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A local exchange trading system (also local employment and trading system or local energy transfer system; abbreviated to LETS or LETSystem) is a locally initiated, democratically organised, not-for-profit community enterprise that provides a community information service and records transactions of members exchanging goods and services by using the currency of locally created LETS Credits.〔"LETSystems Training Pack", (1990) W.A. Government.〕 == History == Michael Linton originated the term "Local Exchange Trading System" in 1983 and for a time ran the Comox Valley LETSystems in Courtenay, British Columbia.〔("What is LETS?". AshevilleLETS. Retrieved December 9, 2008. )〕 The system he designed was intended as an adjunct to the national currency, rather than a replacement for it,〔Linton, Michael (August, 1994). (The LETSystem Design Manual. Landsman Community Services Paper No. 1.3 Version No 1.3 )〕 LETS networks facilitate exchange between members by providing a directory of offers (and wants) and by allowing each a line of interest-free credit to each. Members' IOUs are logged in a centralised accounting system which publishes a directory and balances visible to all members. In case of a default, the loss of value or units is absorbed equally by all members, which makes it a mutual credit exchange. For instance, a member may earn credit by doing childcare for one person and spend it later on carpentry with another person in the same network, or they may spend first and earn later. The time-based currency mentioned in United Nations Millennium Declaration C6 to Governments was a UNILETS United Nations International & Local Employment-Trading System to restructure the global financial architecture. Many people have difficulty adjusting to this different kind of money system. A conventional national currency which yields interest to savers and costs interest to borrowers incentivises different behaviours to mutual credit which has no commodity value and no interest. Most groups range from 50-150 members with a small core who use the system as a way of life. After flourishing the in 1990s, the LETS movement is mostly now populated by the same aging people. Interest in local currency has moved on to other designs such as Time-based currency and dollar-backed local voucher schemes. On the whole the movement has been slow to adapt to the internet and to the possibility of networking together. Reluctance to engage with technology, a belief in decentralisation/localisation and lack of funds all contributed to this. Currently apart from flailing national organisations there are two LETS networks based on free software: (Community Exchange Systems ), and (Community Forge ) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Local exchange trading system」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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