Abstract

Alternative currencies are a proliferating solution proposed to the current, ‘unsustainable’ monetary system. Within a more substantive conception of the pluralistic and socially reproductive basis of economic life, the movement towards creating and implementing such currencies shares features with heterodox accounts of the economy. Yet, it is unclear how well equipped local, complementary or crypto currencies are for addressing the ethical mess around ‘sustainability’, which continues to be conceptualised as reliant on economics fed by fiat currency. The paper presents an interpretive review of alternative currencies as variously amenable to sustainable transition, introduces a heterodox perspective of feminist economic institutionalism, and uses the theme of ‘privacy’ to thicken-out visions for the economic life of alternative currencies. Three original concepts are identified – economic identification, economic valuation and economic retention – as the basis for an explicitly feminist position on currency innovation and ‘money’ as the central resource of an economy’s lifeblood.