Fourth Corner Exchange

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

Fourth Corner Exchange Inc is a sustainable community currency 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 WA, Port Townsend WA, Everett WA, Mt Vernon WA, Portland OR. Prospective members must attend a New Members Meeting in order to join and trade with other members. Meetings are help in Bellingham WA, Port Townsend WA, Mt Vernon WA, Everett WA, Portland OR and many other locations.

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

Unlike other local currencies, Fourth Corner exchange is not a community-run system. The leadership of the system is not elected by the members, and there is no mechanism by which members can vote on policy. Instead, the system is controlled entirely by the founders, who characterize themselves as social entrepreneurs.

The original software used to run Fourth Corner's website has been released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and is distributed through SourceForge. The Fourth Corner Exchange database program has been significantly modified since this open source release.