Hey Bob,

Interesting article - thanks for posting the link! will be interesting to see how much the topic of local currencies will come up in the media discussion.

Here's a bit about currency from wikipedia:

A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and services. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value. A currency zone is a country or region in which a specific currency is the dominant medium of exchange. To facilitate trade between currency zones, there are exchange rates
i.e. prices at which currencies (and the goods and services of
individual currency zones) can be exchanged against each other.
Currencies can be classified as either floating currencies or fixed currencies based on their exchange rate regime.
In common usage, currency sometimes refers to only paper money, as in
"coins and currency", but this is misleading. Coins and paper money are
both forms of currency.

In most cases, each country has monopoly
control over the supply and production of its own currency. Member
countries of the European Monetary Union are a notable exception to
this rule, as they have ceded control of monetary policy to the European Central Bank.

In cases where a country does have control of its own currency, that control is exercised either by a central bank
or by a Ministry of Finance. In either case, the institution that has
control of monetary policy is referred to as the monetary authority.
Monetary authorities have varying degrees of autonomy from the
governments that create them. In the United States, the Federal Reserve
operates without direct interference from the legislative or executive
branches. It is important to note that a monetary authority is created
and supported by its sponsoring government, so independence can be
reduced or revoked by the legislative or executive authority that
creates it. However, in practical terms, the revocation of authority is
not likely. In almost all Western countries, the monetary authority is
largely independent from the government.