Humanity Cash and Regen Network partner on community dollars
Race Brook Lodge Accepts BerkShares to Drive Adoption of local dollars
Sheffield, Massachusetts — Humanity Cash and Regen Network are partnering to drive adoption of community dollars and digital dollars designed to keep wealth recirculating locally to support community banks, small businesses, and regional supply chains. Regen Network awarded Humanity Cash a grant to further develop and implement regulatory-compliant digital dollars focused on real-world communities, to integrate a values-aligned digital dollar for Regen’s carbon and ecocredit marketplace.
Humanity Cash is a platform that enables any community to issue their digital dollar in partnership with values-aligned community banks. Humanity Cash built the digital application for BerkShares, a community currency circulating in Berkshires, MA, in partnership with the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and two local community banks, Lee Bank and Salisbury Bank. BerkShares is the first community-issued digital dollar. Regen Network is a blockchain protocol for originating, retiring, bundling, and exchanging digital ecological assets through the Regen Marketplace application. Ecological assets reward land and environmental stewards for carbon removal and ecological rehabilitation.
Regen Network and Humanity Cash recently participated in a team offsite retreat at Race Brook Lodge, which was paid for in BerkShares, marking the largest single transaction in BerkShares since its launch at the end of March 2022. Race Brook Lodge is a beloved family-run lodge at the foot of Mount Race in the Berkshires and is part of the local tourism industry critical to the Berkshires economy. Race Brook Lodge plans to recirculate as much of its BerkShares earnings back to the local economy by paying its suppliers that are part of the BerkShares network. Similarly, the Berkshire Food Coop in downtown Great Barrington, a famous town in the Berkshires, recirculates its BerkShares earnings by paying local suppliers, recently paying a hefty invoice from a popular local bakery, Berkshire Mountain Bakery, in BerkShares. Business-to-business transactions in digital dollars are critical for the vibrancy of community currencies highlighting the multiplier impacts of keeping money local. A study suggests that BerkShares has a four times multiplier impact on the local economy, meaning that every dollar of BerkShares spent in the local economy generates four dollars worth of economic activity due to recirculation.
“We are really excited to see communities adopt their own digital dollars. Prior to the launch of BerkShares, there was no way to pay electronically without using a credit card or other financial instrument issued by large banks that have no requirement to reinvest in a local community. Now we can pay electronically with digital cash that is locally issued, where small businesses can save on transaction fees and the underlying reserve banks can use those deposits to invest in the local economy.” — Fennie Wang, Founder, and CEO of Humanity Cash.
Gregory Landua, CEO of Regen Network Development, Inc, says, “Local Digital Currencies are an important foundation for the emerging Regenerative Economy. Regen Network Development is excited to have been able to use the Berkshares, a pioneering example of a local currency which has now been digitized and was a joy to be able to pay for our recent team meeting at Racebrook Lodge.”
“We were so happy to welcome Regen Network and Humanity Cash for their retreat at Race Brook Lodge. It’s an honor to host groups who are really making things happen in the worlds of Economic and Environmental sustainability. Race Brook Lodge has always been a big supporter of Berkshares! The new digital blockchain-based functionality of Berkshares really makes it easier to receive and re-circulate Berkshares as a hospitality business. It’s also great to be able to see what other local businesses accept Berkshares right there in the app.” — Casey Meade Rothstein-Fitzpatrick, owner of Race Brook Lodge.
