown

the town looks really comfy. i like how the roads are all made up of rocks and cement instead of bitumen, it gives the town a nice colonial look

i havent read all of the stuff you posted yet, reading it all now

most small cities (the ones who aren't UNESCO heritage sites at least, or older historic cities) in Brazil look like this, but usually with a river or some shit too.

These are the same stones they used since the 40s (or 60s, something like this), when they first got cars, although most don't have traffic or traffic lights to this day.

This city in particular probably doesn't have many criminals either since there are no bars in the windows (unfortunately even small cities are starting to get bars in their windows, especially if they're not as remote as this one).

There is also absolutely nothing to do in them, so a lot of people (especially young people) leave, although only 28 cities in the country saw decreases in population.

Most of my family lived in one such small, comfy city with a nice climate. The young ones got the fuck out to go to university (either somewhat larger cities, like 80, 100 thousand, or sometimes smaller but more developed ones too) or get a better job, and the old people because they had to go to the capital every time they needed to go see their doctor or go to a hospitalto do anything serious

Most small towns are still comfier than cities tho, but in some regions it's not uncommon to see bands of roaming bandits, who go from town to town stealing banks (or people), since there are barely any policemen in these cities, and the few they have are the ones taking care of their small jails.

This was a bigger problem in the 30s (at least in the northeast), when you had cunts like pic related and we didn't have a specialized police force to hunt criminals in the caatinga shrubland, but it still happens from time to time

vid related: youtube.com/watch?v=O33Flqcp5B4