Fourth Corner Exchange Inc is a sustainable community currency

Local currency

In economics, a local currency, in its common usage, is a currency not backed by a national government , and intended to trade only in a small area. As a tool of fiscal localism, local moneys can raise awareness of the state of the local economy, especially among those who may be unfamiliar or...

 based in the Pacific Northwest USA. Founded in 2002 by Francis Ayley and a group of like minded friends, Fourth Corner Exchange started trading in January 2004, utilizing a basic Time Dollar system that has some features of LETS, but with important differences from both which are described on their website. There are presently over five-hundred and fifty members in Bellingham, Washington

Bellingham, Washington

Bellingham is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the twelfth-largest city in the state. Situated on Bellingham Bay, Bellingham is protected by Lummi Island, Portage Island, and the Lummi Peninsula, and opens onto the Strait of Georgia...

, Port Townsend, Washington

Port Townsend, Washington

Port Townsend is a city in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately north-northwest of Seattle . The population was 9,113 at the 2010 census an increase of 9.3% over the 2000 census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County...

, Everett, Washington

Everett, Washington

Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Named for Everett Colby, son of founder Charles L. Colby, it lies north of Seattle. The city had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census, making it the 6th largest in the state and...

, Mount Vernon, Washington

Mount Vernon, Washington

Mount Vernon is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,743 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included in the Mount Vernon-Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the county seat of Skagit County...

, and Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. Prospective members must attend a new members meeting in order to join and trade with other members. Meetings are held in Bellingham, Port Townsend, Mount Vernon, Everett, Portland and many other locations.

Recently, Fourth Corner Exchange has spread to other parts of the USA, notably Oregon, California, New Mexico, Colorado and Ohio.

The original software used to run Fourth Corner's website has been released under the GNU General Public License

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....

 (GPL) and is distributed through SourceForge

SourceForge

SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...

. The Fourth Corner Exchange database program has been significantly modified since this open source release.

External links

• Fourth Corner Exchange Inc. (official site)
• Local Exchange software (via SourceForge)
• Local Currencies - Replacing Scarcity with Trust, a video interview with Fourth Corner founder Francis Ayley.